Force S5 - Part II

Welcome back to Force S5 - The Superhuman Soldiers of the Secret Space Service, a fun little narrative exercise based on popular conspiracy theories and related nonsense. This project is going to involve elements such as short-form fiction, roleplaying games and even some table top miniatures. In fact, right here on this blog, Force S5 will become a completely free miniature wargame released in installments that you can play at home along with the story. Think very light, "beer and pretzels" type of play that's more about mashing fun ideas and concepts together and painting whatever miniatures take your fancy than being a perfectly balanced, tournament play experience. We'll get to some actual rules and the broader design ethos, such as it is, next time, but for now let's dive back into the fiction to explain just who is fighting this secret war for the very future of humanity!

You need to understand, this isn't a straightforward war of 'us Vs them' or something like that. There are many broad groups trying to control the destiny of humanity and within each of those there are little rivalries and factions, so who really knows how this shakes out in the field? For now though, consider this a 'primer', a rough guide to what you can expect to see out there, so at least you'll have an idea of who's gunning for you in the black of the night.

The Minutemen (aka The Resistance, Humans for Humanity)
Ordinary humans taking the fight back to the alien overlords! Self-styled truth seekers, defenders of humanity and anti-alien militias, The Minutemen are the last line of defense against the scum of the universe. However, The Minutemen are also home to some of the worst humanity has to offer; their militias are home to racists, the worst conspiracy mongers and plenty of people who wear a solid layer of tinfoil underneath the camouflage caps they never seem to take off.

The New World Order (aka The Eternal Reich, Metatron, The Upload)
Authority has always descended from a central point, that is the ethos of the New World Order, or NWO, for short. Members of the NWO cultivate power, be it political, economic, military or even supernatural. The lust for power makes for strange bedfellows, however, and for every goose-stepping anachronism hiding in an Antarctic secret base, there is a progressive, Silicon Valley post-humanist wanting to save the world by uploading us all to the Matrix.

The Universal Commune (aka the Earth Embassy, the Galactic Alliance) 
The children of the Universal Commune want nothing more than the peaceful ascension of all species to a sate of pure energy and eternal bliss. Weather they want it or not. Although the Commune has a peaceful mission to unite all of creation, do not be fooled into thinking that they're purely a band of hippy peace-nicks, there is many a dangerous psychic warrior or alien hybrid just waiting to unleash their claws hiding in their ranks. 

The Veil (aka Them, The Agency)  
There are worlds beyond our own, and not just in the sky above. Beyond the thin walls of our own reality, there is something else, something darker, and sometimes it leaks through for its own sinister purpose. Some think of these creatures as ghosts, sprites or even demons, but they are the very real inhabitants of another realm, drawn to ours because here there is light and warmth. These creatures could be seeking asylum, or wanting to conquer our universe, but their motives remain their own for now.

Force S5 (aka the Superhuman Soldiers of the Secret Space Service)
Born of reverse-engineered alien technology, the members of Force S5 are gene-smithed in ultra-secret laboratories hidden around the globe to keep the knowledge of their creation hidden. For all the heroics that these future warriors are capable of, there is also a dark side to the operation. Force S5 operates at the beck and call of a shadowy cabal of individuals working their own agenda, and whilst their goals are good for humanity now, when they conflict with the greater good, who can say what could possibly stand against them?

Come back next time when we delve into the secret history of the world a little more and start to introduce the rules!

The Silzer Project - Part V

And here were are at the end of this mess. I honestly almost deleted the previous entries rather than write this one out, out of a combination of internal cringe over something I wrote in my teens and just not wanting to type this out. But, doing this was intended to be an exercise in getting this all down in one place and putting the ideas to bed for now. Whilst I cannot currently see a way I can realise the Slizer story, having it out there means I may get some feedback, suggestions or even just have the chance to think more myself when I finally go to hit "Publish" and get the eureka moment I've been looking for. Also though, this sprawling story was something I made up in my head playing with Lego growing up, and whilst it's not good and not something I'd really want to properly published, I'm not so down on it that I can't see the good ideas I had and maybe file them away in my mind for future use.

Slizer - Finale

With a new war looming on the horizon, the powers that back the Slizer Team begin to fracture, and a mad scrabble for the control of the Slizers begins. Most of the alien members of the team just bugger off with their Slizers, the rival to Calvin (he had a name with lots of contestants which I don't remember) takes the Ice Slizer and uses it to front a military coup and take over his native government. Now in control, he withdraws from the Slizer alliance and starts reinforcing the border, though states that there will be no aggressive action from their military. Meanwhile, another alien empire is starting to arm themselves with large war machines intended to fight the Slizers. Seeing the writing on the wall, the more insect-like alien race takes full control of the Slizers, though the human pilots and some soldiers loyal to them maintain their own small area of the compound. The insect aliens only have control of three Slizers, Millennium, Blaster and Flare, and the pilot of the Blaster Slizer, Butterfly (the insect aliens take on names of familiar bugs and get surgically modified to be more humanoid when working with other races) is reluctant to push back against the human pilots too hard.

