Halcyon Calling, Episode 13: All Fall Down

Suddenly everything went quiet, and the video feeds in the control room changed to all show the same thing. It was Custodian Op'a'an. She wanted a report. I couldn't help there. It had to be Gary, pretending to still be a Peacekeeper, Billy, doing illusions to make things look normal, and Balae reading the consoles to feed them the info they needed to make it convincing. Although I was useful when Balae needed a console smashed up. Time to let the badger rage out again.

Op'a'an was dealt with for the moment and we needed to get down to the reactor room. There was an access tunnel, but it was awful. All mucusy on the inside, and pulsating slightly. I was doing OK until we came to the vertical drop though. I probably could have climbed down by myself, but after the disaster at the tower block I was a bit scared. I asked Carmilla if she could do the thing with the webs again, and she said yes, but she could only take one person that way, and of course that would have to be Gary. Balae could float herself down, and Billy had his climbing gear. So we ended up swapping roles, and Billy carried me. I think that made him appreciate all the times I carried him. Although I don't think it was as hard for me to carry him as the other way round.

We all got down in one piece, but there were a bunch of Peacekeepers in the reactor room, including one of those really big ones. Carmilla wanted to know if we were going in quiet or loud. I guess she didn't know we have our way of doing things. Quiet, until we have to get loud.

Balae went in first, after making herself very tiny, and then I couldn't see what she was doing but it was like there was an invisible angry cat in the room with things getting knocked over all over the place. Billy went in, and found himself face to face with the massive Peacekeeper, but I was ready for it and charged in to knock him out of the way before his fist could connect. It felt good to just let go for a little while.

Then the bombs were set, and I was ready to go and look in the secret room. Except Carmilla wasn't. I didn't know how we were going to convince her, but Balae had it all figured out. She told Carmilla everything, about the shadow, and what Harold Winfield and everyone else had done to stop it, and how the answer might be in that room. She had trouble believing it, but me and Billy told her it was all true, and she could trust Balae. Then Balae had some more to say. Stuff she'd figured out for herself, about how Faustus still had his powers, and how that meant he was in league with the shadow. And Carmilla believed that. It all made sense. That was why he wanted us to blow up this factory. Nothing about stopping the Asterions, or protecting people. He just wanted to take away our only shot at stopping the shadow.

For the first time I actually felt sorry for Carmilla. She ripped off that demon mask she was wearing, which must have reminded her of Faustus. And if that wasn't bad enough, her spider face opened up a bit, and Billy freaked out and ran away. I tried to warn him, but it wasn't enough. So now she was heartbroken on top of everything else. And she was looking at me.

So I did something I never thought I'd do, and gave her hug, while telling her that I had thought I was going to have to rip her face off for hurting Billy but it turned out it was the other way around. And she hugged me back, and I think she called me 'sister', which was a bit weird, but she seemed a bit happier. Enough to come with us down to the secret room anyway.

Billy was the first down, and Carmilla was the last, which seemed like the best way to handle it at that point. Carmilla lost her grip on the way down, but I managed to catch her. Then we had a look around, and the room was full of giant brains. They had to be running simulations, because every so often one would flash up a notifaction saying 'Simulation Terminated: Solution Requires Causality.' I didn't know what that meant, but Balae did, and together we worked it out.

The Asterions didn't know one specific thing about the shadow, and that was that the reason Harold Winfield and everyone had been able to change reality was because of the shadow making them stronger. And if they'd waited longer, and fought for longer, they would have got strong enough to change reality even more, and got rid of the shadow forever.

And the problem with that was that it had made all of them kind of messed up. I could see that was hitting the others really hard, and I was afraid they were all about to give up on the spot. Except that wasn't how I saw it. I reminded them that we'd all come in here knowing we might die, and we'd prepared for that. At least, I had, and when I said that I could see that I wasn't the only one. And we all knew that even if we didn't die, the shadow was coming and we were all going to die anyway. But now we actually had hope. There was a way to defeat the shadow, and it wasn't going to be easy, and it certainly wasn't going to be fun, but we knew we could do it. We could be heroes.

And I guess neither of my friends wanted to be heroes the way I did, but then they didn't start out where I did. What mattered is that they were still with me. And the five of us got out of there, and once we were clear of the factory, all five of us put our hands on the detonator and we pressed it together.

And then I went home and gave Tiffany her Peter Rabbit book back.

Since then we've all become a bit famous. There wasn't much government left once the Asterions left, so Billy and his dad are sort of leading while things get put back together. Balae doesn't have to hide being an alien any more, and a lot more space whales have shown up. It seems like everyone at the Gull is looking after one of them now. Carmilla didn't get back together with Billy, which is probably a good thing. I still see her quite often, but we don't really have much in common, besides our past.

I convinced Tiffany to introduce me to her parents, and I think they've kind of made me her unofficial big sister. So I've been spending some time with them. Besides that, I seem to be spending most of my time training. There's a big fight coming when the shadow arrives and I've got to be ready.

After that, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what I'll remember, or if I'll even still be me. But if I can keep hold of this journal at least I'll know that I wasn't a guard dog, or a victim, or a troubled youth. I was a hero.

Halcyon Calling, Episode 12: Disco

I was pretty nervous arriving at the disco. I was still pretty sore from the falls earlier, and now I was going to be in a room full of people I didn't know. It's a good thing I arrived with Balae. I don't know if I could have gone in otherwise. I heard some people say some mean things, like asking why there was a man in a dress. But there were people saying nice things about me too, and Balae looked really cute in her bow tie, so I held on tight and we went in.

Billy and Carmilla were already there. Carmilla looked amazing, of course. They'd got a table with Sanjit and Hugo, and I asked Balae not to leave me alone with Hugo. I'm not sure she understood why. Turns out Sanjit is smarter than he looks. He'd figured out that Balae is an extra-terrestrial, even though she's done really well at pretending to be human and even managed to fool an Asterion. She talked some more about classic cars, and I didn't understand a lot of it, except for the part about how you shouldn't dissect a horse, but it was fun.

Carmilla wanted to go to the loos, so I had to explain to Balae that the three of us had to go together, and it was because we were going to have a conversation there. Except we got stopped on the way by the headteacher, Dr Hart, who was going on about how Carmilla and me weren't students and that meant the insurance was invalid. I didn't think that was a problem because Billy and Balae invited us, but he seemed really worried and I couldn't let him kick us out. So I told him that I was there to be emotional support for Balae because she'd never been to a disco before, and that he should put us on the insurance as staff.

That seemed to be enough to calm him down, and he said something about his daughter and then left. Carmilla figured out that his daughter was Claire, who was being mean to Billy earlier. She said she was going to do something about it. I was a bit worried she might be going to eat her, but Balae was pretty sure she wasn't. All the same I did take Balae to the loos once Carmilla went off after Claire.

I don't know what Carmilla wanted to talk about, but I told Balae that we were establishing an alibi. She got that straight away. All those James Bond books have really paid off. I didn't have a briefcase, but I did have my clutch bag. We couldn't have a conversation about the boys we came with, since we were there with each other, but I got out my makeup so we could talk about that. Quite loudly, so that the other girls would hear and everyone would know that's where we were while Carmilla was doing whatever she was doing.

Except somehow we did end up talking about boys, because I told Balae all about that time in the pub when Hugo kept pointing all the things about me that make me look weird, and how that really upset me. She'd missed it all because she was getting drinks at the time. I felt a bit better after saying all that, and Balae told me she didn't think I look weird, but then Carmilla came back saying that Claire had had to go home and we should go and dance.

Carmilla was an amazing dancer, of course. I don't think I danced very well. I was a bit scared of accidentally punching someone, and I was a bit tired, and I wasn't used to wearing high heels. After a bit I went to have a sit down and drink some water. Sanjit had sneaked some vodka in but I didn't bother because there was no point.

Then Hugo came over and sat down next to me, and I looked for Balae but she was on the dance floor having fun, and I didn't want to interrupt. I figured I'd just have to put up with him for a bit. He actually apologised for upsetting me in the pub, which was nice. Then he said I was beautiful, and gave me a corsage, so I guess Billy was right and he does like me. And I didn't really know what to think about that, but it was a really nice white rose, and nobody's ever given me flowers before. So I said that I hoped his hand was OK, and he said it was and I hadn't broken it.

I kind of wished I hadn't said that, because I think he was going to leave, but after that he changed his mind and asked me to dance. And there was no way I was going to dance with just him, so I said we could go and dance with Balae and Carmilla, and then I had to stop him taking my hand on the way to the dance floor. But then I was back dancing with Balae, and I didn't care what Hugo or Carmilla or anyone else was doing because we were having fun.

It wasn't until after I got home that I realised I'd hardly seen Billy all evening. I expected him to be showing off Carmilla all evening.

The next morning my feet were a bit sore but the rest of me was feeling better. It wasn't the 48 hours the doctor had told me I should rest for, but I didn't have time for that. Today was the day we were going to attack the Asterion factory. I thought I should leave a note for Tiffany, just in case I didn't come back, but she was watching the door and saw me coming, and opened the door before I could leave.

I couldn't exactly tell her what I was doing, and I didn't know how to explain to a four year old that I might get killed and never come back. I tried, but she wasn't having it. She wanted me to promise I'd come back. And I didn't want to do that, because I didn't want to lie to her. And then she went and got her copy of Peter Rabbit, and gave it to me, and said I had to come back to bring it back. I didn't want to, but I couldn't say no either.

So if you're reading this because I'm dead, it would be nice if someone gave her her book back.

I met up with the others. Carmilla had brought the AV, Splinters had given us the semtex, and Billy had brought Gary, Ygirel's former host, to pretend to be a Peacekeeper. Getting into the place was easy enough. The Asterions didn't realise Gary wasn't Ygirel any more and we were soon on our way to the holding cells. Except we needed to be in the control room. We'd planned how we were going to hijack the transport vehicle. The signal to start was when I headbutted one of the guards, and the others took out the rest while I threw him over the side.

