Shade

Blind Faith

Moondancer

Capt. Jack McNeal

Jack Parker

Wally Wood

Ken Hollenbeck

Constance Dumas

Capitana Agostina Cossutta

Walter Mane

Carver

#146

Game Date: 10/20/02 - 10/21/02

Repairs are still taking place in downtown Seattle after Forte’s epic battle with The Deviators, the super-villains from another galaxy, and the heroes of Forte have joined in to help. The story, and much of the news and security camera footage of the fight, has been all over the international press, bringing the new and larger Forte team heavily into the public eye.

Dr. Jackal is still recovering from his poisoning at the hands of Mandate and rogue Cassians, living at the old Forte base with his wife Sabrina (the former Knightsabre) and his daughters Monique and Nichole. The public at large has no idea Dr. Jackal was poisoned, but the press is all over the story that Seattle Post-Intelligencer editor and best-selling author Jack Parker (not known to be Dr. Jackal but to a small handful) was poisoned in apparent retaliation for his latest book, “Foreign and Domestic”, that blew the lid of U.S. government involvement over the decades in shadow organizations, terrorist and villain teams. As far as they know, he’s being kept in a secure, secret location with his family for their own safety while the investigation goes on. As he’d hoped (wanting at least some silver lining out of this), sales of his book have skyrocketed.

It’s getting late in the evening as he’s sitting up in bed in his old room at the Forte base, his laptop before him and numerous newspapers and files around him, trying, against his doctor’s orders (that being Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and husband of Jack’s old Forte teammate Mist), to keep up with what’s happening at his paper and with the world. There’s a knock at his open door, and his daughter Samantha—a.k.a. the current Forte’s Nightsable—is there, smiling, and chastising him for working instead of resting. She’s finished patrolling and has dropped in to check in on him (which she does regularly) before heading home.

After a hug she sits down in the chair next to his bedside and they talk. He asks at one point how her love life is, good-naturedly enough, but picks up on how quiet she gets at the question. “That bad, huh?” he asks, wanting to know what’s up. He still has no idea that she was (is she still? She’s not sure) involved with Seahawk, who’s still off in Boston with his ex-wife, seeing to the recovery of their son.

She’s about to try and change the subject when there’s a dull flash of light behind them. They both look back and find a woman in a nightgown standing there. They both recognize her, but Jack does quicker. It’s Blind Faith, the blind sorceress that’s been connected to Forte since before she took up the mystic arts (back when she was the roommate of Forte founder Phantashia)…and one that used to date Dr. Jackal for a time.

“Sylvia?” Jack says, confused and immediately noticing the tears coming from her blank eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Jack?” she says, quietly, and begins to cry anew. “He’s dead.

“Shade is dead.”

Stunned, Jack sits up and starts to reach for his cane, and despite what’s happening, Samantha still reaches out to stop him from rising. He doesn’t have to. Sylvia rushes to him and falls into his arms and starts weeping, and he holds her tightly. After a moment he looks up at Samantha over Sylvia’s shoulder.

“Get your team,” he tells her, quietly.

But before she can pass “Go”, a call comes through on her radio, in her ear, and she starts speaking to Sam, with her father and Ken watching her, wondering what’s happening.

“Oh, my God” she says. Her father asks, worriedly, what it is. She explains as quickly as she can, apologizes to them, and tells them she has to get changed and go.

He hears his radio come on in his ear, and he answers Samantha, while Chelsea sighs something about the great timing. But she sees the serious look on his face and knows something is up, so she sits, and tenses up, and watches him, waiting to hear. After a moment he asks Sam to give them ten minutes to get suited up and then send them a teleport portal, and they’ll be there.

The radio call comes into his ear, and he tells Constance he needs to take a break and excuses himself. Outside his office in the darkened hall, he answers Samantha, listens, and asks her to send the teleport door to their already discussed regular spot…a rooftop near his office (not that she knows what office he works at...or what he actually does for a living). He heads back in and tells Constance something has come up, and to go ahead and leave the mess as is and head home herself. They’ll pick up on it in the morning. He grabs his briefcase, the one that currently holds his Moonspider mask and costume, and heads for the roof.

Jack has become a staple at Lucy’s airplane hanger home in the evenings. Since Horus’s arrival, and since the boy-god’s decision to stay with Lucy, Jack had started staking out Lucy’s home to keep an eye on them from his car, and Lucy finally convinced him to just come in. The trio has since been spending a lot of time together, which is something Lucy has zero complaints about, as she’s quite taken with the graying fed, and it’s given them a chance to get to know each other. The more she’s gotten to know, the more she’s started to like.

So far there have been no problems since Horus moved in. No appearances of the powerful god-brother he described, Anubis, from his launching point in the ancient past. Nor any of his followers that the Brotherhood of Horus warned Forte are out there. Horus seems to have awakened from his centuries-old sleep in advance of this apocalypse that’s supposed to come with Anubis’ return, so there still seems to be time to work it all out—something Stephen Strange, Poltergeist, and some other mystics are trying to do.