As the insect-like aliens want better control of the Slizers than they have, they build several more and give them to their own pilots. The introduction of the Speed, Justice, Space, Shock, Time and Stealth Slizers swings the war back into the favour of the Slizer Force, at least until the rebel leader finally emerges. It turns out that Calvin has been alive all this time, kind of. You see, the Slizers were always more alive than anyone let on, requiring a symbiotic bonding with a pilot, of which only Calvin met the requirements so far. Now being neither Calvin nor the Jungle Slizer, our hero is leading the revolt of, basically, the working classes of the Century against the Slizer Force and, by extension, both of the alien races that had been backing it. In an classic "the enemy of my enemy" situation, the newer alien empire and Calvin's forces cooperate to keep the traditional power structure on their back-foot. The rebellion are making slow progress until Butterfly and the remaining human Slizer pilots defect over to their side and Calvin makes the choice to focus on the alien race now led by his former rival. This means that the two opposing forces of Slizers are fighting opponents without them and the war progresses in their favour quickly.

As clearly I was watching Anime by this point, the wars get settled by big fights between individuals, usually involving swords and/or mechs. Calvin and his rival have a big duel as the rebellion lay siege to the alien planet, that Calvin wins because he's superhuman at this point. Butterfly and Calvin have started a relationship during this time, with Butterfly steadily modifying herself to be more "human" during this time as Calvin becomes less human the longer he's bonded with the Jungle Slizer. The new alien power finally breaks against the insect aliens and the remnants of the Slizer force and the Century is now a stand off between two groups armed with super weapons. Peace negotiations start, with the main thrust being that time travel must be banned and the Slizers must be destroyed. As Calvin and the pilot of the Millennium Slizer are both part of their Slizers (the latter through deliberate cyborg modification), they decide to settle it in a big one-on-one fight, which Calvin wins, though the Slizer part of him is badly damaged and goes dormant. In order to maintain the peace, Calvin agrees to go into exile in case the Slizer emerges again, Butterfly goes with him and the remaining human heroes travel back in time one last time to ensure that they are locked in a predestination paradox to carry out all these events.

So there we go, that's the story. I'd say something clever, but honestly, I'm pretty over this and glad to be done. See you next time.

The Slizer Project - Part IV

When I stared on this, I thought it would probably take three articles of reasonable size, not what's now looking to be five somewhat longer ones. Now we're getting to the part of the story I really remember better, not only because I was a teen when I was thinking it up, but also because it started to occur to me how far the story had come since it started. A group of friends traveling through time, having adventures, had now become an interstellar war over the control of alien super weapons. Yes, it's juvenile, but I was juvenile, literally and figuratively, at the time. To this day, I still like when stories progress to a point far beyond where they started, when such progression makes sense each step, but leads to a journey of wide scope. Think Dragon Ball going from an adventure to find some mystic orbs to a multiversal battle for survival. Anyway, on to the next step.

The story continues, our heroes having been victorious against the Razors, but only barely, the decision to introduce four more Slizer units is made; Millennium, Blaster, Spark and Flare. The shadowy alien forces backing the project put more of their own in the larger and more "powerful" units, shuffling Calvin's friends around to lower places in the hierarchy. This causes friction in the team and with 12 Slizer units in the field, the humans find themselves most often under alien command and split up across multiple deployments. Meanwhile, a rival concern in The Century offers a new weapon to the Slizer team, a new and more powerful biomech; the Toa. Yeah, look, at this stage, Bionicle was a thing and I was trying to fold that story into my own and it never really worked. Basically, it was a set up for a tournament arc (can you tell I was watching Dragon Ball Z at the time too?) where the Slizers faced their opposite number in the Toa. It wasn't the best idea, but it led into the next arc, where things really kick off.

During the fight with the Toa, Calvin and the Jungle Slizer disappear. The green Toa is found defeated and mutilated, but there is no trace of what happened. For a while, the team is looking to recover their missing teammate, or rather, Calvin's friends are looking for him, while the aliens want to recover the Jungle Slizer before it falls into the wrong hands. The leader of one faction of the aliens, called "Mantis" by the humans because they can't pronounce his clicking name, pilot of the Millennium Slizer, was badly injured in the battle with the Toa and whilst he recovers, he becomes more antagonistic as time goes on and there is a major fracture in the Slizer team, with the human members even being kept from their Slizers unless a mission is happening. This starts to cause problems when a revolt of workers living in The Century begins to get violent and the various factions that fund the Slizer operation start to disagree over how to handle it, with one faction even leaving and taking the Ice Slizer with them. The stage is set for a possible civil conflict with our human protagonists caught in the middle. Meanwhile, rumors of something like the Jungle Slizer being spotted in conflict zones begin to circulate.