There was a hairy moment getting into the control room, when Gary almost lost his nerve, and we did get in but with a huge number of Peacekeepers. No way we could fight them all. But Balae spotted some kind of cable and used it to set off an alarm, and Billy made some illusions to hide us while we got into cover while the Asterions all ran around panicking.

Halcyon Calling, Episode 11: Falling

We met up with Carmilla again, and this time she was dressed normally and was ready to plan getting our hands on breathing apparatus. She knew about an Asterion AV that had what we wanted on board, so we just had to find a way to intercept it. Billy looked at the flight path and said we could do it on top of the building where he lived, and Balae said she could make a device that would attract their attention to get them to come down. My role was going to make sure we didn't all get killed by Peacekeepers. Carmilla made some comment about that which might have been supposed to be mean, but I didn't care.

We all went home to prepare, which for me just meant picking up my costume. What I really wanted was to see if my dress had arrived yet. It had, and the parcel was next door with Tiffany. She insisted that I opened it while she was there, and I promised I'd let her see me wearing it before I left for the disco. She asked if I was going with someone because that was what you did, and I asked how she knew that when she's only four years old. I think she's watching TV that's not really suitable for little children.

Anyway, I got my stuff and went to the Gull in case Balae needed help carrying stuff. It was pretty crowded for a week day. That guy in the fancy clothes that everyone calls Twat was there, so I gave him the finger and he told me he liked my hair. I was going to say hello to Splinters, but she was playing two games of draughts at once with Barry, with Pastel Betty interrupting to talk about the rules. So I just waved and walked past.

Balae's idea for distracting the Peacekeepers was a drone she'd added some extra features to. She also made it look like a bee and it was incredibly cute. I'm glad Billy wasn't there as I don't think I'd like him to see me go all gushy over a cute robot. I can't help it though. I love bees. Bees are so amazing.

Balae did need help, but not with carrying stuff. She didn't like the quiet in the flat. It was a bit weird, without Castor and Pollux arguing. She said they still hadn't come out of their room, and I thought it must feel very lonely being on your own when you're not used to it. I said I'd come round to pick her up before the disco so we could go together, but I could see that wasn't enough, and she needed my help right now.

I suggested that she could write a letter to Castor and Pollux, or give them a little gift, and it would probably make them cry but not in a bad way. She listed off all the situations she's noticed when humans cry and how she knows how to tell the difference now, and really it's amazing she understands us at all, let alone that well.

Anyway, her dads hadn't eaten anything since they went to hide in their room, so we made them some food. I know how to cook, but only the things Abeni taught me and some easy stuff from my online learning courses, and there wasn't the right things in the fridge for any of those. There was loads of some cheese called Chevre though, and we found some noodles and some soy sauce and stuff, so we put them together.

Balae figured out a way to get the bee drone to carry a tray, and we opened the door a bit and had it carry the tray in. I couldn't hear anything from inside, but after a bit the drone came back and one of its legs was pointing upwards and had nail varnish on, so I think we did alright.

Balae put the bee drone in a cat carrier, picked up her own costume, and off we went.

We met Billy and Carmilla on the roof of the tower block. Balae set up the bee drone, and we all hid at the base of the mass damper and waited for the AV. It landed just where we wanted it, and we started climbing up the damper. That's where things started going wrong.

One of the Peacekeepers spotted Billy climbing up, and was about to shoot him with his arm cannon. I got in the way just in time to knock the arm out of the way, but then the Peacekeeper kicked me in the legs. After that it was all a bit of a blur, because I was getting hit so much, although I think I saw Carmilla biting one of them, until something happened with Billy that I'd never seen before, with psychic energy lashing out all over the place so we all had to hit the deck to not get torn up by it.

That took out the last of the Peacekeepers, but there was no way we were going to be able to use our original plan to fly away in the AV. Carmilla got the box we needed out of there. Balae said she'd get rid of the AV. I picked up the remains of the bee drone which were back in the cat carrier, and me, Billy and Carmilla started climbing down the outside of the tower.

I don't know if it was the cat carrier getting in the way, or just that I was in so much pain, but I just couldn't keep a grip on the wall. Suddenly I realised just how tall that tower block was, and what a long way it was to the ground, but I barely had time to think about fast I was falling when something grabbed me and then I was crashing through a window.

I think that knocked me out for a moment, and when I woke up I was in even more pain and Carmilla was lying there unconscious with her mask broken. She was still alive, but I didn't know how long that was going to last. I looked for a first aid kit in the flat we'd just landed in, but I couldn't see one and I was too dizzy to look properly. I had no idea how to do first aid on her anyway, after everything the compound did to her. She needed a hospital, but I couldn't take someone like her to a hospital. Then I remembered to look for my phone. The screen was cracked, but it's not like I haven't cracked screens before. I phoned Faustus.

I'll say this much for Faustus. He doesn't do all that enigmatic silence on the phone like Ariadne used to do. I told him Carmilla was hurt and needed help, and where we were. He gave me an address to take her to. So now I just had to get her there.

The flat door wasn't a problem. I smashed right through it. Carmilla wasn't very heavy. I thought about the number of stairs though, and decided I could get down a lot faster by sliding down the cables in the lift shaft. I guess I did get down a lot faster, since I lost my grip again, and I could have stopped myself but that would have meant letting go of Carmilla. So I let myself fall, and used myself to cushion her landing.

I was past all sensible thinking by then. I'm not even sure what happened while I was running through the streets, although I think I attracted a lot of attention and broke a lot of stuff. The important thing is I got Carmilla to the doctor and I could finally stop and lie down.

I woke up because of even more pain. I was in a kind of dentist's chair and the doctor was fixing my dislocated shoulder. I screamed a bit, but once it was done I felt a lot better. She told me she'd treated everything she could find, and that seemed to be everything. She also said I had concussion and shouldn't do anything strenuous for the next 48 hours, which seemed like an awfully long times just then. I asked if Carmilla was OK and she got one of those serious looks adults get when they don't want to tell you the answer, but Carmilla was kind of OK. She just wasn't waking up.

There was something familiar about the doctor. She was giving me the same look Abeni gives me sometimes when we eat together, but it wasn't just that. I asked her if I'd seen her before. That's when she told me. She was the one who created me and Carmilla. She hadn't wanted to but they'd made her do it. I thought I'd feel angry if I ever found the person who did this to me, but instead I just felt really sad because it wasn't her fault.

I asked her how she got out, and she said she escaped with Carmilla after I escaped. Maybe knowing that I'd got out inspired them to escape too? I hope it did. She was worried about Faustus being bad for her, which I thought he probably was. I asked if she knew why Carmilla hated me, and she said something really confusing about hating the things you hate in yourself in others.

I was late for the meeting up with Billy and Balae, and I still had my phone, so I called Balae to ask if she could come and get us. I was in no shape to be running anywhere, and neither was Carmilla. The doctor had somewhere else she needed to be, so she asked me to talk to Carmilla to see if I could get her to wake up. I think she wanted to hug me, but I wasn't ready for that, and she left.

I thought maybe I could annoy her into waking up, since if she didn't she was going to have to keep on listening to me talk and I knew she hated me. That didn't work. Telling her she had to wake up because she had to go to the disco with Billy and there was no way I was going to have my friend miss out on that didn't work either.

So I thought about what the doctor had told me, and I talked to her about how I understood about what happened at the compound, and that when she woke up she should talk to me about it, because I would understand. Then I saw she'd started crying so I held her hand while she woke up.

When she opened her eyes they were black shiny spider eyes, and I told her she'd have to tell me where she got her contact lenses from, and then she laughed. She blinked, and her pretend blue eyes appeared again. They didn't give me that feature. We talked a bit about how they'd made her to be an assassin, which was why she had to look human and all the changes were on the inside. While they didn't care what I ended up looking like.

Then Balae came in shouting that she'd stolen another car, and it was time to go.

So now I'm home, and getting ready to go out. I didn't have time to shop for shoes properly, so I just went to the place that does shoes for drag queens because they have my size and asked for some shoes to go with a shiny black dress. They gave me these silvery glittery shoes with big platforms and I think I'm nearly seven feet tall with them on but they look really nice. And I've done my makeup, which covered up all the cuts and bruises I got while I was fighting and falling off things.

I showed Tiffany my outfit like I said I would, and she said I looked really pretty, and normally when people say that to me they're making fun of me, but I don't think she was. I think tonight I might actually look pretty.

Wicker Valley, episode 25: The Ward

Before I could do anything though, time seemed to freeze. As in, everything stopped, but I could still see what was happening. I saw Agnes go to each of the others in turn, and talk to them. Finally she came to me. I think she could tell I'd been able to see, even though I couldn't hear the conversations, and I don't think she was happy about it. But she put her hands on me and gave me a vision.

It was Michael and me, fighting side by side in a battle. We were winning, but at the same time, I was changing. I saw my claws fall away, and my wings shrivel up, and when I tried to remove my armour, it wouldn't go. That was my future, Agnes told me as the vision faded away. But it didn't have to be. She could give me what I really wanted. The thing I tried so hard to find. A normal life, with Michael alongside me.

I know a thing or two about temptation. That was a good one. I wanted to believe her. But if there's one thing I've learned since I came to Wicker Valley it's that I don't get to have a normal life, because I'm not normal. So that's what I told her. And I told her that there was a war brewing, which was nothing to do with us. I wanted to protect this town, and right now that didn't mean siding with her.

Then she was back by the fallen tree, and time was moving again. I looked at the others, and asked if we were all on the same page. We all were except for Robin. And Alabaster. I did wonder where he'd been since he ran off after we came back from the past.