Lucy raises, and Horus and McNeal call. While Jack ended up having Lucy beat, Horus manages to best them both with a full boat. Again. Jack scowls and tells Horus that just because he’s a bald midget doesn’t mean he’s not going to smack him around. Horus laughs, very fond of Jack’s sense of humor, and Jack smiles back, having become very fond of Horus.

Lucy gets her radio call, answers, and looks distressed. Jack waits until she’s done and asks, worriedly, what’s happened, and she assures him nothing to do with Horus or Anubis, but it’s something bad. She says she has to go. He volunteers to stay with Horus, but quickly picks up on her uncomfortable look and says he understands, as he’s got no super-powers (not like she does either, she mentally notes. Funny what putting on a costume makes people think of you). She appreciates his understanding and tells Horus he’ll need to come along with her. Horus, too, wonders what’s amiss. She gets up and heads toward her room to costume up, and tells him, sadly, that they’ve lost a friend.

There’s a photo up of a hero in a camouflage costume, and next to it, a head shot of the man behind the mask. He explains that this is Shade, for those who hadn’t heard of him (some had not), a hero that had briefly been an ally of Forte in Seattle, back when the team first started (see Forte #’s 29-38). His real name is Alexander Pace. He came to Seattle under rather bizarre circumstances, a hero whose secret identity got put into the witness protection program—both him and his girlfriend, Sylvia. He had witnessed a mob murder in New York while in civilian identity, and had saved the life, in that gunfight, of Sylvia. He was unable to explain his presence at a mob meeting site to the police (investigating that same mob) until Sylvia, sensing his problem, stated she was his girlfriend and that he’d been there to pick her up. When he soon discovered that the mob now wanted Sylvia out of the picture because they feared the blind woman could identify the voices of those involved, Shade pledged to protect her, and agreed to testify if he could bring his “girlfriend” into the program with him. His testimony helped put mobsters away, and he and Sylvia, now linked, and now close friends, were relocated to Seattle.

Sylvia had needed caring after when he wasn’t around, and Phanashia’s housekeeper/roommate, Olga, volunteered to be the caregiver and moved the girl into their home (it would be discovered, much later, that Olga was a plant from Phantashia’s arch enemy, the dark Tellezar, all along, and likely had greater plans for Sylvia, which began when she started schooling the girl in the mystic arts). The relationship between Shade and Sylvia seemed real enough to even fool Forte, which made things very awkward when she and Dr. Jackal began having feelings for each other. But soon the truth came out, much to Jack’s relief, and he and Sylvia were an item for a while. But it ended soon, as did most of his relationships back then before he got his life together. Becoming the sorceress Blind Faith, she remained an ally (and sometimes unwitting nemesis) of Forte from then on.

There was more to Shade than simple hero. He was actually part of an ancient order of warrior/crimefighters called The Blade Runners that had been around, in one form or another, since the Crusades. They had originally formed to stand against the Knights of the Light, another ancient secret order that began around the same time, made up of those who believed in racial purity and the destruction of all the Earth’s ungodly and, well, un-white. The latter members of the Knights were all slaughtered by Shontu, a vengeful Duwamish medicine man whose tribe had been wiped out, in part, by Knights of the past (see Forte #42). With them gone, the secretive Blade Runners continued their operations in stopping crime and evil around the world, and Shade was called in and left Seattle behind, now that Sylvia swore she was more than able to take care of herself. He was sure she would be safe with Forte, and with her new-found abilities, so he bid her, and Forte, farewell.

But tonight, Sylvia had sensed his death through her mystical powers. When she had recovered enough (she was now in another bedroom in the base being consoled by Sabrina), she was able to give Jack and Sam a location in Rome. Jack hits a few buttons and a satellite map of the holy city pulls up, and he zooms in on the location. He tells them that’s where they need to go. He solemnly tells them that whatever happened needs to be discovered and avenged. Alex was a friend, both to him and to Forte, the team Shade fought alongside for a time and nearly died for his effort. Now he was lost. And Forte takes care of their own, one way or the other.

The new Forte team quietly and respectfully agrees. Jack falls silent as Tinker begins laying out strategy for them. It’s currently nearing 8:00am in Rome. She radios their UNCLE liaison, Captain Dane Casey, and asks him to advise the Italian SHIELD branch, LIRA, that Forte is going to be in town…since they’re going in in full costume and not in stealth mode. She leaves Horus in Jack’s care, and tells Nightsable to open up a portal for them. They’re going to Europe. Before she does, Samantha goes over and hugs her father for a good minute, telling him how sorry she is about his friend, and that they’ll find out what happened. Jack thanks them all. And with that, Sam opens a portal wide, and she, Tinker, Rainier, Moondancer, Max, Vortex, Dyna Girl and Moonspider step through.