Force S5 - Part I

It all began with the Philadelphia Experiment, that's when they noticed us, and the first mistake most people make when they start thinking about this. Everyone seems to think it was the atomic bomb, and they're half right, as the Trinity Test was what sealed our fate, but once humanity broke the time barrier on October 28, 1943, they were already here. Visitors. The Fifth Kind. Aliens. Whatever language works for you, but that's what they are, and their first experience of humanity was Nazis and the dying days of the Second World War. Those in power noticed the visitors, how could you not, but at that stage only the Americans and the Nazis had the resources to start doing anything about it. Well, also the Mexicans, but that's a story for another time. The Nazis, believing themselves superior to even these new creatures, started to reverse engineer the technology where they could, at their secret Antarctic and Brazilian bases, as well as Poland and Germany herself. You may have heard of Die Glocke (the bell), an early attempt to weaponise anti-gravity fields, but, then again, all of is is something you probably "heard" here or there.

And that's the trick; leak just enough of this into the broader culture so that no one believes it when they see or hear something real. Again, the Philadelphia Experiment is the perfect example, when the details start to work their way out, release a low-budget film that's close enough to the truth, but bad enough to be ignored, and anyone trying to enlighten you looks like a kook from then on. That was the general strategy for the Americans for a while, weponise Hollywood against the general population, foster ignorance and don't worry about the strange lights in the sky. It worked for decades until it started being used against them, ever hear of John Carpenter? Jack Kirby? Tom DeLongue? The pushback is a multimedia project, so yes, you can stream the revolution, on demand. The other big mistake everyone makes is to think of all of this as a conspiracy. You should be thinking CONSPIRACIES. You think the Antarctic Nazis, CIA, Reptilians, Star Children, To The Stars, Shadow People and whoever else are all working the same agenda? Don't be naive, this thing has more sides than you could possibly imagine when you first step through the door. Earth is the sandbox for a war most people will never even see being fought.

So what can I do about it, you ask? How do I fight back? Can we protect Earth from the scum of the universe? Well the bad news is that this whole thing is much bigger than you or I and they have all the money and power we don't. The good news is, there's already someone out there, fighting the good fight, and yeah, you probably heard of them. Forget all the nonsense you've read about the Secret Space Program, "Above Majestic" is Alt-Right propaganda designed to obscure the truth, no kids are being taken and "Pizza-gate" was idiotic. No, Force S5, the Superhuman Soldiers of the Secret Space Service aren't what you think, but they may be the only real way humanity has of forging its own destiny without alien interference or falling to traitors from within like Nazis or the CIA. There's precious few of them, and making more may not even be possible, but that's getting ahead again. You sure you want to go down this road? Last exit before crazy town, make up your mind. Past this point, nothing is as it seems and everything can be questioned; trust me, you'll never look at a can of Fanta the same again. Ok, strap in, we're on a rocket to the stars where aliens exist and you'll spend the rest of your life chasing shadows. Don't say I didn't warn you.

The Slizer Project - Part III

When we last left the Slizer saga, a war for control of the technology of Time Travel had ended with the Slizer forces remaining intact and Time Travel being kept in the hands of the powers that be. At this stage of the narrative, you can tell that Anime had started to hit the West and the stories I was making up drifted to more of that style. Certainly the focus of the Slizer stuff moves more towards individual characters rather than epic space wars and the like. Those of a certain vintage will start to recognise more specific Lego sets and brands in the story too, as I had more money of my own and could decide on my purchases.

In the wake of the war, eight pilots chosen from the Slizer team and the aliens and future people with who they work to take on the responsibility of the new Slizer weapons. At this point it's probably worth mentioning that the name "Slizer" is recurrent in the narrative, first appearing as the name of the "Ship" that our heroes traveled through time in and now being revealed to be these weapons. There's a whole thing about a predestination paradox that will come full-circle at the end, but it's probably not as clever as I think it is. To begin with, there are eight Slizer units, Judge, Energy, Jungle, City, Fire, Ice, Sub and Rock, each with a set pilot who must attempt to "bond" with the unit on a mental level. Each unit has its own specialty, though some are more esoteric than others, so the team has to learn a new synergy whilst putting aside their differences to become an effective unit. Of course, all the time, war is brewing again.

One of the big reveals for this arc is that the "big bad" behind the antagonists is actually Daniel, the person who invented time travel and started the group's adventures and betrayed them before Calvin got stranded in the Old West. Daniel is doing a "Kang The Conqueror" bit by working with different versions of himself from across the time stream. As the conflict ramps up again with small incursions and raids, the new technology of the Slizers and the new dynamic of the team keeps putting our heroes on the back-foot. Calvin teams up with his main rival, an alien in the team whose friend he killed way back in the "time traveling adventure" days, to investigate and uncover the enemy base without the Slizer weapons. This doesn't quite go to plan and the Slizers have to come in to save the day, but this is essentially the "team coming together" moment. Some of the inter-member conflict continues, and will play a role later, but the Slizers can work together and the conflict starts to go their way once again. Daniel, however, escapes and rebuilds his group.