Elizabeth was understandably focussed on Alabaster. He did kill her after all. And Michael was trying to stop Robin in some way that didn't hurt him too much. I went for Agnes. I took her by surprise - I think that was the first time she'd seen me teleport - but it didn't help. My claws didn't even seem to make contact with her. Then Michael was calling me back, and magic was flying and Robin was screaming and Agnes had some kind of little bag with her like the ones she planted on us, and I tried to take it off her but she hung onto it. Agnes sent that nice little demon that's been hanging around with Elizabeth to attack her, and I had to yell at him to go away. Which he did, just in time to stop him stabbing Elizabeth in the face. And then Mary showed up.

Mary took Agnes away, and I asked her to look after my aunty, because she is still one of the few members of my family I've ever managed to get on with. We bundled the tied up Robin into the van and took him back to the junkyard for a lie down in the oubliette while we had a rest in the panic room.

We shared the different things Agnes had offered us. Michael had been offered restoring his brother's ability to walk. Adam was offered being made the head of the Foundation - or destroying it completely. Which made me feel pretty damn lucky that we'd all ended up on the same side.

After I shared mine, Elizabeth started in on the comments about me and Michael having found true love, which seemed a bit premature after one kiss. I could see Michael turning bright red. And I ended up telling them the reason I'd been holding back all this time. I was afraid of ending up like Agnes. My family do things to extremes, and while I didn't know what that looked like when it came to love until I met Agnes, that thought has been there since the day I had to stop Rusty from killing Michael.

After a nice cup of tea and a sit down, we remembered that the point of all this was to bring down the ward, and we should check on that. I teleported to just inside where the ward had been. It was still there. And it was stronger now. Enough that I could just about see it shimmering away. And I couldn't get through it, by teleporting or otherwise.

I went back to tell the others and we got back in the van and drove to the nearest road accessible part of the ward. There we found a car that looked like its insides had been painted red. Obviously the ward had stopped the people but the car had kept going. The police were there, and we encouraged them to set up barriers on all the roads out of town to make sure this didn't happen again.

So now we had to do our part and take down that ward once and for all before anyone else died. We'd got the focus, but that wasn't all. And then there was the matter of that bag Agnes had been using. It felt a bit weird asking Elizabeth to sniff my hand where I'd been holding it to see if she recognised the herbs, but she did. A hex bag, used to drain power off someone. In this case, clearly it was being used to drain Mary.

We were all pretty sure that Agnes' basement was where we needed to go to disrupt the ward, but how to get in there? Adam suggested I just teleport right in, but I couldn't do that. I'd never seen her basement. Adam then had an idea involving sending in a drone, but I had to explain it didn't work like that. I could go to places I'd been before, and people I knew well, but somewhere I just saw on camera wouldn't work. And this turned to be academic, because it turned out that in this timeline, Adam kept biscuits in the drone box.

They were chocolate hobnobs though, so we all ate some while we came up with a plan.

Michael was the distraction, with Elizabeth watching from nearby for backup. He took some cinnamon bun cake from the Wicker Stop as a peace offering while I snuck round the back with Adam. I got inside and went down to the basement. It was dark down there. Unnaturally dark. I wouldn't have known what to do if Toby the grotesque hadn't shown up again. At some point I need to ask him some questions, but for now I needed his help. He said there were dead things on the floor. And some things that weren't dead. He guided me across the room, and there I found the casting circle.

The sigil was drawn in blood, ringed with plant bits and hair, probably hers and Mary's. I wondered if I should just plunge my claws in to tear it apart, but decided on a more scientific approach. Peroxide. Now I'd been here once I could teleport back in, so I went to the chemist, bought some peroxide, and came back to destroy the circle. I got a bit too close to some of the other stuff down there as I did so, but my armour activated and that was OK.

Then Agnes was down there with me, grabbing onto me, driving her claws into my shoulders, and a moment later there was a sudden pain in my back and a much worse pain in my soul. She'd ripped off my wings.

She was standing there holding them, saying "what have I done?" over and over, and all I could do was say the same thing. And then we had a whole lot of company.

Mary seemed to be a whole different person when Michael was holding her arm. I was in too much shock to really understand what was going, but Agnes's hex bag got taken off her and disintegrated, and Mary did some kind of magic to reattach my wings. She also had some answers for me about the armour. She called it the armour of the divine protector, and said something about me being a protector for Michael. And she seemed to know something about why or what Michael had been chosen for as well.

Mary seemed to think it was strange that a hellspawn had ended up with this armour, but for me it was starting to make sense. My family take things to extremes. I guess for me that meant extreme rejection the roll of the family matriarch that they chose for me. Something to think about in the future though, because first we had to check on the ward again. At last. It was gone.

Halcyon Calling, Episode 10: Choices

Balae asked me about the little girl who was waving at her when she arrived, so I told her about Tiffany and then remembered about the picture in her art book. I told Balae about it, and the different title, and hoped she'd be able to figure it out.

We needed to look at what was on the USB drive we got from Mrs Wilkins, and I didn't think it was a good idea to plug it into my laptop in case it exploded or something. So we decided to go back to the tailor, because he was good at tech stuff and would know what to do.

Balae told him a bit about what we were planning, and he seemed pretty keen to help but wanted to know more details. And that seemed fair enough, so I told him we were going after the Elizabeth Park factory, and then he got all weird and told us to get out of the shop. I was a bit worried I'd messed everything up somehow and I didn't know what we were going to do. But then Billy gave him a good talking to and convinced him that he still wanted to help us. Adults are so confusing sometimes.

He took the USB drive into his back room and told me and Billy not to touch anything. I decided the easiest way to not touch anything would be to not be in the room with all the breakable things, so I went back into the shop. I wanted to have a look at the clothes. I needed something to wear for the disco and I couldn't exactly show up in ripped denim. I knew I couldn't afford anything in here but I thought I could have a look at the suits and maybe get some ideas. It's hard to get girl's clothes in my size and shape but I figured some men are this size so I'd be able to get a suit that fitted.

Then I saw the dress.

It was made of silky looking black fabric, but it was shiny like bird wings and looked blue or green depending on where I stood. I decided to risk touching it, and it was so light I could barely feel it. And the strangest thing of all, it looked like it might actually be my size.

Then I heard the others calling me back in, because Mr Taylor the tailor had figured out what to do about the factory. There was a power core and we needed to overload it by just the right amount so that it would blow up enough to destroy the factory but not enough to create a black hole and destroy the whole planet. Which sounded complicated to me, but Balae seemed to know exactly what to do. There was something else though. A secret room underneath the power core. So secret it wasn't even properly shown on the Asterion's own plans. So obviously we were going to have to get in there and see what was up.

While I was staring at the dress, Balae had got a message from Harold/Ariadne, who she's decided to call Hariadne now, wanting to meet her at the science museum. He said to come alone, but obviously we weren't going to let her go completely alone. We were going to wait outside so we could come and look for her if she was gone too long.

I tried not to look at the dress on the way out but couldn't help sneaking a glance, and Billy must have noticed because he started asking Mr Taylor about it. He said it was an experimental fabric he was testing, and he'd had to make the dress big because the fabric didn't work in small pieces. And Billy was saying I should try it out, so I offered to test it for him, and he said yes! So long as I didn't go doing any superhero type stuff in it. So going out dancing should be fine. I gave him my address so he could have it delivered to me.

We went to the museum, and Billy found a place for us to hide in an old statue while Balae went up to the roof for the meeting. She looked really upset when she got back, and it was pretty obvious why. Harold told her that when him and everyone else changed reality to get rid of the shadow, it wasn't actually gone. It just moved to where the Asterions come from, which is why they came here, and now it's following them here. The shadow is the bigger fish that he meant when he told her about the painting. He told her the Asterions were looking for a way to stop the shadow, and if we blew up the factory then we'd destroy their research and then there'd be nobody to protect us from the shadow this time.

We went back to the Gull and Switchblade, through the sewers this time because it was after curfew and peacekeepers were descending on the museum. Balae made sure we got all of them together - well, all of them except Faustus anyway - so she only had to tell them about it once. She told them, and at the same time the TV did a news broadcast about how Harold Winfield had been killed by the peacekeepers. I thought they'd be able to help us figure out what to do, but Abeni and Mrs Stodgely both ran off and Castor and Pollux went and hid in their bedroom.

Me and Billy stayed over because it was after curfew and there was nobody to stop us anyway. We needed to make a decision, even if none of the adults were being any use. I didn't know what to say, except that I really wanted to look in that room in the factory that Mr Taylor told us about, because that had to be where the Asterions were doing their secret research about stopping the shadow. But Billy still wanted to blow up the factory because even if they could stop the shadow we'd still be living in the grip of the Asterions. And Balae agreed. That was all I needed to hear. I wanted to blow up the factory too, but I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do or just badger rage. But I trust them both, and if they both want the same thing then I can trust myself too.

It was really quiet in the morning with no fighting. I thought about making breakfast, but Balae thought it might be nice to go out to a cafe and that did sound nice. We waited until Splinters arrived so we could tell her Castor and Pollux weren't well and ask her if she could get us some semtex. She said she knew someone, and then she took us out to a cafe for breakfast. She talked to the staff in another language while we tried the food. I think it was Indonesian and it was very hot, but I'm used to Abeni's Nigerian curries so it was fine.

Splinters said she'd sorted out the semtext for us, and then asked us about our love lives. I don't know why she thought I might have a love life, but she remembered Billy's friend talking to me. She must not have paid much attention because I really didn't like it and I had to shout at him to make him stop, but for some reason when she found out his name was Hugo she seemed to lose interest.

Anyway, Billy had actually asked Carmilla to the school disco, which meant he was the only one of us who actually had a love life. I don't know why but Splinters asked if she was a monster, and I said yes because she's like me, except that she's pretty. And Splinters got all weird, asking if Billy didn't think I was pretty and I don't think either of us wanted him to answer that, but Balae said she thought we were all pretty and that really cheered me up. So on the way out of the cafe I waited until Billy was far enough ahead not to hear me, and told her she was pretty too. I hope it made her feel better too.

