Modern Samurai/Rescue of Kelly Lamb
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
((Author's Note: This took place in the News Cycle storyline in the Uncommon Valor thread on the main Virtue boards. In this storyline Soaring Valor and Shining Glory had had their secret identities revealed in the Paragon Sentinel, where Valor worked not only her day job, but also under her identity of Soaring Valor in a column called Uncommon Valor. At first, I had one of my alts, Mark Raynor, involved in this, but after a while I decided to cut short Modern Samurai's visit to an alternate universe (which, in turn, was an IC explanation for his absence while I was on a deployment with the US Army in Kuwait) and bring him back for this. After I did so, another member of The Defenders of Paragon had his character, Kelly Lamb end up getting caught by Hellions. And so, Modern decided to go to the rescue. Hence, the following story.))
Modern Samurai walked out of his bathroom, a cloud of steam following and flowing out into the rest of the apartment and a damp towel around his waist. The recently returned superhero walked over to the doorwall separating his apartment proper from the balcony and a sunset skyline of Steel Canyon and shook his head. He'd been back in Paragon barely six hours and already there were a lot of things that he had to wrap his mind around.
First: The last year of his life had taken less than two months, insofar as Paragon was concerned, to occur. That was the easy one, comparatively.
Second: Uncommon Valor was no more. A Brit, Lionel Rusk, had bought the Paragon Sentinel outright and had recently run a story exposing the civilian identities of Soaring Valor and Shining Glory. He had met (experienced?) the two of them on a couple of occasions - he didn't know if they remembered him, but he did them, and beyond which, this set a dangerous precedent - if a press agency could investigate and reveal the identity of a superhero without that hero's knowledge and consent, it was a direct threat to the lives not only of that hero, but any loved ones, friends, and acquaintances who knew the hero and could be tracked down.
Forgoing the new, shiny white-and-red suit he'd brought back from the alternate universe he'd visited, Modern broke out a black combat suit, one of his spare katanas, a set of plain sunglasses, and a black trenchcoat. This wasn't something that required a bright, shining knight - this was much more of a Batman job. And Modern Samurai was in a Batman mood.
Pulling on his rocket boots, which had been hastily spray-painted matte black to match the rest of his outfit, Modern Samurai stepped out onto his patio and jumped over the rail, kicking the boots on. According to the Defenders, Mark Raynor, one of the new recruits, had been working the case for a while. Modern had called and told Raynor to keep his end on the up-and-up - that way a legitimate person could move on the results of the much-less-official investigation Jarissa and Ic3blade were putting together.
Having also emailed Jarissa and telling her he was available for a meet anytime, he set off for another destination. Kelly Lamb had been cornered by a TV newsie and come out second in the confrontation. Nobody had seen her since, and Modern had a couple... less-than-official sources who might have a lead on her.
Adjusting his flight path, Modern headed for the neighborhood supergroup base teleport portal. It was time to put the fear of God into some loser.
Modern Samurai wasn't a man that normally let emotion rule his actions. He couldn't afford to be, given his position as a superhero. But this time, just this once, he had a serious mad-on and he wasn't going to just let it slide.
First, having done some street-sweeping, he'd gotten an idea what had happened to Kelly Lamb. Being a basically gentle soul, she hadn't reacted at all well to the newsies (who were, Modern had ensured, going to get a scathing letter, copied to the Paragon City Department of Metahuman Affairs' PR group, about how their newspeople treated her, and signed by several members of the Defenders). Kelly had, apparently, not been watching where she had been going as closely as she might, and had gotten jumped by Hellions in King's Row. Normally, Modern would have been confident she could have waded through there. But from what he'd seen of the recording, plus knowing Kelly, he figured that they had brought plenty of firepower (no pun intended), and that and Kelly's distraction had done her in.
Further investigation had given him leads that she might have been smuggled out through Faultline/Overbrook, but before going to check that out, he'd gotten word that the Hellions had tracked down Valor and Glory to their hiding spot.