The stone faces are not the only ones.

Being eight costumed heroes well-known throughout the world, they are spotted immediately by the dozens of morning walkers, workers on their way to the hospital that stands on the island (founded in the sixteenth century after centuries of medical care had already begun on the island that once held the temple of Aesculapius), and tourists.

Great.

The heroes are swarmed quickly and cameras start going off, and they do their best to deal with the crowd. Sure, this wasn’t a stealth mission, but they also weren’t expecting a minor mob. Tinker immediately radios Dane and asks that he get some LIRA people down there right away to help them out with the crowd so they can do what they came to do. Unfortunately, though they’re told this is the site where a hero fell, no evidence of such an event is anywhere in sight.

As two young Italian men pose, without her consent, for a photo with an annoyed Dyna Girl, Rainier, speaking loudly to be heard over the masses, explains a little about where they are, and points out Teatro Marcello across the way. He talks about the hospital and of the monks that first formed a hospice on the island during the middle ages, and points toward St. Bartholomew’s, a church founded in the 10th century, built over the remains of the ancient Temple of Aesculapius. He suggests Nightsable teleport up to the belltower there and get a look around, as any of their flyers taking to the air might cause an even bigger stir. She does so (her disappearance impressing and delighting the crowd) as the rest of the team tries not to be rude to the growing audience. They’re not exactly in a mood to sign autographs considering the mission they’re on. But some of them do so anyway, just to buy time while Nightsable gets intel and LIRA makes their way there.

Two LIRA vans arrive quickly enough, and armored agents pour out, along with their field leader, Capitana Agostina Cossutta, a tall woman of stature with a great deal of hair. She breaks through to the heroes, and Tinker introduces herself. Thankfully, Cossutta speaks English just fine, and Tinker fills her in as best she can, telling her there’s evidence that a hero has died somewhere on the island. She asks for some help with crowd control, and Cossutta agrees and offers their agency’s resources to assist in their investigation. The agents get their orders and start to push the crowds back, and she begins loudly shouting out orders in Italian to the onlookers, urging them to cooperate and move back.

With a little breathing room, the group checks in with Nightsable, who finds nothing unusual to report. Moonspider’s first thought is that they ARE next to the hospital, so maybe Shade was a patient in there, and, having no other leads, they decide to check this out first, with Tinker asking Sam to stay where she is and keep looking. The heroes head into the hospital, with Cossutta with them to give authority and translate, and start asking staff questions about recent patients and any recent deaths. None of this bears any fruit, no does Vortex’s high-speed search of the whole island.

With this going nowhere, they decide to check out St. Bartholomew’s. The worshippers inside can’t help but stare, and the heroes feel a bit awkward being in here. They question a couple of priests, wondering if any costumed types have been around, and find that none have.

However, an alter boy who speaks English comes up and tugs on Moondancer’s deerskin mystic bag, and says that he was inside late last night when he should not have been and saw a man in black with swords on his back moving through the dark church like shadow. The boy saw him disappear into a back room, and when he finally got the courage to go look, he found the mysterious figure was not there, though there are no other doors nor any windows to the room. Finally having a lead, the group moves into the musty room with its old books and religious icons and start looking around. Max starts to experiment with pulling books from an old bookshelf, having seen lots of old movies where this works, and is surprised when the case creaks slightly open. Rainier pulls it further, and a tiny antechamber is exposed. They ask one of the priests about it, who seems as baffled as them. There’s a trapdoor in the floor, and beneath it, a very old wooden ladder that goes way, way down into the darkness.

Tinker passes a flashlight to Dyna and asks her to check it out, and the heroine floats downward, soon finding that the shaft ends in a long stone tunnel with shallow water running through it. She radios the others, and, not trusting the ladder, she, Max and Moondancer fly the others down, along with Cossutta, who insists on going along, since they’re technically acting under her authority.

Once they’re all down, Vortex volunteers to take point, but it’s very dark down here and she doesn’t want him running into anything, and prefers they stick together now that they’re down. They slosh carefully forward as a team, Rainier and Dyna in the lead. The tunnel starts to branch off into other ones, and Nightsable puts her super-powered sense of smell that she inherited from her father to use, finding the way that people have been. Following her lead, they eventually start to see slight illumination ahead of them, and kill the flashlight. They soon realize its torchlight they’re seeing. She sends Moonspider, the stealthiest of them, to search ahead, while they keep moving behind. Soon there’s a quiet radio call from him. He tells them to come forward.

He’s found him.

The group moves along the now torchlit path and come across an opening to a chamber (an ancient-looking door that’s ajar). Inside, the chamber is quite large, and immediately astounding. It’s filled with shelves of books and manuscripts that look very, very old. There are old wooden tables throughout, with books on them as well.

And there are the bodies.