Halcyon Calling, Episode 9: Costumes

Ariadne hadn't stopped at the spider bot. There was a car outside waiting for us. Really swanky inside, with leather seats and a mini bar. I was pretty thirsty and I wanted a Fanta but there wasn't any. There was some fizzy wine called Dom Perignon though, so I had that instead.

The car took us to the address Balae wanted to meet us at, which was some fancy tailor's shop on Saville Row. I was a bit confused, and it sounded like Balae was too, because she'd asked to meet Mrs Stodgely to ask her about an artist because Ariadne said it was important, but Mrs Stodgely thought we were there for a costume fitting. We did need costumes though, so that was alright.

Abeni was there too, and she wanted to know what happened and if we were OK. And I wasn't really, and I didn't want Billy or Balae to know how much it hurt, but I knew I had to tell her. She took me into a different room and had a look at me, and from the faces she was making it must have looked as bad as it felt. She got me some stuff to make it stop hurting, and some bandages to hold everything in the right place while I healed up.

She told me to remember that I'm not bulletproof, but she said I was turning into a hero, and knowing she was proud of me was as good as all that pain gel stuff. She was being careful not to hug me because it would have really hurt, but I did put my arms round her for a moment because I thought she'd like that.

Then it was back to sorting out costumes. I knew I wanted mine to be black and white, and after what Abeni said I thought some armour would be a good idea. The tailor was a bit odd, because all the clothes on display were boring men's suits, but he started bringing out all this leather and kevlar. I got some armoured leather trousers with stretchy bits where I need to bend, and a top with a kind of stylised version of the honey badger face I painted on my jacket on the front. And a new jacket with big spiky shoulders, and fingerless gloves to match. I asked if he could do boots with toes that open up, and he put together some with a trigger so they only open up when my claws come out. I hadn't thought about masks, which obviously we needed, but he got me a half mask and put some gel in my hair, and it all looked really cool.

Billy got a utility belt with his costume, and some stuff to help him with climbing so he wouldn't have to hang on to me all the time. Which is good, since we can do a lot more if I don't have to carry him. I am going to miss it though.

I didn't get much of a look at Balae's costume because she found out he had a room full of tech stuff and she was off looking around it. She looked really happy though. And we decided on our superhero team name. We're the seagulls, and our logo is a seagull eating a starfish.

Abeni took me home then, through the sewers since it was after curfew. I saw Tiffany waving at me when I got back, and I realised I hadn't been home in a few days. I told her I had to shower first but then I'd come and see her. I got a bit sweaty in the Asterion factory, and the sewers weren't great either.

Tiffany was really excited to see me, and I couldn't tell her most of what I'd been doing, but I did tell her about meeting the monkey and got her to find some photos of monkeys so we could find out what kind it was. We talked a bit about Star Cop and how we thought they were just making things up as they went along. She showed me some art pictures as well, and I recognised one. It was the same picture Mrs Stodgely had had on her phone at the tailor when Balae was asking about art. It was by someone called Pieter Bruegel.

It was called Big Fish Eat Little Fish, but in Tiffany's book it was also called There's Always A Bigger Fish. It was a very weird picture, because there were lots of fish that weren't real fish, like the flying one, and the one with legs, plus I thought the really big fish might actually be a whale. It seemed like it was important, but I couldn't figure it out just then. I thought perhaps it meant there was something stronger than the Asterions, which was what Ariadne wanted us to find out, but if that was what he wanted, why didn't he just say so instead of making us look at weird pictures? Anyway, Balae knew about it, and she's super smart, so I hoped she could work it out.

Tiffany's parents didn't get home until about ten, and she made me go before they got back, but I could still hear them through the walls. They were telling her off for being up past her bedtime, but it wasn't angry telling off, or even the kind when they say they're not angry, just disappointed. They just sounded like they really loved her and were glad to see her even though she was supposed to be asleep.

Billy had gone home to his dad, and Balae was with Castor and Pollux at the pub, but I was all alone in my flat. I shouldn't have listened to that conversation. And I shouldn't have got upset and punched the fridge either. I got a bit of an electric shock when my fist went through it but the worst part was I messed up the food that was left in there and got milk all over the floor.

I cleaned up the milk in the morning, but the fridge was still broken and I didn't know what you're supposed to do with an broken fridge. I tried calling Abeni, but she didn't answer. Then I remembered how amazing Balae is with technical stuff, so I sent her a text asking for help, but by then it was time for school to start so I didn't get an answer right away.

I met up with Billy so we could plan our attack on the factory. We needed a way in and out, breathing apparatus, and information on how to actually damage the place. The first seemed like the easiest. We could ask Carmilla if we could use her AV. Since she worked for Faustus and he was the one who gave us the job, I thought she'd agree. I got Billy to text her though. I wasn't sure she'd reply to me.

I'm not sure what Billy said in his text, but we ended up meeting her at the retro arcade and she was playing Dance Dance Revolution, and seemed kind of happy to see him right up until she noticed me. Billy got some drinks. I told him to get her diet coke as she didn't look like the kind of person who drinks sugar coke. I do, because I burn a lot of calories. Anyway, we sat down, and Billy told her we were there to talk business, and she didn't seem happy about that either. She said we could use the AV but she was the only one who was allowed to drive it. Which was fine with us. And we'd also need a Peacekeeper with us so that we wouldn't look conspicuous.

Then Billy got a bit weird and seemed to be trying to get rid of me, and I could see what was going on, so I pretended I was going to use the loo but hung around out of sight to see if I was right. So I got to see Billy invite Carmilla to the school disco, which I kind of wasn't surprised by, and I saw her say yes! Which I really didn't expect. I figured Faustus was using her to get Billy on board because boys get stupid around pretty girls like her, but maybe she did actually like him a tiny bit?

Billy looked pretty happy after that, and I was going to tease him about it, but somehow I just didn't want to. I did warn him to be careful if he wanted to kiss her because she didn't have a normal mouth, and he went bright red and I think I heard Nigel snickering. This disco is going to be really interesting.

We decided to pay Mrs Wilkins another visit. Calum the receptionist recognised us and wanted us to stop but I swore at him until he got out of my way. She'd got a new door to replace the one I smashed up and it looked a bit tougher this time. We went with our usual approach. Start quiet, and get loud if necessary. So we knocked and went in, and Mrs Wilkins threatened to call the Peacekeepers, but Billy had a word with her while I sized up all the furniture in the room and muttered about how that was a nice new door and it would be a shame if anything happened to it.

And she cracked. She gave us a USB drive that she said had everything we needed on it, but if anyone knew we had it, we would be dead. Maybe she still had a tiny bit of a conscience left. Maybe she just really liked her new door. Anyway, we had what we needed. That just left breathing apparatus and finding a Peacekeeper, but first we had to meet up with Balae.

She said she'd meet us at my flat after school so she could fix the fridge. I arrived with Billy, and tried to make him a cup of tea except I didn't have any milk. He wanted to know why I had space on both sides of the bed instead of pushing it against the wall. It's so that when I have nightmares I don't end up kicking holes in the walls. I told him about the kicking but not the nightmares. The walls are very thin here.

Balae arrived and she looked awful. I didn't know what was wrong, but it was definitely something bad. But she wanted to fix the fridge, and I thought doing some tech stuff might make her feel better, so I let her get on with it. The fridge works a bit too well now, but that's OK. The problem was that Balae still looked really upset.

So I got her to sit down on the bed, and asked her if school had been bad. And she told me they'd got her an Asterion teacher! So she'd had to pretend to not be as good at maths as she really is so that he would go away. And then she told me all this stuff about how hard she's finding it pretending to be human all the time, and I realised she must be exhausted, because it's hard enough for me to act normal and I am human. Well, mostly human. And I told her she didn't have to pretend to be human around me and Billy, but that didn't seem to be the right thing to say. So I listened some more and I tried to tell her how amazing she is, and Billy joined in, and what we said must have been right because she looked a lot happier and let me hug her, and I knew she was going to be OK.

ConDensed 2023

Once again covid has played havoc with my convention schedule, but having caught it a couple of weeks earlier this year, and with ConDensed being a week later, I was in a much better state for this year's convention. Lucky, since this time it was not a convenient drive from my house, but nearly three hours away. Fortunately, this time I had my husband with me.

This wasn't the original plan for ConDensed 2023. I'd hoped we'd be back at Billing Aquadrome. But there were already issues with the venue, and with the additional uncertainly of the place going into administration (not actually that unusual for the Aquadrome), I can see why we moved. The first attempt was another holiday park on the south coast, but not enough people booked to make it work. And so we moved to the Sea Cadets in Worthing, where we definitely did have enough people to make it work.

We arrived at the venue just in time for the opening brief, and then I introduced my husband to some friends, and then established nicknames due to all of them having the same first name. For the duration of the convention, my husband would be known as Mr Sue, a name he wears with pride.

Game 1: Eat the Reich

I'd seen the Kickstarter for Eat the Reich, and liked the aesthetic, but wasn't sure it was something I wanted to devote shelf space to. I was definitely up for giving it a try though, and soon five very different vampires crashed through the ceiling of a Parisian hotel and began our rampage across Paris in search of Hitler.

I liked the system. D6 dice pools, where 4-5 are success and 6 is critical success. The GM is also rolling, and you can use successes to counter the opponent's success. But you can also elect to take the hit and use your successes on something else, be that advancing your objectives, activating special abilities or drinking Nazi blood to increase your blood pool. Blood can be used to power other special abilities. There's an element of resource management involved, both with blood and with equipment. The latter gives you bonus dice on rolls, with the amount depending on circumstances, but have limited uses that have to be marked off. Fortunately there's no chance of running out of guns - at least there isn't if you're consistently killing Nazis.