Making best speed, he'd arrived and started mowing down Hellions, trying to avoid any more injury than he had to, but they ran before he was able to incapacitate more than a bare handful. Modern turned back and looked at the rapidly-burning house.
No... The Soaring Valor/Shining Glory team had rapidly become staples of the superheroic community in Paragon, and he knew that many people were attacking this problem from multiple angles. Firefighters were arriving on the scene, and Modern decided that he couldn't stay here - he had to do something about this. Now.
Without speaking a word, Modern lit off his boots and took off, heading for Overbrook. Getting through the traffic tunnel, Modern flexed his feet in a specific pattern and increased the power being used by his boots as he steadily accelerated, making straight for the embattled Arachnos base at the southern end of the zone.
As he closed in, Modern noticed that the base was bathed in light, both from spotlights and from the powers and weapons of a handful of heroes and some Freedom Corps officers, apparently performing a midnight raid on the base. Stopping to fight only when he had to, Modern dove into the base, trying to backtrack his way through into whatever rathole harbor the Arachnos troops had used to bring their men and equipment into Faultline.
Modern sliced a Wolf Spider’s assault rifle in half, and heard a bleeping from his earbug. “Raynor to Samurai.”
Modern took a second and hit a button on his wristwatch, opening the com line. “Little busy here!” He dodged a kinetic blast from a Fortunata and used his blade to parry a swipe from a Crab Enforcer. “What is it?”
Raynor’s voice crackled a bit from interference – he was talking quickly, a habit of his when doing an infodump on someone. “I just got a bunch of files from CIA on Rusk. Most of it’s biographical. Lionel Rusk, born 3 January 1933 to Albert and Julia. Married first wife in 1955, she died of cancer in ’78, two kids died in a fire in 1960. Rusk married second wife in ’80, divorced one year later, no kids. He was declared Knight of the British Empire in 1984, after amassing millions in the gas and newsprint industries.”
Modern sliced the legs off a Tarantula and stabbed his blade into the “thorax,” cutting wires that connected the weapon system to the suit’s power source. Jumping off the body, he brought his blade down in a swipe, missing a Blood Widow by mere inches, then brought the blade around to block her return attack. “That’s neat and all, but where’s the good stuff, Mark?” He kicked at a Wolf Spider Enforcer, staggering the man, before bringing the pommel of his katana down and knocking the man unconscious. This was getting harder. Sooner or later he’d have to resort to deadly force if he let himself get tied up here.
Modern took off running down a hallway, scooping up a couple hand grenades as he went. “Hang on, going secure,” Raynor said, then for a minute the earbug gave a series of quiet bleeps as the encryption units between Raynor’s com unit and Modern’s synchronized, setting up a secure voice link. “Okay, we’re set. British SIS also passed along some data on Rusk’s father. Albert Rusk was a mathematician who worked with one Sir John Douglas Cockcroft in the years leading up to World War Two. There’s big gaps in the data – not data that was censored or anything, insofar as I can tell, but literal gaps, like the man dropped off the face of the Earth.”
Modern skidded around a corner, pulled the pin on one of the grenades, and flipped it at the pursuing Arachnos personnel. He was rewarded by seeing the lead people try and turn to run, but the press of bodies behind them carried them right towards the grenade like a bulldozer. Modern kept running, spotting an elevator shaft at the end of the hallway. The grenade behind him detonated, and Modern flipped the second at the elevator doors. Ducking briefly into a broom closet, he paused to catch his breath. “Cockcroft. Why is that name familiar?”
Raynor paused. “Stand by. I’m running a search."
Modern raised an eyebrow. “What, you’re calling from your office?”
Modern could hear the Army officer grin through the com line. “Nope. I’m looking him up on Wikipedia.”
At that point, the grenade detonated. Modern dove out of the closet and dived into the elevator shaft, kicking on his rocket boots, heading for the highest level, figuring the command center would be up there. And, probably, someone who could tell him where a certain Hellion “cargo shipment” went.