There are dead men laying about, most garbed in white outfits that look almost like ninja shinobi shozokos. A couple are in scarlet red robes. All have various swords near them. And in the center, a figure clad all in black, a cold hand still on one of his two swords, is the hero called Shade.

Shocked at the scene, they step in quietly and almost reverently. Shade had apparently left the camo look back in the eighties. Vortex carefully rolls his body over and pulls his mask up, verifying that it is, in fact, him. Shade’s eyes are open and staring into eternity, the flickering of nearby torches reflected in them. Vortex carefully closes them and pulls the mask back down. Cossutta, after checking the perimeter with her rifle at the ready, stands over him with the other heroes and says a prayer in Latin. His wounds are sword wounds, and it’s obvious that he died fighting the entire group around them, and managed to take them all with him. Excepting, likely, the one or more that finally took him down, which may still be around.

Tinker asks Sam to use her senses again and check the other exits they see, while Rainier roams the room and looks through the volumes there. He’s astonished. The books are ancient, all from different eras, some from after the invention of the printing press and some from far before, handwritten and fragile. He tells the others, solemnly, without his usual excitement, that they may be standing in the midst of one of the greatest repositories of historical text ever found…books on history, religion, magic. Vortex, the former police officer, carefully checks Shade’s body, finding secreted weapons, electronic devices (that Tinker identifies as communication and analysis gear). Cossutta gets on her radio without asking the heroes and begins giving orders in Italian. She answers Tinker’s look by telling her she’s getting a team down here, as it is a crime scene. Tinker instinctively wants to disagree, but realizes it is LIRA’s jurisdiction. Nightsable says she’s found a blood trail and a scent going down one corridor. Tinker sends her, Max, Moondancer and Moonspider to follow it, while she and the others will stay behind the search the room (with Vortex there to make sure they don’t contaminate the crime scene).

The tracking team follows a series of tunnels, and the blood trail makes it easier. Nightsable can scent two men, and Moondancer points out from their tracks that one of them was limping. They eventually come to a ladder that leads up to a very old building in nearby Monte Palatino that opens into an old cemetery. The trail stops there, leading Sam to believe that they fled in a car. The escaped killers could be anywhere by now.

Back at the chamber, Rainier has asked Tinker for her minicam and is snapping shots of books. Vortex checks the other bodies to make sure they’re all actually dead, and they are. The white-garbed assassins, he notes, are all Caucasian. He checks the red-robed figures and finds they each wear necklaces with strange symbols on them. But their origin is apparent to him. He calls Rainier over. Rainier is stunned as well. The symbols are Egyptian.

The other heroes return empty-handed, and the LIRA team soon makes their way down (with the assistance of Max, Dyna and Moondancer) and begin their forensics work and photographing while the team ponders the relevance of what they’ve found. Finding some kind of Egyptian priests in the midst of this mystery seems more than a little coincidental, considering what they’ve been investigating back in Seattle. How this might relate to Horus is unknown, but Rainier does point out that the symbols carry what looks like an aspect of Anubis. A search through Shade’s PDA, allowed by Cossutta, shows many coded entries, and they can’t make heads or tails of it, even after Tinker successfully (but with difficulty) hacks their way in. There is one word scrawled on a recent notepad file: Memphis.

The time comes to clear out the bodies, and again the heroes help get them up, but will not allow LIRA men to carry Shade. A sheet is wrapped around him and Max carries him himself and flies him up. All the bodies are taken to the nearby hospital, where a LIRA medical team will do their work and their autopsies. The heroes sit in a commandeered room, quiet and reflective, as Sam calls her father and tells him that they’ve found Shade and some of what’s going on.

All this takes most of the day, and after nightfall, they’re still waiting there as Rainier is back down in the tunnel with the LIRA team (and Moondancer) investigating the books more. They’re answering a lot of LIRA questions and trying to avoid the press that’s trying to get in. Tinker grows restless and decides to look in on the autopsies, and Moonspider decides to join her. The white men are being worked on behind glass in the morgue, and Tinker and Spider watch for a bit and talk. They then decide to visit the separate room where they laid Shade to rest. They walk a little ways down the dark hall and enter the room.

Shade is not alone.

There’s a small group of four men and two women there. One of the men and one of the women are wearing what appear to be costumes. They both notice the heroes in unison, and the others look up…an aging man in a fine suit, another man of middle age in a black turtleneck with short-cropped hair, and a young man and woman who have a gurney rolled up to the table and are preparing to move Shade’s body onto it.

The costumed pair draw swords. The man in the turtleneck draws a large handgun. Lucy yells into her radio for everyone to get down there as Moonspider jumps in front of her and drops into martial pose. She whips out one of her creative guns, and a standoff ensues.

The aging man, in a British accent, raises his hand quickly and says “Wait” to his people. As they all face each other tensely, Tinker asks what the hell they think they’re doing. The old man says carefully, and poignantly, that they’re taking what’s theirs, and asks the heroes to stand aside and let them. That this is not their business.