And ultimately that's what the game's about. Killing Nazis until you've killed enough Nazis to get to Hitler, and then kill Hitler. Along the way we took on powerful opponents with scary technology and even worse magic. We visited iconic locations in 1940s Paris. We made creative use of our various vampire abilities. And we killed Hitler.

Everything that makes me not want to play vampires isn't here. The game has a clear aim and mechanics that support it. There's no angst, no politics, just a team of Nazi hunters doing their job and having some fun with it.

I don't know how well this would work for campaign play. It definitely feels like a game built for one-shots. But it's one hell of a one-shot.

Game 2: Cyberpunk Red

This was with the same GM as for Eat the Reich, and also the same GM as the Cyberpunk Red games I'd played at ConDucked. I picked up Selene the netrunner again and off we went to the Afterlife. Soon we were embroiled in another thrilling adventure featuring dubious corporate practices, gun fights and car chases. Once again, not having a medtech resulted in some interesting moments, although we did manage not to explode anyone.

Once again I am left thinking that I really need to run some more cyberpunk myself.

Game 3: Kult: Divinity Lost

Game slots at this ConDensed were rather different to what I'm used to. Instead of three 3-4 hours slots each day, there were two 6 hour slots (although effectively shorter as they overlapped meals, so there were long breaks while we all went out to the local takeaways.)

I took this as a good opportunity to run one of my longer Kult scenarios, The Farm. This typically takes me two sessions to run online, so I don't bring it out for conventions, but it's got some flexibility timewise and I reckoned I could fit it in.

Fortunately I had three players who all seemed to know what they were doing with Kult, as this scenario does require character creation at the start of the game. I gave them the brief - homeless people in modern day London - and they gave me a Criminal with a drug addiction and a shady past, a Doll who people just wouldn't leave alone, and a Broken dealing with mental health issues. A great bunch, and another new ending for this scenario.

Game 4: WEG Star Wars

I wasn't sure what I wanted to play on Sunday, given that the Rivers of London game had already filled up, but I had a look at the sheets when we arrived and figured I couldn't go too far wrong with Star Wars. I'd not played the West End Games version, beyond a single session back in 2003 or so about which I remember almost nothing, but it turned out to be simple enough to pick up.

We were humans, sent to support Boba Fett in an 'enemy of my enemy' kind of way, but got a bit sidetracked rescuing the survivors of a Tuskan raider attack and making friends with an astromech droid. This meant that by the time we made it to the final confrontation, most of the actual murdering was already done, but I did get to drive a scout walker for a bit, which was just as good.

I remain unchallenged in my opinion that Star Wars games are better when nobody's playing a Jedi.

Reflections

It was a small convention, but that suits me fine. Two slots a day instead of three made everything feel very relaxed, and also gave the option of some slightly longer games than usual. The venue was good - multiple rooms so we could spread out well. All in all, a very nice weekend, and I'd do it again.

Wicker Valley, episode 24: Surprises

Over fried chicken, fries and sides we discussed our next move. We needed to do something about Agnes. Both generally and specifically. We couldn't have her messing with our minds like that. Adam had a notification that his new set of books had arrived, so we could do some research on both shielding spells and on wards. But Michael had had a text from the fairy queen, and wanted to visit her again, and Elizabeth was very insistent that he shouldn't go alone. I happened to agree, but I wasn't sure why she was making such a big deal of it.

Anyway, Adam and Elizabeth went to hit the books, and I went with Robin and Michael to see the fairy queen. We ran through the rules since it was Robin's first visit. Don't eat or drink anything. Don't accept gifts. Don't tell them your real name. And don't fall asleep. The door to the fairy realm seemed to have ditched most of its special effects. Or maybe someone was just in a hurry and couldn't be bothered to impress us. Either way, we got in to see the queen with minimal fuss. Robin was careful about his name, and all in all it went pretty well.

I found that when I relaxed a bit, I felt less itchy and the queen's voice lost some of its intoxicating quality. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad. The queen asked me a strange question, about whether my transformation was permanent. I didn't know what she meant, and I didn't know if I should ask in case I said the wrong thing, but she said that I was becoming something different. And she's right. I've tried to ignore it, but between the teleporting, the armour and the strange glow, it must be pretty obvious to everyone.

We learned that the fae court was working with the Foundation, of all people. They even had one of their pet werewolves, which was really quite embarrassing to witness. It was clear we were running out of time. A supernatural war was brewing, and the only chance we had of avoiding it was getting rid of Agnes's ward. According to the queen, we all had the smell of Agnes on us. It was time to get back to the others and see what they'd found out.

Back at the junkyard, they'd got some useful info on dealing with the ward, but first we had the magical contamination we'd apparently picked up to deal with. Elizabeth could see it on all of us except Adam. We had a number of ideas for getting rid of it, and I think my idea of getting us into running water by visiting a water park was the best, but before I could book tickets, Toby the grotesque, not a gargoyle because he's not a drainpipe, showed up to tell me we had smelly bags on our shoulders.

We couldn't see or feel them, but Elizabeth's pet demon Nick could, and soon we were all cleaned up. Next up was a shielding spell, in case we ran into Agnes and needed to not immediately reveal all our plans. I attempted to help Elizabeth with the spell, and managed to set my own hair on fire this time, but fortunately she was fine without me.

I think being the chosen one is getting to Michael. We managed to talk briefly while Elizabeth was casting the spell, and he thought that it should have been me who was chosen and that someone just got it wrong due to patriarchy. I said that maybe they'd just been told to look for a redhead and got the wrong one. I don't believe that though.

Adam and Elizabeth's research had confirmed what we half suspected. The source of Agnes's ward was the tree. We were going to have to bring it down. We loaded up Vanessa with iron spikes, chainsaws and a flamethrower, and off we went.

The tree was in the middle of a playground, which was rather inconvenient. Toby was still hanging around, complaining that he couldn't even touch the thing. I found it was quite an effort to get near it, but that once I did my armour seemed to weaken the effect. I quickly backed off to avoid any sudden glowing in front of the children playing.

Elizabeth attempted to try a bit of lichcraft, I think, but that didn't go well. Her hand suddenly turned black, and the blackness began creeping up her arm. I had a sudden hunch about how to stop it, reached out to take hold of her arm, and tried to drive it back. Not all the way, but at least she still had all her fingers.

We donned some hi-vis jackets and began clearing the playground, claiming that the tree was dangerous. Which was true, after all. Adam got to work hammering iron spikes into the tree to weaken it, but I had other things to worry about. Michael was having a seizure. He didn't seem to be hurt, so I just did some regular first aid, but he didn't wake up when it ended. Elizabeth could see it was no normal seizure, but Agnes doing something to him. Elizabeth said that he needed a shock to wake him up and suggested that I should kiss him.

At which point I realised we were being shipped by our own teammate, but I couldn't think about that right then because Michael needed help. So in my mind I screamed at Agnes to get away from him, and I kissed him. And he woke up.

I think we were both a bit surprised, and must have said out loud that this wasn't how I'd imagined it happening, because Michael was surprised again that I'd imagined it. But while we were having this moment, Elizabeth and Robin were laying into the tree with ice magic and chainsaw, and it was about to come down. I kept hold of Michael and teleported us back to the van out of harm's way.

The tree crashed down. Adam shoved Robin out of its path and we regrouped at the van. I think we all knew what was coming. Agnes didn't waste any time. She was there in a moment, and for the first time she let her little old lady façade drop to show us the winged, clawed hellspawn beneath.

Halcyon Calling, Episode 8: Going Underground

The other were doing what we were supposed to be doing, which was sneaking back into the Gull and Switchblade without being noticed. Well, they weren't, as it turned out, as they were getting caught by Splinters, but I didn't know that yet. I was thinking about the compound, and Carmilla. There was another person who actually understood what I'd been through. We could have been friends. But she'd chosen to hate me instead. I didn't even know what to think about that, and I was still kind of zoned out when Splinters came out and talked me me. I don't really remember what she said, but she gave me a machete, and I think that means she likes me.

She still herded me inside to see Castor and Pollux with the others though. They weren't happy about us sneaking out, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. And they did explain a few things. Like how they used to be in a superhero team with Abeni and Mrs Stodgely and Faustus and Harold Winfield! That slimy politician who spends all his time kissing up to the Asterians used to be a superhero! Except they all did something that changed reality to prevent the destruction of the world? Something like that, anyway. It was late, and I was confused. They changed reality so the bad stuff didn't happen, and instead of a superhero team they were a punk band.

Except Faustus somehow still had some of his superhero powers, and maybe Harold Winfield wasn't quite as useless as he normally acts, since it sounds like he must be Ariadne because he's the other person who knows about that warehouse where we met Ariadne and Faustus.

So I could see why they didn't want us to work for Faustus, and I don't really want to work for Faustus either, but at the same time he wanted us to destroy the factory in Elizabeth Park and I really did want to do that. And I trusted Ariadne even less than I did before finding out who was behind all the nonsense, even if his spider bots are really cute and make Balae happy.

Then they let us have some more of the expensive alcohol, although by now it was starting to taste a bit watery, which both of them seemed to notice but pretended not to so I have no idea what that was all about. Anyway, it seemed like we weren't in any more trouble and they let us go to sleep.

Balae went to school in the morning but Billy wanted to ditch and check out the Asterian factory, and I'd caught up on my online learning programme so I went with him. We took the tube out to Stratford. There were people singing on the tube and I recognised it as the same song from the start of that awful musical that Castor and Pollux were listening to because it had really boring words which were just big numbers of minutes and something about love.

Then we got on the central line and there was a woman with a whole bunch of animal carriers, so I tried to keep really still and not be threatening because sometimes it seems like I scare animals just by existing. And I must have done well because she had a little monkey on her shoulder and it climbed over to me. I had some peanuts in my pockets as usual so I gave one to the monkey and he seemed to like it, and that made the woman with the carriers like me too. She said the monkey was called Puck, and gave me a card that said she was called Artemis and that we could visit.