A minute passed, then Raynor came back. “Oh, this is not good.”
“What?”
“Sir John Cockcroft was a British physicist, and received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1932 for transmuting lithium atoms into other elements by bombarding them with protons.”
It had been a while since his last physics class, but Modern quickly figured out what that meant. “Atomic fission. A-bombs.” Modern crept, clinging to the side of the elevator shaft as he looked for a spot to work.
In the background Raynor could be heard typing quickly. “Yeah. Apparently in 1946 Albert Rusk and Cockcroft were largely the ones responsible for setting up Britian’s Atomic Energy Research Establishment, AERE,” he pronounced it ay-ree, “Nothing on involvement after AERE, but these days…” Raynor trailed off, and the two Defenders knew one thought was in both of their minds.
Warburg.
Modern started talking quickly as he planted his feet on a piece of girder, then stuck his blade into the elevator doors and started to pry them open. “Okay. Get through to whomever you can, and get yourself and a team into Warburg ASAP. Anyone from the Freedom Phalanx to the National Guard – we have to secure the missile facility now. I don’t think Rusk could get his hands on a working nuke, and if he can’t, this should take care of it – or at least slow him down. Second, get a hold of Back Yard Boom and Jarissa – both of them are working this thing as well, and they should know about this.”
Raynor muttered something about really needing lights and sirens, then spoke up. “I’ll also alert the local Nuclear Emergency Search Teams to go on standby. That’ll kick things up on the federal level and allow me to bring more resources into this investigation.”
Modern squeezed through the gap. “Good. Let Jarissa and Back Yard Boom know about that too – last thing we need is for someone to start pounding on an FBI agent if they show up in the middle of things.” He crept up on the single door in the short hallway. “Okay. I’m trying to track down Kelly Lamb, and I think I know who can tell me where she went. Once I get close enough, her med transponder should let me home in on her, and I’ve got an emergency beacon on me. Once I get her back to the base, I’ll meet up with Jarissa and her team soon as I can. Modern Samurai out.”
Closing the channel, Modern limbered up his sword arm. Time to bust some heads.’‘ He kicked the door open and, katana flashing, waded in.
Modern Samurai tried to keep the jet ski he was using to infiltrate the Rogue Isles on course, while simultaneously trying not to hum the James Bond Theme. This wasn't the safest thing he'd ever done, and he had more than a sneaking suspicion that the mediport system Lord Recluse had installed on the Isles wouldn't pick up his Paragon City transponder. (Or if it did, he'd probably end up in the Arachnos answer to the Ziggurat... or worse.) This meant that, for once in his career, Modern Samurai wouldn't be just going in swinging and improvising - he'd actually have to use a plan and some subtlety.
After grounding the jet ski among some rocks near the walled-off portion of Mercy Island, Modern started climbing up from the shore. Looking back, the matte-black jet ski was almost invisible. Loosening his katana in its sheath, Modern continued to climb rocks, only using his rocket boots when he had to. He didn't have any extra energy cells with him, so he knew he had to conserve what he had for his escape.
According to the Faultline base's Archon, the Hellions had put a last-minute container onto a small freighter that had delivered fresh Arachnos troops and supplies to the base. It was flagged to the Bahamas, but what nobody had known before now was that the company that owned it was an Arachnos front. Making a mental note to pass that along, through Raynor, to the FBI and CIA, Modern had "appropriated" a smaller, fast patrol boat that had a jet ski lashed to the side. After figuring out how to run the damn thing by himself, he'd made good time following the eastern seaboard down towards the Caribbean, and the Rogue Isles. The US Coast Guard had offered an escort, but Modern had turned them down - if US vessels were seen escorting an Arachnos vessel into the sovereign waters of Recluse's "nation," it could have meant Kelly Lamb's life. Stealth was definitely the way to go here.