Needing something to strike back against the Slizers, Daniel sides with another alien faction that fought in the previous war against the Slizer forces and starts designing a new weapon; The Razors. Much like the Slizers, the Razors are biomechanical weapons, somewhat alive, and requiring a living "pilot" to operate. Whereas the Slizers grow to accommodate their pilots and the synergy provides more power, the Razors feed off theirs and pilots burn out after a while. Due to the limited numbers of both Slizers and Razors, the two sides play around each other and skirmish for a while, with neither coming off the better. Getting impatient, Daniel decides to take a run at the Control Centre of the Slizer organisation, using all the Razors at once and even piloting one himself. All the Slizers launch in response and the largest battle since the war takes place. In the chaos, Calvin and Daniel find themselves squaring off; although Daniel's more powerful machine puts him at the advantage, Calvin and the Jungle Slizer achieve a higher level of synergy than anyone else for a few moments and get the win. Seeing their leader killed, the rest of the enemy forces retreat or surrender, though most of the Razors are destroyed.

Following the battle, the higher ups of the Slizer programme are concerned about the high Synergy achieved by Calvin but that doesn't hold them back from announcing more Slizer units in production... 

Ultimate Alliance China: Part VII

Chen Zheng was exhilarated. Despite years of inactivity, his body had responded when he needed it to and his equipment had functioned perfectly. Though now he could feel the beginning of all-too-familiar fatigue setting in, it was if he here in his twenties and just starting out again, rather than a man well into his fifties playing at superhero. Taking the private penthouse elevator at a luxury Hong Kong hotel, he would be off-camera and his equipment would be waiting, including a trusty medical kit. Chen stood under a scalding hot shower and manipulated any small rocks and slivers of metal that had worked into his skin, being rewarded with small flows of fresh blood that he found invigorating. A call down to his private kitchen and shortly Zheng was eating several steaks, quarts of soy milk and half a bottle of expensive scotch; he was sitting on the edge of his bed, considering calling up a masseuse when sleep overcame him. 

Waking more than twelve hours later, Zheng felt as if his body was made of rocks and shattered glass stuffed into a wetsuit. Unclenching his fist, Zheng was rewarded with a series of snaps and pops that indicated he had not moved at all since falling asleep, a sure sign of complete exhaustion. He sent for strong coffee, congee and the massage he'd passed on the previous evening, though opting for the ancient man with his needles and callouses rather than the young lady with oils and soft hands. Later, sore but invigorated, Zheng made a call to the office, blustering all of his appointments off to another day as he dressed in a tracksuit and arranged a car to take him to one of the company's warehouses, deep in the industrial district. The warehouse was something of an open secret among the staff who knew Zheng well, it was a hidden workshop with vintage cars and motorcycles where he went to "tinker" from time to time. Whilst that was true to a degree, the warehouse held a deeper secret as well.

Once assured he was alone, Zheng started up an automatic program that would reliably produce the lights and sounds of work whilst he accessed the true workshop in the hidden sub-basement, The Masked Warrior's Ironworks. Despite being inactive for many years, Zheng still came by this place and tinkered from time to time, mostly on projects he could never get to work properly in his heyday; a powered exoskeleton that once broke his leg, a gas gun and countless other weapons that never did what they were supposed to. Firing up the computer, Zheng cleared space on the main workbench as his proprietary AI searched the dark web for what he needed, a back door into wherever the Science Patrol's files where archived. Zheng had long ago learned that hacking was near useless when just about any information was available somewhere for a price, which he could typically easily afford. 

Soon Zheng was having the computer analyse the schematics, performance records and diagnostics of Super Inframan, comparing them with currently available technology and the materials that were at hand in the workshop. By pulling some supplies from across the company and "losing" the paperwork, Zheng should be able to construct a new armoured suit and suite of weapons within a couple of days, a week at the most. With his new gear, The Masked Warrior would return like righteous lightning from heaven, to destroy Inframan and end the pathetic rebellion in Hong Kong once and for all.

Thinking Out Loud: Insane Clown Removal

I both watched and read Under the Red Hood again recently and found myself musing a particular question; why hasn't Batman killed The Joker? Putting aside metafictional reasons like wanting to keep popular characters around and general thoughts about content, the idea that Batman has so much blood on his hands for letting Joker continue to run around is pretty hard to escape. Now, I think it's pretty clear that Batman can't just kill Joker himself; there's the whole moral code thing, and the fact that he is invested to the point where he wants to torture and maim the Clown Prince of Crime kind of means that it's generally a bad idea for him, but that shouldn't be the end of the conversation, right? Undergraduate arguments about utilitarian maths being put aside, (because we're pure postgrad here baby!) even a strident humanist would be hard-pressed to argue that Joker being dead wouldn't be a net gain for society.

In a world where Batman decided he needed to kill Joker, for whatever reason, is there a way he could feasibly get it done? Now, he could just do the job himself, and has in some interpretations, but if he's so concerned about the "slippery slope", then why take the risk? Though his time as a superhero, Batman has connections with plenty of assassins, vigilantes and bounty hunters, from allies like Vigilante (not the cowboy one), Peacekeeper and Huntress though to outright antagonists like Lady Shiva, Deadshot and Bane that could probably take the job on, a few I feel would even have a decent chance against the Smiling Psychopath, or even rival his body count. But Batman can't just ask a friend, colleague or enemy to kill Joker for him, it would wound his credibility pretty badly and remove the moral high ground that enables him to be such a jerk to everyone. Though if Batman can't, maybe Bruce Wayne can?