Then we pulled into Stratford station and there were Asterian peacekeepers everywhere and they were doing some kind of security check on the way out. They were scanning everyone with a jellyfish kind of thing, and I thought whatever it was was likely to pick up Nigel. Billy found a staff lift that he reckoned would get us out of there and he was all for using Artemis and her animals as a distraction, but I liked her and her monkey. Besides, I didn't think Balae would ever forgive us if we lost the chance for her to meet a monkey.

So I gave Artemis the heads up, and I caused a distraction. I ripped up one of the benches from the platform and threw it, and in the chaos Artemis got her animals out and we got into the lift. We did some proper action movie shit climbing up cables and dodging Asterians and then we were out.

We climbed up onto some rooftops to get a better view, using cables to crawl between buildings. At least, I crawled while Billy hung onto me. Nigel said something about how Billy should figure out how to use him to learn to fly. Which would be cool. Except I'd miss the two of us climbing together like this, and I didn't mean to say that part out loud so I hope he didn't hear.

The last building didn't have anything to crawl over, and I could make the jump but not while carrying Billy. But I remembered some really old movie Abeni told me about where they had a problem like this, so I picked up Billy and threw him across the gap and then jumped across myself. The factory was as awful in real life as it looked on the TV. Clouds of pink smoke rising up from the chimneys and people being herded inside wearing breathing masks the same as the one we'd had to put on Mr Stodgely.

This wasn't going to be easy. The security was bad enough, and we'd probably not even be able to breathe inside. But we were getting ideas. This was Faustus's idea, after all, so the least he could do was get us some breathing masks. And Carmilla's AV was just like the ones the Asterians used so perhaps that would help us get past security.

I was feeling quite happy as we headed back to the tube. We had a plan, and providing Faustus came through with the gear it might actually work. But it all went wrong when we got down onto the train and suddenly we were surrounded by peacekeepers.

It was thanks to Balae that we got out of there. I never would have thought of called Ariadne after what we'd learned about him, but she figured out straight away that he could help. So that's how we ended up taking down two massive Asterians, wiping all the information they had on us from their computers, and following one of those spider bots out of there all without the alarm being raised.

I was in a ton of pain when we got out and struggling to breathe from where they hit me in the chest. But we were both alive and Billy was OK and that was what mattered. I'd heal up pretty soon, and we had a plan, although I think we both realised we needed disguises before we came back here again.

And after that, all I had to worry about was making sure Balae had a good time at the school disco.

Wicker Valley, episode 23: Intervention

It had been a long day, and I hadn't exactly had the best night's sleep, and it would have been nice to be able to go and get some rest before having to deal with Aunty Agnes again, but fate intervened when Michael had another vision. The Whisper Sisters, dead.

We didn't know where the sisters' home was, but Agnes did. Right next door to her. We were already too late though. When we got there Mary was in floods of tears. Robin was there too, back from whatever he'd been off doing for Agnes for the last few days.

We checked out the scene. Not that there was much to check out. Elizabeth picked up the lingering traces of fae spirits passing on. Robin stretched out his wolf nose for a sniff about, and Michael took hold of one sister's hand. That seemed to freak him out, enough to make him run for the door, but before I could go after him he ran into the arriving paramedic, who immediately started freaking out in turn at the sight of Robin.

I thought I was going to have to use the Voice of Temptation, but somehow I found something else within me. A few calm words about how we were friends of the deceased and staying with the bodies until they arrived, and attention was off Robin and nobody was panicking any more.

We finally decided we needed sleep before we tried to look into things any further, and agreed to meet up at the junk yard in the morning. Nobody had found anything useful beyond what Michael had seen - a vision of the sisters' hearts being washed out of their bodies by a tide of water. Horrible, but it was something. We were going to have to do some research. First though, there was the matter of Robin.

I didn't notice it at first, but the others did. I was talking about Agnes the way I normally do. She's nice, but as Terry Pratchett said, nice isn't the same as good, and when it comes down to it, she's the same hellspawn as me and Rusty. I like her but I don't trust her. And the others seem to be on the same page, with even Elizabeth having grasped that Rusty is bad news. Robin, on the other hand, was being overwhelmingly positive about Agnes in response to all my less enthusiastic comments, and Elizabeth quietly suggested a quick banishing rite.

We gathered up what we could in the way of supplies. You can do a lot with some sage and salt. Or you can, if your assistant doesn't set your hair on fire with the burning sage, and you don't completely fumble the salt and mess up your words. That took some explaining, and to make it worse we were getting messages from Agnes wanting to see us at the Wicker Stop.

I took the quick route. I landed myself in the basket room, which wasn't the best choice as it was locked. I should have gone with the toilets. But there I was, getting a big hug from Mary which I wasn't ready for, and a more cautious one from Agnes who seems to have figured out her timeline's version of me was a little more enthusiastic about hugs than I am.

Agnes wanted to know all about the business with the tooth fairy, and I was trying to hold back and not tell her too much, but somehow ended up spilling all about how they were going to use the teeth to open a portal. Fortunately I spotted it in time to hold back when she started asking where the portal was. I told her truthfully that I'd assumed it was going to be in the warehouse where we'd found the tooth creatures, and managed not to mention that we'd later found out where it really was.

Robin and Elizabeth had taken the more conventional route, arriving on Robin's bike, so as soon as I could I slipped off to the toilets and teleported to Adam and Michael to tell them what was up, giving them a bit of a surprise since they were in the van. Agnes was doing things to my mind. I only got the hang of the Voice of Tempation a few weeks ago and already I can do some pretty nasty stuff, and Agnes has had hundreds of years to practice. It was clear that we needed to try again to clear Robin's mind.

Adam's plan was to do it outside the ward. He was convinced that was what had interfered with the first attempt, and not total incompetence on my part, and it certainly wouldn't hurt. I teleported back into the toilets (definitely the best teleportation space) and went to find Robin and Elizabeth. Looking at the way Mary was behaving, I was starting to realise that something was off. I had a nasty suspicion she had also been affecting by Agnes's mind magic.

And of course Adam and Michael had managed to figure out what had killed the Whisper Sisters. What Michael had seen had been a ward washing over them. A strengthened ward, targeting the fae, doubtless in reaction to the tooth fairy being taken out of the ward. Agnes had done it.

By the time Robin arrived at the Premier Inn the hotel room was all set up for a magical intervention. And this time I didn't mess up. Adam made sure everything was set up properly. I knew what I was banishing. It was weird, being surrounded by the kind of religious iconography and not feeling immensely uncomfortable, but it was doing the job. Michael and Elizabeth got Robin into the right place and I pushed Agnes' influence right out of him.

And then we all had KFC, because if we were going to drive out all this way, we might as well.

Halcyon Calling, Episode 7: Faustus

I'd put some eyeliner on after I got out of the shower, and by the time I finished my online learning modules I was starting to feel a bit silly about it. But then I looked in the mirror and it actually looked totally badass so I left it on when I went out to meet the others.

I'd only been in the pub a couple of minutes when Billy and Balae showed up. They'd brought a couple of Billy's schoolfriends with them. Somehow I forgot Billy has friends other than me and Balae. Sanjit and Hugo. Sanjit seemed alright, if you didn't try to keep up with his high speed lecture on everything that's ever happened in the pub.

I didn't like Hugo. He started talking about my fingernails, which I didn't like, because I can't help it that they look like that and it only gets worse when I'm angry, and I tried to hide them under the table, but then he started in on my hair and eyes and I really wished I hadn't put that eyeliner on. I was trying really hard to keep my temper, but then he started asking why the others called me Honey Badger and I ended up snapping at him and it was a real struggle to just grab hold of him without crushing his hand. I think it was only because Balae showed up with drinks and I didn't want to spoil her first day at school any more after I'd already caused trouble on the bus.

Oh, and he asked me if I played rugby, which annoyed me because when they were trying to make me go to school people kept saying I should play rugby and then they let me try it and then I got in trouble for breaking the goal and I wasn't allowed to do it any more.

Still, at least Balae had had a good day, and she was very keen to go to the school disco and wanted me to go too. Which is probably allowed so long as I'm going with her. And Billy thinks it's a great idea and is sure he can find someone else to go with. So that's going to happen. Maybe Abeni will help me decide what to wear.

Someone managed to get rid of Hugo and Sanjit eventually. I asked Billy if Hugo's always that annoying and he told me he only pays that much attention to people he likes! So I just have to hope I scared him off when I almost lost it at him.

Me and Billy were going to have to stay over again if we were all going to sneak out together to meet Mrs Stodgely, which meant we needed an excuse. Billy told Castor and Pollux some story about not getting on with his dad. I'm not sure if he was telling the truth or not, but they bought it. And I didn't have to lie. I just reminded them that I didn't have anyone at home, and they understood.

We waited until the two of them were busy watching some awful old musical and went up to the roof. No way Splinters was going to miss us sneaking out of the door, so it had to be down the drainpipe. Balae floated down. Billy held onto my waist and I started climbing. Except the drainpipe was in worse shape than I remembered and started coming away from the wall. I was pretty sure I could just drop down and I'd be fine, but Billy could get really badly hurt, so I asked Balae to help. She made her arms really long and held the drainpipe long enough for me to get us both down safely.

We didn't have enough time to walk, but Billy had his bike, and Balae had one that she'd stolen! So she made herself very small so she could ride in my hair, and Billy and me rode out towards the meeting place. Which was going alright until we had to get across the river. We'd managed to dodge the Asterion peacekeepers on the streets, but the bridge was swarming with them. Billy knew about an access tunnel we could use instead, and found the entrance under one of those big commercial bins. So I pushed it out of the way, but it made a noise and attracted some thugs.

Except they weren't really thugs, because they looked really skinny, like they hadn't eaten in days, but that didn't really help because even if we wanted to give them our wallets we hadn't brought them. I asked if they'd rather we paid in peanuts or gum, which I don't think helped, and they threatened to call the peacekeepers. No way we could stop them, even with Billy managing to intimidate them with his psychic weaponry, so we were just going to have to be really fast and hope we were gone before they got back.