Quickly dusting himself off after reaching the top of the plateau that most of the island's structures were built upon, Modern consulted his belt computer's GPS system. He'd taken the precaution before leaving wireless range of the Defenders' base to download maps of Mercy Island, plus what little satellite photography was available. A quick glance later showed Modern at the north-western edge of the walled city of Mercy. According to his information, the Hellions, in an attempt to cash in on a bounty offered for the former villian Lambchop, had decided to take Kelly to Fort Cerberus - which, in turn, was home to a tower in which, in popular rumor, was home to none other than Lord Recluse's favorite servant, Ghost Widow.
Yeah. Me versus Ghost Widow. I'd be lucky to last three minutes. With that oh-so-cheering thought in mind, and, blessing whatever twist of thought had had him wear his black trech coat and "ninja suit," as he jokingly called it, instead of the glossy white "Look at me! I'm a hero!" armor-and-cape he'd picked up on his most recent adventure outside of Paragon City, Modern Samurai headed for the northern entrance into Mercy.
Most of the locals around here consisted of a group known as the Infected - a half-crazed group of ordinary people who thought that by exposing themselves to radiation, or drinking toxic fluids, they could gain superpowers. 99% of the time, though, they went insane and started attacking anything that moved. There were also a bunch of Snakes - who were, actually, literal snakes, if snakes were the size of humans and had dexterous arms and opposable thumbs - as well as Arachnos' personal Rogue Isles Police. More problematic to Modern was the possibility that he would find himself in combat with Freedom Corps operatives, who would either attack him, figuring he was a villian, or possibly even blow his cover.
Fortunately, Modern never ran into any Corps personnel, and those enemies he did have to fight went down easily enough. Walking past a tattooed giant of a man giving instructions to a couple of would-be villains, Modern entered the city itself. Now he just had to get through a city with Arachnos squads at every corner, Skulls, Hellions, and lord knew what else.
Keeping to himself and sticking to back streets and alleys proved a good tactic, but about 100 meters short of the entrance to Fort Cerberus, Modern found himself in an alley as a whole platoon of Arachnos troopers - mostly Wolf Spiders - sealed the alley off.
The leader, a caped Huntsman, sneered behind his helmet. "Stand down, hero," he spat, making the title sound like a curse. "You're not getting out of here alive."
Modern pushed back his trench coat, exposing the hilt of his katana. "Really. Then why don't you and your friends try and make that come true?"
Modern jumped, lighting off his rocket boots as he did so. Machine gun fire erupted around him as Arachnos troops recognized the threat, but Modern landed inside the Fort proper. Add to the fact that most of them were lower-echelon troops, with only a handful of Bane Spiders, Spider Crabs, and Night Widows to provide the heavy firepower, Modern was able to keep the running fight going as he climbed towards Widow's Tower.
Modern found himself stalled on the bridge, as more troops poured out of the tower, and these weren't the street thug type enemies Modern had been carving through. Modern desperately parried the lunge of a Crab Spider Longfang, even as a trio of Night Widows caught him with their own attacks. Modern went down to a kick to the back of his knees, which was followed up with what was supposed to be a blow that would drive his nose cartilage back into his brain. Modern caught the oncoming knee with his hands, and twisted, sending his foe to the ground. Taking advantage of the opportunity to stand, he scooped up his blade and set himself, realizing that he was now surrounded. A smirk twisted his mouth, even as Mother Nature surrendered to a sense of the overly dramatic and the clouds over Mercy Island started raining onto the scene. "Aw, all this for little old me? I'm touched." Modern moved into a neutral stance that he could either attack or defend from. "Come on, I promise this won't hurt me a bit."
Even as he said it, he knew it was false bravado. In the group between him and Ghost Widow's Tower, there were eight Bane Spider Executioners, six elite Night Widows, three Mu Guardians, and four Fortunata Mistresses. In a normal situation, when he could count on, at the worst, showing up in a Paragon City hospital with a series of dramatic bruises and a migraine from hell, he'd dive in, taking as many of the Arachnos troops with him as he could. Now...