So I guess this was a "The Pitch" all along, but this is kind of where I ended up with this question. If Joker isn't a problem that can be ended by Batman, why not have Bruce Wayne try? Say Bruce put himself somewhere where he could be potentially be harmed by Joker deliberately, though of course gives himself a decent out and minimises the risk. After surviving the 'attack', Bruce plays up being shaken and works to get Joker put away properly whilst "secretly" putting a reward out for his death. There's no reason Bruce couldn't be genuine in wanting to put Joker away more securely, but if an assassin actually manages to claim the bounty, hey, why not? In most media, the circle of people who know Batman's identity is pretty small, so whilst there would be major personal fallout for him, professionally as a hero, he would still be held in high regard. Being comics of course, any story like this would only last until the next writer wanted Joker back, but I still think it would be a fun story for a little while, and certainly nothing much like your traditional Batman fare.

The Slizer Project - Part II

In our last article, I was talking about the silly game I played with my Lego men as a boy and the huge, sprawling narrative and lore that spilled out of that. For those who think this is a big waste of everyone's time, this is forming part of a series of loosely-aligned articles I've begun work on, including the Danton series, where I look over my old notes or take another look at a "bad" piece of media and try to parse out something of value. Sure, many of the ideas I had when I was a child or teen lacked subtlety, borrowed directly from other sources or were just overdone, but there are gems in there that I may as well use, rather than discard.

When we last left our protagonist, who, of course, had my name originally, but got rechristened 'Calvin' in a later draft, had just been arrested for illegal time travel and offered the chance to join the organisation that had tracked him down. Calvin is introduced to the Slizer Team, a military organisation set up by, but independent from, the great powers of The Century. The Century is an area of space and time in which advanced societies exist, finding it once they break the time barrier and conquer interstellar flight; think of it like a 'higher' universe, only much smaller. Honestly, I never got that part down, and it doesn't really make sense, it was just a way to justify the "boarders" of the setting. A big shock awaits Calvin, as most of his former crew of time travelers, except the traitorous Richard and deceased Stephen, of course, are present and also part of the Slizer Team. Calvin and his friends, and a few new characters and former antagonists, mostly aliens, form a unique team within the broader organisation, which is more military in focus, using their experience to travel into history and stop rogue time travelers.

Man, I know I was a literal child when I came up with this stuff, but it's giving me major ACAB vibes now. Oh well, it does get better, I promise. Much like Calvin, his friends have spent time in different periods of history, learning new skills that now come in handy on missions. Combined with the new members, the team takes a little while to gel, but becomes pretty effective at their missions, capturing rogue elements and keeping history intact. As some antagonists recur, our heroes begin to see a pattern and start investigating just why so many incursions into the timestream and The Century itself, are happening. Some investigation soon reveals a broad organisation behind much of the time crime happening, not merely come conspiracy, but a whole revolutionary army looking to overthrow the current hierarchy and liberate Time Travel for their own purposes. Now, as much as I love a good people's revolutionary army, The Resistance here is mostly wrong, seeing Time Travel as a resource to exploit rather than a resource to protect, like the Slizer Team tries to do. With the reveal of the Resistance, the conflict moves to The Century itself, with a full-scale guerilla war breaking out.

Whilst there are definitely some cool spaceship battles and the like, most of the conflict is in small raids, spy games and terror attacks, keeping our heroes guessing as to who they can trust and how to even fight such a foe. As the military industrial machinery of The Century starts to fail under the pressure, the Slizer team makes a desperate decision to take on the Resistance leadership directly, assaulting the planet they're hiding on in a sci-fi commando raid complete with plenty of flying lasers, spaceships and, of course, sword fights. Look, I was a kid, I was just getting into 40k and the minifig I used for Calvin came with one of those cavalry sabres, so a big sword fight to round out the story was pretty much a given. Actually, for a long time this fight was meant to be a big deal in Calvin's journey as a character, being the first time he kills someone deliberately and/or without his own life being in danger. We'll see how that plays out later, but for now cutting the head off the snake has worked to a certain degree, and The Resistance surrenders for the most part.

Victory has been achieved, and peace reigns for now, though some Resistance cells are still active, the Slizer force has control of the Timestream once again. Battered but emboldened, the powers that be look at shoring up their defenses for the next threat, revealing a new hybrid weapons platform that is ready for field testing; the Slizers.