I don't think that manhole cover will ever be the same again but I did manage to get the bin back in place as we all climbed down. Yet another sewer. What a place to have a super sensitive nose. But now we had a clear route to the other side of the river. Or so we thought. We were about halfway across when we ran into two peacekeepers.

Nobody else around. Nobody to see what we were doing, and I'd been spoiling for a fight ever since I'd met Hugo, and now here were two of these bastards right in my way. It didn't matter that there were two of them and only one of me. Honey badger don't care. I knew the others had my back. And the only thing that I noticed through the blind rage is that one of them shot Billy with his arm blaster thing. His next shot hit me, which was awful, but it meant the others were OK and could knock out the other one. Then we saw the starfish starting to detach, just like in the pub, and it felt pretty great stamping on them.

We couldn't hang about. We had a meeting to get to. And when we got there it was the same warehouse we'd been to see Ariadne. Except this time instead of a load of blinding lights there was a candlelit dining table and music playing and some guy in a white suit. And Carmilla, of course.

I wasn't going to waste a free meal. It was some kind of fish, and there wasn't any ketchup, but it was still good. But I was still paying attention, and I've never seen anyone hate anyone as much as Mrs Stodgely seemed to hate Faustus. Except maybe how much Carmilla seemed to hate me.

Anyway, Mrs Stodgely wanted her husband fixed, and it seemed like Faustus could help with that. But he wanted her to work for him, and he called her Airy, or something, which she didn't seem to like. And he wanted all of us as well, to help destroy the bio factory in Elizabeth Park.

He asked us if we had any questions, but I just had one. Why us? And instead of answering he just spun a load of bullshit, so I asked if he thought I was stupid, and yeah, he does think I'm stupid. Just a hunk of muscle and claws. I'm starting to see why Mrs Stodgely hates him so much.

Then it was time to go, and we got a lift in an aerial vehicle so we didn't have to dodge peacekeepers. Carmilla was driving, and I'd been thinking. You don't hate someone as much as she hates me when you've never even met them. So maybe she had met me? I didn't remember her, but there's lots of things I don't remember. So when we got back to the pub and the others got out, I hung back a bit.

I told her I'd not really been in a good mood last time we met, which was true, and that it had been a while and we should catch up. And she knew straight away I didn't actually remember her, but that was enough to get her to talk. I'd already started to suspect, and when her whole jaw opened up in a mess of pedipalps I knew I was right. I wasn't the only person the survivalists were experimenting on. I guess when I didn't work out they had some other predators to try. No wonder she didn't eat anything in the warehouse. Although I don't see why she thinks I had it that much easier. I can eat normal food, but she can make herself look normal and pretty and I can never look like anything but what Faustus thinks I am.

So she'd been through all the same shit as me, but I didn't see why she had to be such a bitch about it. Until I got out of the AV and saw Billy and Balae, and remembered everything that happened on the way to the warehouse, and realised I do have something that she doesn't. Friends I can count on to have my back.

Wicker Valley, episode 22: What the tooth fairy does with the teeth

Note: due to leaving it too long to do the last update, I couldn't remember what order things happened in. I've now updated that post so that it actually ends at the point this one starts.

The tooth creature might have been cute, but it had one hell of a bite. Fortunately we managed to separate it from Michael's arm, and Adam wrapped it up in iron chain netting. It wasn't happy about it, and we managed to use that to our advantage. It wanted to get somewhere, so we went in the direction it was trying to go. I thought maybe we could use the acid bombs we'd used for the stone creatures that were definitely not gargoyles, but as the others pointed out, that was our timeline. It didn't happen here. We were stuck with sugar cola.

We ended up at an old warehouse. Not many options for a stealthy entrance, but Michael spotted the pile of teeth inside, along with a few more of the tooth creatures. I armoured up, popped the claws, and in we went.

That was a nasty fight. Taking down the tooth creatures wasn't hugely difficult, but then they started reforming and combining into larger and much nastier versions. Adam took a nasty blow when one of them spat a tooth at him. Elizabeth did a good job with her ice magic, slowing them down and putting up a shield, although she did go all evil Galadriel and really isn't convincing me that she's not a lich. Michael's new spiky bat thing seemed pretty effective. So did my claws. More so than I expected somehow.

We were just getting to the point where we were on the point of ending things when reinforcements arrived, in the shape of the tooth fairy who'd dragged Michael off, and a couple more tooth creatures. Adam got his iron net out again and managed to grapple the fairy. The combined tooth creatures were getting even worse though, and one of them hit Michael so hard he went flying back against a wall. I saw red at that point, and threw myself into the fight, not even caring if I got hurt. My claws went through it like butter and it collapsed into a pile of teeth.

I checked on Michael, but Elizabeth was already there with a bit of magical wound closing. He was going to be fine. Funny though, it seemed brighter in the room around me. Like my armour was glowing.

We needed to get the tooth fairy back to the fairy queen fast, but he was freaking out about the ward. Fair, I remember what it's like trying to get through a ward. Adam came up with an idea. If we drove up to the ward, and then I held the fairy and teleported to the other side, he technically wouldn't actually go through the ward.

I was still nervous about something going wrong, and this would have been a very bad time to lose the fairy. Fortunately Elizabeth was on hand to give me a little arcane assistance and we crossed the ward without incident.

Once on the other side, the fairy's whole attitude changed. He warned us that there were even more of the tooth creatures out there, and the plan would keep happening if they weren't stopped. So Michael and Elizabeth took the van to drive out to the fairy portal, and I teleported Adam and me back to the warehouse. We didn't know where the creatures were, but at least we knew where they were going.

After a fight so brutal that even I got hurt, the last of the tooth creatures were dismantled. Adam asked if I could do some magical healing, and I gave it a go, but something about my magic felt weird, and from the way Adam was looking at me I think I might have also been looking weird. Anyway, I closed his wound, but a bunch of teeth grew out of it, which was kind of gross.

I got a text from Agnes. Unsurprisingly she'd noticed me teleporting through her ward. I was going to have some explaining to do.

Elizabeth and Michael pulled up in the van, and we swept up the remaining teeth and took them all to the junkyard to put in the oubliette. Or the bat cave, as Adam now calls it. Just one problem remaining: the portal. We drove around until Elizabeth found it, and there we were back at the bloody church.

The crypt felt even weirder this time. It wasn't just the lack of the usual skin crawling sensation. It actually felt nice. Even the pain from my injuries went away. And here, in the one place in Wicker Valley that Agnes' magic couldn't touch, was the portal that was about to be used for the invasion. We'd bought some time by dealing with the teeth, but we still needed to get it closed.

Elizabeth took the lead, marking out the cardinal points. She took water, and told me to take fire, which is stereotyping, but at least it was the opposite side to her. She wasn't sure about where to put the others, but I thought Adam should be earth. After all, he'd shown up normal to a weird fight. That's pretty damn grounded.

The portal was closed. And I got even more suspicious texts from Agnes.

Halcyon Calling, Episode 6: School

Sitting and talking with Billy helped more than I realised at first. We'd done our best in there, and it wasn't enough, but that wasn't our fault. And then Mrs Stodgely showed up and thanked us for rescuing her husband. Funny, she dressed like a teacher but didn't stand like one. She stood like the veterans who used to guard the compound in Wales. So maybe I wasn't all that surprised when she seemed to know all about Faustus.

Billy went downstairs. I stayed put, but after a couple of minutes I realised I didn't want to be alone. Halfway down the stairs I ran into Abeni. She said something to me. I don't even remember what it was, except that it was kind, and right then I couldn't deal with that. Normally I don't like people touching me, but this time I let her hug me while I cried on her shoulder. Actually I do remember something she said. She said I should call her when I needed help. I remember because of the way she said it. Like the head of the compound guards giving them an order.

She let me past her on the stairs, and I went and found a place to slide in next to Billy. There was a funny atmosphere in the room, and it only got worse when Splinters yelled up from the bar to turn the TV on. That slimy bastard Winfield was giving a speech. Usual load of crap, but the important part was that there was now a curfew. Which meant everyone in the bar was going to have to go home. Including Mr Stodgely.

Even after three plates of Abeni's Nigerian curry I was exhausted, and Castor and Pollux said me and Billy could stay the night so we didn't have to worry about the curfew. They all went out to get Mr Stodgely home, and told us we could have a beer but not to overdo it because Balae had school in the morning.

Billy and me got to work to prepare Balae for her first day at school. Billy had most of the good advice on how to be cool and stuff. I mostly just knew things not to do. Swearing at the teachers, that's bad. Throwing chairs, also not good. School didn't work out for me, but she was so excited about going, I had to at least try to help, and I think we all felt better just being able to talk about something normal instead of the starfish invasion for once. Billy got some expensive bottle off the shelf that we weren't supposed to touch, and it was nicer than bourbon, even though there wasn't enough of it to have any effect on me.

The next morning I asked if I could go on the bus with Balae and Billy. Then if anyone tried to cause trouble she could say I was her big sister. Except it didn't really work out that way. It started off alright when Balae asked us about chewing gum, and I found some in my pockets for her to try. But then I saw a girl staring at me from across the bus, and somehow that stirred up some old memories from when I was plain old Melanie Gwyn, which I normally try to avoid. I started freaking out, and then accidentally ripped out the pole with the bell button on it, which only made things worse, and I ended up jumping off the bus and running through the streets.

I ended up in one of those little pocket parks, under the trees, and was just catching my breath and calming myself down again when I realised I had company. Some girl, a bit older than me I think. She looked kind of glossy. All shiny hair and neat lipstick and clothes to match. She introduced herself as Carmilla and I wasn't really surprised, because she'd already talked to Billy and Balae.