Vortex (of course) arrives first, and the others show up soon after. Tinker asks the old man who they are. He looks at Shade and says he knows who the heroes are, and that they consider Shade one of their own. He says that Shade is, in fact, one of theirs.

The Blade Runners, Dyna Girl realizes aloud.

The old man nods. He says they’ve come to take Shade back. Max asks how the heroes are supposed to know these people are who they say they are. The turtle-necked man sarcastically asks if they’re being asked to show their membership cards. Ignoring him, the old man steps over to Shade’s body and lifts his arm carefully. He removes the fallen hero’s black glove, revealing his palm, and the long scar across it, appearing to have been made by a sword. He then holds his own hand up, showing a similar scar. He nods to the others. The college-aged ones hold up their hands, showing theirs. The man in the dark green costume pulls his glove and shows his. The woman in deep indigo does likewise. Finally, the reluctant, and irritated, man in the turtleneck shows his.

“Our hands hold the line,” the old man says, quiet and serious. The young ones next to him repeat it like a mantra.

He says, again, that he knows who they are, and they’re fighting the same fight. He also says that Shade always held their people in the highest regard, which is enough for the rest of them. He says if the heroes felt the same of Shade, they will respect that this is who he is, and that this would be his wish. Moonspider asks where they’re taking him. The old man says to a safer place, and to rest. And that the business Shade was following was not meant for the world at large to know. They need to get him out, and they need his things. They must continue his work, and quickly.

Tinker thinks this over, and says that wherever they’re going, Nightsable can get them there instantly, without the trouble of the guards and police throughout the hospital. But that the heroes will aid them, and let them have what they want, only if they can go along. The old man declines. Tinker reminds him that they’re fighting the same fight, as he said, and that they need to work together. He declines again, saying that they have their own path and don’t need outsiders involved. Tinker then asks who or what “Memphis” is. This makes him grow quiet. She says again that they’re already involved, and that if Shade trusted Forte, then they can too. He thinks this over, and, to the turtle-necked man’s surprise and obvious disagreement, he nods. Before any of his people can protest, Tinker tells Vortex to go get Shade’s things without being seen. In an instant, he’s back with them. She also radios Rainier and tells him they’re on the move, and they’ll get back to him and Moondancer when they know more. The old man looks to the green-garbed figure and says “Take him”, and the man takes Shade’s body into his arms. Nightsable pulls out her Questpad and pulls up a map of Rome, and asks if they’re going somewhere in the city. The old man says yes, and she asks him to show her. He shows her, and she closes her eyes and concentrates, letting the lines of the Earth speak quietly to her. Then she opens up a teleportal. The old man, with complete trust, steps through. The man with Shade follows him. The rest of the Blade Runners pass through, and then Forte follows.

They step out into a finely, and classically, furnished home, into a large room with a fireplace going. At the sight of the heroes, the several men and women there pulls guns and swords, but the old man tells them it’s all right. He tells the green man to take Shade to his room, and the quiet masked man walks out a door with the body. Finally, he introduces himself, saying that his name is Walter Mane. He introduces the irritated man as Carver (presumably his last name), the costumed woman as Twilight, and says the man who just left is called Longshadow. He doesn’t bother naming the rest, but just dismisses them, and they leave the room.

He bids everyone to sit, and they do (except for Dyna and Max, who prefer to stand). He says he’s chosen to trust them, and that they’re at the Blade Runner’s Rome base. Tinker asks where else they have bases, and he answers, simply, everywhere. He asks what she knows of Memphis. She says before she’ll tell that, she wants to know who the other dead bodies were. He says the ones in white were the “Cavalieri Della Luce”.

The Knights of the Light.

She says she thought they were all dead. He says you can kill a man, but not an idea. The members were wiped out, but their numbers have started growing back over the years, only recently emerging. And their dream of a world of pure race and spirit has come back with them. She asks who the red ones were. He answers that he does not know, and hoped the heroes could shed some light. Wanting to show some mutual trust, she tells him about Horus, and Anubis, and the followers of both that are in the world. She suspects, based on their jewelry, that the priests were part of Anubis. Mane ponders this, saying that it doesn’t make much sense, why the two groups should act in concert. He asks her again about Memphis, and she admits that they only know the name from Shade’s PDA. He explains that Shade was in Rome tracking new Knight activity, and rumors of a new mission of theirs, something referred to as the Cleansing. He believed that they had been meeting with someone that even the Blade Runner’s vast intel couldn’t identify, a mysterious figure reported in different locations around the world. Perhaps this man goes by the name of Memphis, and the origins of that name seem to fit a connection to something Egyptian. He says Shade was tracking Knight movements, and that they seemed to be searching for something. He must have trailed them to that hidden tunnel—which, he tells them, is a long-rumored repository of ancient knowledge, one that he’s noticeably annoyed is now in the hands of the Italian government. He mentions, though, that their people within the government should give them an edge in that situation. Uh, their people in the what?