Ultimate Alliance China: Part VI

One of the workshops in the Engineering department had been hastily converted by the student protestors into something of an iron monger's; building barricades, shields and other weapons intended to fend off police incursions. A bench was quickly cleared and a sextet of students dragged the damaged and soiled body of Inframan off the floor and pulled a spotlight over the workspace. Almost immediately, an argument started in both English and Cantonese over how to approach the, seemingly-impossible, task of repairing a bionic superhero built in the 1970s. The tools at hand in the workshop were reasonable, especially given the many student hands they had passed through over the years, but none were of a Super Science Team quality, even going back forty years. Vice-grips and pliers removed wedged bullets and knife-tips while ratchet-straps from someone's car kept Inframan from thrashing too badly, but it took an enterprising handyman with a grinder and an old screwdriver to finally make a tool that could unfasten the chest-plate.

The insides of Inframan were shockingly sleek and chrome, even with the years of storage and the recent battle. A collection of esoteric pumps, pistons, tubes and circuits kept the robotic and human elements of Inframan running and in sync. A few probings and measurements were made gingerly, no one wanting to risk damaging the apparatus, but each feeling that doing nothing may actually be worse. A medical student produced a stethoscope and confirmed something reminiscent of a heartbeat, though what that meant remained a mystery to everyone present.

The bustle and jabber of the room fell silent with the entry of Cassandra Cain, a Criminology/Psychology student whose fierce intellect and general intensity gave her a palpable aura of "don't fuck with me". In a personally unique combination of English, Mandarin and at least two forms of sign language, Cain cleared the room in seconds. Flipping open a custom-built communication device a few years ahead of consumer electronics, Cain made contact with Oracle, another former holder of the Batgirl mantle, and technical advisor for the Justice League as well as what Nightwing jokingly called the "Bat-Family", of which she was a part. Typically Oracle was represented on-screen by a cryptic symbol, but as she and Cassandra had become close friends during the "No Man's Land" debacle, so she could see Barbara's bespectacled face. She signed "I'm in." in American Sign Language at the screen and awaited instruction.

Oracle quickly ran Cain through the process of connecting her device to Inframan's archaic Coaxial Network port, which required some quick soldering with whatever in the USB family Cassie could find lying around and a small amount of swearing. The data stream was patchy, but enough that Oracle could pull out the pertinent bytes and get them running on her hyper-advanced system. For all the leaps and bounds which computing had taken since Inframan was constructed, the process of converting from archaic programming languages intended for Mandarin speakers into something that could run now in something appropriating English (though both Oracle and Cassandra spoke multiple languages) took time. So that precious moments weren't wasted, Cassandra finished up the work of removing foreign objects and any obvious damage she could with the available tools.

Oracle grumbled something about data corruption and magnetic tape, Cassandra suppressing a smile; Barbara wouldn't bat an eyelid facing a horde or armed bikers, but mess with her system and the griping would never stop. The code-name Oracle was not factitious however, and soon a facsimile of Inframan's personality was running on a virtual clone of the famous Bat-Computer like any other program.

"Where am I?" even through the synthesizer, the voice was clearly of a scared and confused man, "I can't see."

"You're in an engineering lab in Hong Kong," Cassie didn't have the most soothing voice, having not learned to talk until nearly an adult, "what is the last thing you remember Officer Hayama?"

The cyborg did his best to look around with his limited movement, shaking violently as ancient servos ground together. Instinctively, Cassie put Inframan's hand in her own and squeezed, taking a moment to recall that the appendage was entirely metal and plastic.

"I had just helped the police halt a riot in Hong Kong," Hayama ceased trying to turn his head, "I needed repairs, so they put me under, it was 1992."

"It's 2018," Cassie had been raised to favour directness, time spent with other Bat-heroes had not softened this edge, "you have been warehoused for decades because there was not the funding to repair you."

Two sounds filled the space, one was the low electronic buzzing that Cassie had come to associate with Oracle exhaling through her nostrils in lieu of sighing, and a kind of popping like old mobile phone signals interfering with a speaker. In a moment of clarity, she realised that Inframan was sobbing as best as his vocal synthesizer allowed.

"Officer Hayama," Oracle's voice cut into the reverie, "do you recall the man you fought tonight? The reason you were damaged and why you were brought here?"

With the sound of a physical drive starting up, Inframan's eyes began to flicker like an antique pinball machine and his body became rigidly still. Cassie's laptop screen opened a new window that Oracle sent, showing the fight between Inframan and the Masked Warrior from a first-person perspective. An analysis of the Masked Warrior's movements began and soon his Bat-Computer file was scrolling next to the playing footage. Cassie noticed that even Batman hadn't confirmed his identity, having instead a list of around four suspects of varying likelihood.

"Masked Warrior, vigilante, Shanghai based, likely legacy title," Inframan recited the information as he received it, "typically battles organised crime, why was he fighting me?"

"A lot has changed since you were last awake," Cassie's directness was occasionally a boon, "Hong Kong is Chinese territory again and the People's Army is attempting to occupy the city. The people of Hong Kong are resisting, but have no international support and the elections are rigged. They need a champion again."

A series of drive noises and flashing lights accompanied a very robotic twitching as Inframan processed the new data. The screen now showed a rapid series of images of the Hong Kong riots interposed with monster battles and representations of the British occupation. The robotic hands began to flex and Cassie withdrew hers before it was crushed. All a sudden, the lights and movement stopped.