Screw it. Modern braced himself to charge, figuring that he could possibly get through and rescue Kelly if he was quick enough (and lucky enough, a traitor portion of his mind reminded him), when all of a sudden all he knew was pain, pain, painpainpainpainohmygodithurts...
Modern found himself still out in the rain, lying on his back on the bridge, and staring at his own katana. Problem was, he was looking at the pointy end, and at the other end...
Oh, hell. I'm a dead man.
Ghost Widow stared at him down the length of the weapon, an impassive expression on her face. Her white hair floated around her, and briefly Modern wondered how she wasn't soaking wet, then kicked himself mentally. She's a ghost, idiot. Modern licked suddenly dry lips, despite the rain. "Not... not that I'm complaining, but what's going on, and why am I not dead?"
Ghost Widow stared at him for another second, seemingly looking straight into - or through - Modern's eyes, despite the sunglasses. "We've been expecting you, Modern Samurai," she said, and turned away. Modern slowly stood, tapping into the energy of his will to force his body to heal faster than nature intended. Looking behind him, Modern saw the Arachnos troops, weapons ready to turn him into Barbecued Samurai if he set a foot wrong. The hero walked slowly after the archvillian, horribly confused and trying not to let any of the Ghostbusters references that were filling his mind through his mouth. That and the part of him that was sitting in the corner and gibbering, wondering how exactly he'd managed to garner attention from Lord Recluse's spectral agent.
Ghost Widow led him into a large chamber, which had been outfitted with all manner of audio and visual recording equipment. Modern looked around, confused, until he saw Kelly Lamb waiting over by the window. He was about to run forward, Ghost Widow or no, when the archvillian turned and tossed Modern's katana at him. Modern wondered briefly if she had simply decided to kill him as an example to Kelly, and his arm came up in an instinctive attempt to catch or deflect the blade. He was so surprised that nobody held him in place for it that he hadn't realized he'd caught it for a second, until he realized that even through his gloves, the blade was kinda pointy. As he saw the Arachnos troops around him pointedly staring at the weapon, Modern simply - and slowly! - returned the blade to its sheath, and, through sheer act of will, kept his initial reaction off his face. My mind, she is broken!
Ghost Widow walked/glided forward, looking at the tiny half-girl, half-lamb hero. "You see, Kelly? I told you what would be allowed if you cooperated. Your associate, Modern Samurai, came for you, and now you have the... assurance you wanted. Do what we want, and you will get what you want."
Modern desperately wanted to tell her not to do it, to just run back to Paragon and let him handle Ghost Widow. As if the archvillian knew what he was thinking, though, he saw two Fortunata Mistresses flanking him, ready to hold him in place by any means necessary, as red-gloved hands - feminine ones, so likely the Night Widows - gripped his biceps.
Kelly bowed her head, all the fight draining out of her. "O... okay..." she said quietly, and walked slowly into the pool of light provided by the spot lamps. Ghost Widow drifted behind the cameras, which had Arachnos technicians operating them, and nodded. The red lights indicating that the cameras were recording switched on, and Kelly lifted her head. She opened her mouth, and Modern was amazed to hear Kelly's normally quiet voice lifted in some of the most beautiful singing he'd ever heard. Familiar music from an orchestral band started playing, accompanying her clear soprano.
In sleep he sang to me,
In dreams he came.
That voice which calls to me,
And speaks my name
And do I dream again?
For now I find,
The Phantom of the Opera is here,
Inside my mind.
Modern recognized the song as the titular piece from Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical classic, The Phantom of the Opera, and saw a man, dressed as the Phantom himself, come out of the shadows behind her, and begin singing in a strong baritone.
Sing once again with me,
Our strange duet.
My power over you,
Grows stronger yet.
And though you turn from me,
To glance behind.