He says they got the signal of Shade’s passing and location through a means he doesn’t go into. He asks what they saw, and what transpired, and she tells him about the ones that got away. He’s troubled by this, and suspects that these two found whatever the group was looking for, and that they must be found. Shade had fed them what appears to be the Knights’ staging location, and that might be the best place for his people to start. For all of us to start, Tinker says. She says, again, that if it involves the Anubis thing, the fate of the world could be at stake. Carver scoffs from his chair and tells her that this fate is the Blade Runners’ daily bread. They’re no strangers to saving the world. Neither, she tells him, is Forte.

The old man says there’s no time to waste with such foolishness, that they must strike now. He tells Carver to prepare a team. Tinker says they’re going, too, and can help to end this quickly…plus offer another ride. Mane agrees, but reminds her that this is Blade Runner business, and that they’re just tourists, so not to interfere. Their help will be appreciated…to a point.

Carver comes back in, strapping on more guns, and Longshadow is with him, along with a dozen men and women in black with swords, and Twilight joins them. Mane goes to a seemingly antique table and presses something underneath it, and a panel opens and a keyboard pops up. He presses buttons, and a large painting above the fireplace lifts to reveal a screen. He pulls up a map and zooms in on the Trastevere quarter, zooming further in on a building there. He pulls up schematics, as it appears the Blade Runners had already made plans to pay this place a visit. He says this is the main concentration of the Knights in Rome, their headquarters, if you will, and it’s seen a lot of activity. Many more than their local contingent have been seen moving in and out. There are likely several dozen of their number inside. Dyna comments that Forte LIKES dozens. He warns that they are all deadly assassins, and that they dabble in the mystic…and that whatever they stole from the tunnel might be a weapon as well. If it’s there, and the men they’re looking for. Moonspider impatiently notes that there’s only one way to find out.

Carver takes over the mission plan, points out areas of insertion they should take. He suggests the Forte people best suited for infiltration—Tinker, Moonspider, Nightsable and Vortex, he surmises—go with each team, and the “bruisers” (a term neither Dyna nor Max care for) lay in wait for surprise support once the insertion is done and they have the lay of the place. He wants Vortex with him and his group of four, so he can best direct him on where to use his speed. He wants Tinker with the second group and Longshadow, and Moonspider with Twilight and her team. He wants Nightsable on the roof and in contact with him, prepared to handle the teleporting chores, and Dyna Girl and Max on the roof across the way ready to drop in. Max whispers to Tinker and wonders why they’re taking orders from this guy, and why they don’t just go in themselves and take care of business. She reminds him that they ARE tourists, both in this country and with this enemy, so it might be best to follow their lead. For now. But she reminds him to keep his radio open and be ready to take orders from her.

Carver tosses micro ear radios to the heroes, which they each place in their non-Forte radio ear. He pulls up a live satellite feed looking down on the large house, and checks the perimeter. He finalizes where he wants each team to appear, and tells Nightsable to get on it. Not liking the attitude, she asks him what the magic word is. Facing her down, he says the magic word is “amateur”. Max starts to step forward, and Tinker holds him arm, and says that they’re wasting time.

The teams appears at spots around the grounds in the moonless Roman night, and begin to sneak in and take positions. Carver tells Vortex to do a pass around the perimeter, and he does, with nothing to report but a lot of high-tech security that only his super-speed kept him hidden from. Carver says to leave that to them, and tells Longshadow to get on it. Longshadow slinks to a junction box and prepares to, but Tinker is already there and way ahead of him. She fools the system into a loop, and smiles at the silent warrior. She tells Carver herself, via radio, that it’s handled.

Moonspider signals his team to wait, and they look to Twilight, who nods agreement. He does his slink thing and deftly scales a wall, and lowers himself slightly to take an upside-down look through a window. The room seems clear, and he signals for them to move to the door, and they stealth their way in. Tinker and Longshadow’s team move in next, and Carver and Vortex’s take their chosen entrance. Dyna Girl and Max watch through small binoculars, restless.

Nightsable radio-whispers to Tinker that if she was inside, she could sniff things out and find out if their fugitives were there. Tinker says good idea, but to hold that thought until they check things out. They sneak down a hall, hearing voices beyond. Moonspider starts to turn around a corner and then backs up, putting his arm out to stop his team. A couple of men with automatic weapons walk by them, and thankfully don’t notice them. Carver and his team come through the empty kitchen, and he gives Vortex a signal that the speedster assumes means to check the whole place out. So, slipping into speed mode, he does, moving in and out of most every room in near invisibility. He comes back and lays the whole thing out. There are about 30 people, most all armed with guns or swords. And one man with a sword wound is being tended to by a doctor…probably the guy that Shade took down, maybe the guy that killed him. Carver pulls out his PDA blueprint, Vortex points out who’s where, and Carver gives quiet orders into the radio to all teams, telling them where to go.