"Fix me," Inframan demanded, "I need to defend my city."

Danton - Part V

Ok, second-to-last one of these, but somehow the longest. Still we're almost done with this jaunt into my first youthful foray into multiverse superhero-ish writing. I can't say it hasn't been pretty awkward going over this for me, but at least I've seen the origins of some of my broader concepts and tropes, which is pretty cool for a writer.

Prelude to Bonaparte - A Danton Adventure

A young General, Napoleon Bonaparte, has risen to prominence under Dracula's regime. He is raised to the rank of General after the Schama War, being before the reunification of France a mercenary, continuing to lead his same force independently of Chewbaca in the Zombie Jesus War. During the final battle with Zombie Jesus, Napoleon discovers his ability to fire energy blasts. As a reward for his service in both the Schama and Zombie Jesus campaigns, Chewbaca grants Napoleon stewardship of Brittany.

This position makes Napoleon hunger for power, he stages a coup, killing Chewbaca and taking control of the French Lawyer army, adding it to his mercenary force. Napoleon embarks upon a naval voyage to the Middle East; upon arriving, he leads his army to victory in Jerusalem and takes for himself the Lance of Longinus, thereby becoming nigh-invincible. Upon returning to France, Napoleon discovers that it has been taken over and is ruled by a Decepticon who can transform into a Guillotine. The armies of Napoleon easily conquer France again, but are unable to penetrate the walls of Paris. Napoleon commissions Einstein to build a chronosphere.

After the chronosphere is completed, Napoleon shifts into Paris and confronts Guillotron. The battle between Guillotron and Napoleon carries on for days, much of Paris is leveled between Napoleon's Gallic Gun and Guillotron's Blaster Canon. In desperation, Napoleon uses the chronosphere on Guillotron, while he is stunned, Napoleon uses his Final Flash, which raises almost of that is left standing in Paris and destroys Guillotron. In the wreckage of Guillotron, Napoleon finds the first Dragon Ball...

Danton - Part IV

You know, when I started writing these up again, I really had no idea just how much of it there was. I mean, I wrote this all in a few dull History lessons in 2004, that's long enough ago that it's pretty fuzzy for me, so I guess I suspected I didn't do all that much of this? And we're only halfway, well halfway-ish, so I hope you're not as sick of this as I'm getting.


Danton 4: Napoleon Ball Z

While Danton and company were defeating Robespierre in Otherworld, France was conquered by Napoleon, through an alliance with Chewbacca and his army of lawyers. Napoleon became Emperor by finding the Lance of Longinus and forging a series of rings. Now he seeks to become immortal by finding the Dragon Balls; to achieve this he dispatches Inspector Clouseau. Meanwhile Blanka/Danton returns from Otherworld, when he sees what has happened to France, he travels to Paris and challenges Napoleon to single combat, be prize being leadership of France. With the powers of the Lance of Longinus and the One Ring, Napoleon could easily defeat Blanka/Danton, but instead prolongs the combat, making a fool of Blanka/Danton before blasting him to Russia with the Kamehameha technique.

Burning for revenge, Blanka/Danton seeks out allies to fight Napoleon; he stumbles upon Simon Schama, who has led the Mongolians to victory across Asia, forging a massive empire. After striking a deal, Schama dispatches Sniper Wolf to assassinate Clouseau; he fails miserably and is killed by Link. Schama's army marches across Europe, making allies against France. In fear, Napoleon visits a coven of witches, who tell him that "No man of a woman born" can kill him. Now over-confident, Napoleon leaves his army to its own devices, awaiting the final battle in his Volcano Death Fortress.

Without their leader, the French army is quickly defeated by Schama's hardened veterans. Blanka/Danton and Schama confront Napoleon, unfortunately Clouseau has returned with all of the Dragon Balls. Napoleon wishes himself immortal and proceeds to brutally kill Blanka/Danton. Despite his advanced battle-armour, Schama looks doomed, until, at the last minute, Doctor Strange returns from the Hell Dimension in which he was trapped. Strange opens a Dead Zone into which Napoleon is drawn and sealed forever. Schama and Doctor Strange establish democratic rule in France.

Danton - Part I

Whilst moving house recently, I came across some pages of loose leaf I've saved since my final year of high school. They contain a silly little story I wrote while bored in class one week and I just never seemed to throw them out for some reason. Reading over them again, I found that in these silly stories is something of the origin of some of my approach to gaming storytelling as it is nearly two decades hence. So for a little bit, I'll be writing up the story, which spins out of a synopsis of the first part of the 1983 film Danton, it's very silly and rather juvenile, and I've only edited the spelling mistakes and worst grammar, so maybe come back next week if you were hoping for anything more meaningful.