The Phantom of the Opera is there,
Inside your mind.
Even as the two of them sang, and despite the fact that he was surrounded and outnumbered by Arachnos troopers (let alone Ghost Widow, who was way out of his weight class), Modern found himself quietly humming along as his eyes closed. He'd always enjoyed Weber's shows, from Phantom to Cats to Les Miserables, and he had several pieces from each on his iPod at home. Modern opened his eyes, seeing several of the Arachnos troops paying more attention to Kelly's singing than to the hero in their grasp, yet Modern felt no urge to grab Kelly and escape. Part of that came from the fact that Ghost Widow would no doubt neatly sever his head from his shoulders with Modern's own blade if he did try, but there was something else...
As the song came to a close, and the cameras and lights shut down, Modern felt the hands on his arms let go, even as Ghost Widow turned to face him. She floated towards him as the Arachnos troops withdrew. Soon enough Modern found himself staring eye-to-eye with one of the most powerful supervillians in the world from only a few inches away, and the hero wondered whether she intended to kill him or kiss him. The inane thought was quickly squashed, and Modern resolved that if indeed he was about to be put to death - like he'd been half-expecting this whole time, even after the unexpected return of his weapon - he'd put up all the fight he could against someone of Ghost Widow's caliber.
So it was no small surprise that Ghost Widow merely stared at him for a moment before nodding. "You may now do what you came for, Modern Samurai. We have no further need to keep Kelly Lamb here any longer."
Modern quickly walked forward and knelt by the small creature, gently putting a hand on her shoulder. "You okay, Kelly?" She nodded, and Modern stood, keeping a protective arm about his diminutive friend. "I don't get it. Why go to all this trouble if all you wanted her to do was to have her sing Phantom of the Opera?"
Ghost Widow raised an eyebrow, as if surprised that Modern had recognized the song. "I do not question the motives of Lord Recluse. It was enough that he wanted it done."
Kelly looked up and tugged at Modern's sleeve. "Let's go," she said.
Modern nodded down at her. "Okay. We do need to get back to Paragon and find out what happened to Soaring Valor and Shining Glory, anyway." He looked up at Ghost Widow again. "What about her Arachnos bounty?"
Ghost Widow returned to floor level. "The one who placed it has disappeared. Lord Recluse does not wish to fund it himself, therefore it no longer exists." The villain regarded them for a moment. "Go, and take this warning with you, Modern Samurai. This time it was as my lord wanted, for you to infiltrate his islands and leave, intact, with your friend. Do not think that this means that next time you see me, it will not mean your destruction."
Modern smiled despite himself. "Back at you, lady." Modern lifted his wrist to his mouth, touching a stud on the watch there that activated the transponder and com unit inside the device. Their signal was sent up to a Department of Defense communications satellite that the Defenders had tapped for this purpose alone. And despite intentions to the contrary, Modern couldn't resist using the inevitable Star Trek reference. "Scotty, beam me up," he said, and a beam of light enveloped the two heroes and whisked them away, back to Paragon City, and back to the mystery behind one Sir Lionel Rusk and his apparent vendetta against the anonymous heroes there.
After the sparkle of the teleport beam faded, there was a new voice in the chamber, as a section of wall detached itself and slid out, forming a large doorway. But then, it would have to be large in order to accommodate the metal arms on the back of the helmeted man who stepped through. "Are they away?"
Ghost Widow turned, walking through the couch to a computer screen on her desk. "The tracking beacons are in place My Lord. They have returned to the mainland."
Recluse grunted. "Good. I dislike having to let him out of my grip, but now was not the time for me to destroy him."
She nodded. "Did Doctor Aeon's readings on her voice match his predictions?"
The Lord of the Etollie Isles smiled behind his mask. "They were off the scale of the instruments he had. I do not fully understand this 'Minmei effect' he speaks of, but once we entice her to our side, with her songs inspiring our troops... we will be unstoppable."