Carver leads their team toward the room with the patient in it, leading the way with his guns out. His team gets into position, swords out. The other teams move into their spots. He’s about the give the order to attack.

Tinker then gives Vortex an order of her own. She speaks one word into his Forte radio.

“Equalize.”

Vortex speeds throughout the house and takes everyone’s weapons…swords, firearms, everything, both the bad guys and the good guys. All sides are suddenly shocked at the loss of their armories. Vortex shows up next to a confused and then enraged Carver and smiles, saying NOW they can attack. That way there are still guys alive to question after.

Tinker tosses a couple of paparazzi bombs into the room they’re going into and blinds everyone there. She yells for her team to go…and into the radio for Max and Dyna to head in. Pausing briefly to wonder where his swords are, Longshadow runs in after Tinker and starts martially pounding blinded Knights.

Moonspider and Twilight start wading through a roomful of now-unarmed enemies, throwing fists and feet, and their team moves in and starts fighting too. Carver gets past his rage and runs into the room and starts swinging at the wounded man’s guards, his team right behind. Knight begins yelling into radios. Reinforcements start running across the living room, only to have a teleportal open right in front of them and Dyna Girl and Max come flying through. Being fanatics, they don’t surrender, and it’s not much of a fight.

Fights rage throughout the vast house, with Vortex speeding by and cutting one fight after another short with quick passing punches. Nightsable teleports in and starts clocking guys, too. Before long, the good guys have won soundly, and all their competition is either out cold or down, quickly bound by Vortex. Carver has the wounded man in a hold, and starts yelling at Vortex, wondering what the hell he thought he was doing. Tinker walks in and answers, saying from what she’s already seen of the fights between these two groups, they tend to get a bit bloody. And Forte does things a little differently. Deal with it. And, as she said, they now have all of the bad guys alive.

Carver angrily ties the wounded man, a blonde man of about forty, to a nearby chair. He starts to question him, demanding to know what he took from the tunnels and where it is. The man, in pain, simply smiles, and tells him that the Runners were too slow on this one. The Cleansing is closer than they can imagine. Carver smacks him around and bloodies him some more, asking who Memphis is, and where he is. The man’s obviously not going to talk. Carver says fine, that they’ll take him back to base where they have ways to make him talk. Tinker asks what exactly that means, and Carver says none of her damned business, and radios the base, telling them to prepare for incoming. He tells Nightsable to open a portal to return them. She says she doesn’t think so. Tinker amends that, saying she’ll get the Runners back, but the Knights are wanted by LIRA, and they’ve got a burned bridge now to mend with the agency that starts with them turning the terrorists over to them. They’re the law, she reminds Carver. Carver scoffs at that and tells her the “law” isn’t going to stop what’s coming. They are.

Mane comes on the radio, having been listening in, and explains to Tinker that Carver is right, and that they do need the wounded man, whose name is Decker. The persuasive methods Carver mentioned are strictly chemical, he assures her, and will get them the answers they need. He reminds her about the fate of the world she mentioned. She agrees, but won’t back down on taking the other prisoners to LIRA. Finally, he gives in, to Carver’s loud disagreement. Mane ignores him and tells them all to come home. Nightsable opens a wide gate, and they all pass through, carrying and leading their prisoners with them. After the Runners collect their weapons from the kitchen pantry.

Back at the Runner house, the prisoners are secured for the time being, and Decker’s wounds are seen to by their doctor, while the same doctor prepares an IV for the bound man, strapped down to a table. While the heroes look on, he’s drugged, and soon goes into a chemical trance. Mane moves in and starts by asking him where he was sent from. He says Geneva. After a couple of more routine questions, to make sure he’s really in their thrall, he asks him who Memphis is. With some difficulty, Decker says that Memphis is a new contact that approached the group as an ally. He quoted their teachings, and claimed to be in line with them, and also claimed to bring the power that will make their final solution a reality. God had seen their efforts, and they had passed their testing by rising up after their seeming downfall. He was now going to provide the means to carry out his plan, a plan that’s time had finally come. They would use the primal forces of creation, a gift from Him, and bring about the new Earth he promised from the ashes of the old.

Mane then asks for specifics, what they had been sent to find—what Shade had died trying to protect. He tells them its an ancient scroll, one whose reading, when coupled with simultaneous readings of two others, would bring about the Cleansing at once. He throws in, for free, that the Knights would then become the rulers of those who remain as the new world shapes. And that the Blade Runners would, on that day, finally be shown the folly of their ways and face their punishment once and for all. That Shade was just the beginning. Unable to hold the question any longer, Carver asks if Decker was the one that killed Shade. Laughing again, Decker says the honor was, in fact, his, that he snuck in while the hero was fighting the others and landed the final mortal blow. At that, Carver pulls his gun, and tells Mane to hurry up and finish his questions. And the room becomes very tense.