I was prepared to try and be nice, because Balae had told us about meeting her last night, and how Faustus was taking advantage of her. I know what it's like to have people use you like that. Except she was being really strange. Saying polite things but in a really rude way. And I realised what she really wanted was a fight. She wanted me to kick off so she'd have an excuse to fight me. And she clearly thought she had a chance of winning.

So I held back and told her she should just say what she wanted so we could both piss off, and she said her piece which was pretty much just that Faustus was interested in us, and we both left. I jogged back to my flat. Running helped burn off the irritation.

It was nice to get back to the flat. I had a shower and put on some clean clothes, and then went through the pile of post. More homework assignments. I knew I had to do them, but I didn't know how to make myself give a shit about maths or geography. I got a text from Balae telling me everything was going OK at school, which was a relief because I was worried I'd fucked everything up when I freaked out on the bus. I sent back a 💖.

Then I noticed there was another letter in the pile, which didn't have a stamp or a proper address. It just said 'To the lady next door' and it was written in crayon.

I'd never paid much attention to the neighbours before, so it was a surprise to get a letter, especially from some little girl who hadn't even learned to spell Tiffany yet. But she said I looked nice, and that she liked cats, and I really wanted an excuse to ignore my homework. And I bloody love cats. So I went and knocked on the door.

Tiffany looked about four years old, and had to get her grandma to let me in. Her name was Jerry, and I had to introduce myself as Melanie, which felt pretty weird. She got me a cup of tea while the kid showed me her drawings of cats. I didn't really know what to do. I haven't exactly been around little kids recently. Then she started on about my hair, and I didn't know what to say because I didn't exactly choose this hair, it just grows this way. But she said it reminded her of a honey badger, and I don't know what kind of four year old knows about honey badgers, but if there's one thing I know really well it's honey badgers, and I must have kept her occupied for half an hour telling her about them.

Then her grandma took her into another room, and I heard this awful coughing. I felt really awkward sitting there and ended up pacing around until Jerry came back in and got me to sit down again. Turns out the kid's sick and might not be able to go to school. You'd think those fucking starfish would be able to do something about it with all their biotech but it's not like they care. But somehow I'd made the kid really happy.

I didn't want to promise too much because I don't know when I'm going to be out on another mission, but I did say if I found the time I'd drop by again. I went back to the flat and this time when I looked at the homework sheets I found I actually had the motivation to do them. Learning about the water cycle didn't seem so pointless when I thought about how I could tell Tiffany about it.

I guess there's more than one way to be a hero.

Wicker Valley, episode 21: Tooth Fairy

Somehow we managed to wake up Adam and get out of there. Presumably because the fairy queen had a job for us. Well, a job for Michael. She was missing a tooth fairy and wanted him found. Adam had some dubious ideas for how to find a tooth fairy, but fortunately Michael was able to overrule him in favour of putting up notices that only the fairy would be able to see in places where teeth might be lost, asking to meet him.

With that done, we all went home to get some sleep. Not that I got much sleep. Every moment I'd spent in that fairy realm had made my skin crawl in a way I normally associate with churches, and I ended up lying awake for what felt like hours. When I finally did manage to drift off, I got woken up again pretty quickly by a knock at the door. I almost ignored it to try to get back to sleep, but I realised anyone knocking on the door at that time probably had a good reason.

It was Michael, dressed in pyjamas and soaked through from the rain. I brought him inside, and he told me that the tooth fairy had found him, and then dragged him out of the window, and he was now locked out of his house. And I was the closest person that he'd be able to explain his predicament to.

I suggested teleporting him home, but he wanted to know what could go wrong, and I realised I hadn't done all that much experimenting yet. It seemed to work very well when I was on my own, but I hadn't had much practice in taking people with me yet, and this was not the time to be ending up in the wrong place. And even at this hour of the night, flying him up to the window was too big a risk.

So he got in the shower to warm up, and I got him some towels and bedding so he could sleep the rest of the night on the sofa. In the morning he called Adam to ask him to bring him some clothes. Which meant I had to answer the door to a grinning Adam.

"Whatever you're thinking, it's not that." Not that he believed me, of course.

I had no intention of going anywhere near the fairy realm again, but Michael was going back and there was absolutely no way I was letting them get their hands on him, so we all went. Except they immediately took Michael off into a different room. They did feed us, after first giving us assurances that the food was free of obligations. Elizabeth said it was legit, but I still didn't eat anything until she did.

Three hours later there was still no sign of Michael and I was getting extremely antsy. Finally we got the news that something bad was going to happen in Wicker Valley and they wanted to keep Michael there to keep him safe. I wasn't letting that go and demanded to see Michael. He was fine, although pretty reluctant to stay. In the end they came to some kind of agreement. We would all go back and try to sort things out. And if we hadn't done in time, Michael would come back. I'm glad to say he didn't say anything about staying.

Bloody fairies. They're as bad as my family. Which is why the idea of Agnes and Mary basically running this town is so unsettling.

Dragging Michael out of windows wasn't the only strange thing the tooth fairy had been up to that night, as we soon found ourselves at a crime scene. Being slightly worried about tooth golems, we'd packed full sugar coke in addition to some fairy-fighting tools. It seems in this timeline we get routinely called in for weird crimes, as the police let us right in. Nasty business. The father was dead, and had lost all his teeth as well. The mother and daughter, at least, seemed unharmed. The victims left, and we took a look around.

There was a tooth creature, but it was a lot cuter than I anticipated.

Halcyon Calling, Episode 5: Breaking and Entering

We were on the point of being sensible and leaving when Nigel spoke up. I thought that desk was just bioengineered but Nigel said it was alive, and was a creature like him, which was why it could do the whole holographic display thing. He said smashing it up would be a mercy. And then there was the fact that we kind of knew what had happened to Mr Stodgely now, but we still didn't know where he was, and Mrs Wilkins the Boss probably knew...

I think she might have locked the door after we left but it didn't make a difference because I didn't bother opening it, I just ran back in with wood splintering around me. She pushed a button on her desk, but I ran over and picked her up to hold her still, and Billy made a hammer out of Nigel's energy stuff and used it to smash the desk. Balae asked her what happened to the people she'd been selling, and was really polite about it, which probably scared her even more. She gave us an address.

We let her know there'd be trouble if she told anyone about this, and then Balae tied her up with the curtains and I shoved her in the stationary cupboard. I gave the desk one more thump on the way out, just to make sure. "This one's for you, Nigel," I told him. Billy picked up the envelope of money we'd been delivering. It looked like it was those special Asterion notes

We had to get to the address fast, so Balae stole us a car. I was hoping she'd pick a Chelsea tractor or something, but it turns out she's been influenced by all those classic car books she's been reading in the library, and she got us a Beetle. It actually had eyelashes on its headlights. Billy got in the back because we weren't sure I'd fit.

Balae had a look at the place when we arrived and didn't think it looked good. It was an Asterion facility and would probably be crawling with Peacekeepers. We were going to need to help. We could call Faustus, which would mean another riot, or Ariadne, who might have something more subtle to offer. We went with subtle. I made the call, which was no fun as whoever was there was just silent most of the time. I tried not to tell them any more than I had to.

They came through though. There was an entrance in the sewers and they'd show us the way. We climbed down through a manhole and there was a spider bot waiting for us. I don't know how it got there that fast. It did the job though. We got into the facility through the sewers. The bot flashed a message to tell us we had thirty minutes to get in and out, and off we went.

We had a look around and Balae found some hazmat suits. Good enough to make people overlook us providing they didn't look too closely. I scouted out one of the doors up ahead and spotted another of those mantaray cameras. This time Billy and Nigel came through with the obscuring smoke and we crept our way past. Then we just had to walk confidently as we walked down the corridor. Which was harder than it sounds, because we had to look in each room and there were all these tanks with people in who'd been altered by the Asterions and there was nothing we could do for them.

Then Billy recognised Mr Stodgely in one of the tanks, even though they'd already started altering him. He managed to make the real staff members go away, but there was still a Peacekeeper in the room with him. A really big one. Balae had an idea though. She burst out of the hazmat suit, and made herself flexible to wrap around him, and heavy to weigh him down. I grabbed his legs to stop him going anywhere while she got in position, then left her to it to go and rip the tank off the wall. Billy grabbed some breathing equipment that Mr Stodgely was going to need, and Balae did something to the Peacekeeper to slow him down just enough for us to escape.

The tank was heavy, but I didn't care. I was so angry with everything I'd seen in that place, I wasn't letting anything slow me down.

There was no way we were going to fit the whole tank in the Beetle, so I smashed it open and Billy fitted the breathing equipment. This was the first time we'd got a proper look at him up close, and it was awful. He had gills on his neck, and some kind of weird circular mouth full of teeth. And now he was awake, and making some kind of noise that was probably supposed to be screaming, except he didn't have enough of his old mouth left for screaming.

I think Billy and Balae had some kind of fight, but all I could think about was how this was the same thing that had happened to me, except even worse, because at least I could still pass for human. We were too late to save him. We were too late to save any of the others. And what was the point of being a hero if I couldn't even save one person.

Then Billy came back, and I didn't want him to see me cry, but the tears were coming faster than I could wipe them away. I don't know where Balae went, but Billy got us back to the Beetle and Mr Stodgely in the back out of sight of the Peacekeepers and drove us back to the Gull.

We took him inside round the back, into the flat, but before we could say anything to Castor and Pollux this woman walked in who must have been Mrs Stodgely, because of the way she looked at Mr Stodgely. I couldn't deal with it, and ended up running out of there and up to the roof.

Billy followed me up there but somehow I didn't mind. He asked if I still had the bottle I'd brought up the other day, and it was still where I left it, but of course it was empty. So we just sat and talked for a while. I don't think we said anything important. I was having a lot of bad thoughts, and I suggested we could do some sparring practice just to get my mind off them. But then we heard Mrs Stodgely's voice behind us.