Mane asks where the scroll is now. Decker starts to answer, but suddenly starts sweating profusely and looking ill. Mane asks the doctor what’s wrong, and the physician from Cairo starts to check, confused as any of them. And then Decker bursts into flames.

The doctor and Mane jump back as he starts to burn brighter, screaming and laughing at the same time. Vortex speeds to a drape and tears it down and tries to put out the fire with it. At super speed, he does so, but the damage is done. The man, barely alive, is burned to a crisp, and Nightsable instinctively pulls her cape to her face at the smell, revulsed and shocked like the rest. Decker cackles weakly with his last breaths, and says it’s only the beginning. Only… With that, he dies on the table.

Frustrated, Carver unloads his clip on him anyway.

As the doctor gets to work trying to figure out what happened to the man, though all involved are sure it was mystical, the heroes talk with Mane. Whoever the second man was with Decker that fled the scene, he must have gotten away with the scroll. Tinker says they have an expert on ancient things that will get to work trying to figure out what exactly the scroll is, and where the other two might be. Mane says their own researchers will be on this as well. Tinker suggests they keep in contact about whatever they find. Carver disagrees and wants them out, and says the heroes put his whole team at risk tonight. Dyna offers that they probably saved a lot of their lives, and offers suggestions on what he can do with his issues. Carver then tells Mane he can’t be serious about letting them take the captured Knights. Mane says he made an agreement with them, and they both know that the captured ones are merely soldiers and won’t have any useful information anyway. The Knights keep their secrets well that way. Carver still wants them gone. Mane says not quite yet. He says that Shade called their team his friends, and he fought beside them, even if it wasn’t any of these current heroes. He says that Shade would want them there for the passing. Carvers fumes silently and leaves the room. And Tinker asks what the passing is.

That night, the members of Forte (including a retrieved Rainier and Moondancer) follow a procession of Blade Runners into a tunnel beneath their house, with black robed members carrying the body of Shade, in his costume, on their shoulders. The passage leads to a cavern, where a bed of stone and timber waits. They lay his body upon it reverently in the eerie silence. The heroes stand in the back of the chamber as Mane begins to speak phrases on Latin. Moonspider, having some experience with it, translates, quietly, as best he can. The phrases speak of selflessness, of righteousness, of dedication to the great work, of loss, of passing on to a just and deserved reward. A procession of the Runners begin to file by the body. Mane gives the heroes a look, and, understanding, Tinker is the first to step forward. The others follow her, and each pause to gaze on a friend of their forebears, a man of secrets and honor, whose life they know almost nothing of, but of whose heroic heart there is no question. After they pass, the Runners assembled begin to chant in Latin, offering prayers, and the fire is lit as they continue. Shade’s mortal form is consumed as, moved, Dyna Girl, Nightsable, and Max begin to shed tears. Soon it is over, and the Shade has passed.

They collect their prisoners and say their farewells to Mane, Longshadow and Twilight, and neither of the two latter seem to hold any ill feelings about the night’s events, and thank them for their help. Forte promises to do their part to find and stop whatever’s happening. The Blade Runners, Mane assures them, will do the same.

They teleport directly to LIRA headquarters near Piazza Navona with the bound Knights, where Cossutta is both shocked and testy, and demanding to know where Shade’s body is. Tinker prepares for a long rest of the night answering questions, and assures her she’ll tell her what she can, but apologizes that she won’t be able to tell all of it. Rainier, meanwhile, goes back to the tunnels to check out more of the library with LIRA scientists and historians.

While the others attend to the questioning, Nightsable leaves to be alone, and teleports to Vatican City and sits atop St. Peter’s Basilica and watches the sun rise. Soon Vortex appears beside her, mentioning that she’s a tough person to find, even at super-speed and with her wearing a big purple cape. She smiles and they sit together in silence and look out over the Holy See and Rome. He asks, finally, if she’s all right, and she says she just doesn’t take well to funerals. They remind her a little too much of her real father’s, back on her world and in her future. Then she talks about Shade, remembering her father from this Earth’s story about him taking a stranger—and a blind stranger—into his life, just because it was the right thing to do. She wonders how the man in that black suit with the swords and the life of dedication to his cause got along with the man that did that for Sylvia. He must have been, she thinks, a very amazing person, and wonders if he ever let anyone get close enough to him to find that out. She sheds a couple of tears and wipes them, looking embarrassed. Vortex puts his arm around her as they sit, and she puts her head on his shoulder. As a large flock of birds soars past them, he turns his face to her to see if she’s well. She turns hers to his. They look at each other. With a moment’s hesitation, he draws close and kisses her. It’s prolonged and tender and yet exhilarating. Soon he pulls back, and he apologizes, saying he shouldn’t have done that. Considering this for a moment, and perhaps considering something else, she leans in and starts kissing him again.

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