Danton

During the Terror, Robespierre and the Committee struggle to maintain control over the masses. Danton, the Great Orator, and his followers seek to overthrow the Committee and end the Terror. Robespierre seeks to imprison Danton without inciting a popular uprising. Danton allows himself to be imprisoned to further his cause. Some of Danton's followers turn against him. Robespierre decides to release the Sentinels to quell the mutant menace. The Justice League break Danton out of gaol and give him the armor of "La Dynamo Tricolore". Dracula seizes control of the Committee and reactivates Voltron, making the Marquis de Condorcet Voltron Commander. Seeking revenge, Robespierre allies himself with The Iron Paw, a coalition of werewolves. Gamera is awakening from his hibernation imposed by Doctor Strange, who has repaired Gundam Wing Zero.

When Gamera awakens, he goes on a rampage in Paris, Dracula sends Voltron to stop him. A team of Werewolf-hunting Ninja attack the Iron Paw, who are actually evil and trying to release a Storm Elemental into the world. In a pitched battle all the Werewolves and Ninja, bar a single Ninja, are killed. The last Ninja swears to hunt down and kill Robespierre, who has gone to Otherworld to fight in the Mortal Kombat tournament. A pair of Japanese fae turn Danton into a giant badger to battle Gamera and Voltron. During the battle, Voltron accidentally destroys Master Mould's holding cell and it attempts to destroy all humans in Paris. Doctor Strange arrives in Gundam Wing Zero and destroys Master Mould with his Beam Cannon. Voltron kills Badger Danton but is destroyed by Gamera, who leaves mysteriously with Doctor Strange.

Ultimate Alliance: China - Part V

With speed and reactions honed from years of brutal combat, the Masked Warrior spun his whole body in a jumping heel kick that landed squarely in the middle of Inframan's chest plate. Though there wasn't much of Science Officer Hayama left under the armour to be injured by such a strike, the force behind it was enough to throw off his jump and he was sent sprawling across the roadway outside the University of Hong Kong. The ancient computers wired into his brain were working overtime analysing the power of the blow which struck Inframan as he picked himself up, just as he focused on the shape the move had taken, identifying the technique with almost the same precision. Win-Chung Kung-Fu certainly, but with elements of less rigid and more brutal styles mixed in. Adjusting his pose, Inframan was again ready to fight. 

Reading his foe's movements, the Masked Warrior started to dash towards Inframan and the pair clashed at a rate of knots, the shock-wave rippling through the police who had cleared a circle around them, unwilling to get between two superhumans. Despite being composed of cutting-edge cybernetics, Inframan was decades out of date and hadn't had a proper overhaul since the '90s, so the Masked Warrior was working rings around him and raining blows. The Masked Warrior was strong for a human, but still all too human, so his blows did little to shift Inframan, but in return, Inframan was far too slow to get a hit in himself. If the fight continued at this stalemate, it was Inframan who had the advantage, though his battery power was limited, it was measured in days, much longer than most humans could reasonably operate at the same level. Unless the Masked Warrior had a nasty surprise awaiting him, Inframan was confident in his eventual victory.

From the Masked Warrior's perspective, however, this was just another in a lifetime of fights where he was outgunned and had to rely on skill and cunning to win. As he had rushed to Hong Kong without a large amount of time to prepare, most of Chen's equipment was out of date, which rendered a lot of it too dangerous to use. Sweaty gelignite, leaky gas canisters and damp flash powder would have to be disposed of properly at some point, but for now, the Masked Warrior still had a few tricks up his sleeve. Dashing forward, Chen used his momentum to kick up and off Inframan, gaining some vertical distance and flinging a slender but strong throwing blade into the wafer-thin gap between his foe's shoulder and neck armour plates. Chen had had the blades made decades ago when a Shanghai gang he was battling had the bright idea of building suits of armour to protect themselves from police gunfire. Whilst Inframan lacked too many human parts for the blade to injure, the delicate mechanical joints under his armour were an obvious weakness.

Almost immediately, Inframan's right shoulder seized as the socket ground against the high-tensile steel alloy of the Masked Warrior's blade. Not giving his opponent time to breathe, the Masked Warrior followed up the first knife with a second to the knee and a third to the left elbow. Collapsing to one knee, Inframan twisted in panic as a stone-faced Masked Warrior closed in, drawing another small explosive from his jacket and preparing it for use. Taking his time, Chen leaned in towards Inframan, putting his face close to what passed for the cyborg's ear so that he would be heard over the commotion of the clashing police and students.

"Do you bleed?" mocked Chen as he placed the explosive on Inframan's head, "because you will."

Facing probable death and certain serious damage to his long out-of-date robotic upgrades, Inframan was forced to unleash his ultimate weapon, the Infra-beam. Even during the worst of the Kaiju wars, Inframan had never used this devastating beam of concentrated energy against a human target, and had no idea what the effect would be, as it was designed for killing giant monsters, but he had precious few options remaining. The Infra-beam operated on the same atomic reactor that powered Inframan himself, so it took only a fraction of a second to charge, unleashing a vivid scarlet beam of energy just as the Masked Warrior stepped back to discharge his explosives.

The beam split the pavement below Inframan, scattering asphalt across the area of the conflict and blasting the Masked Warrior backwards. Despite his dire situation, what remained of Science Officer Hayama could not bring himself to kill another human being. Using the limited motion remaining in each arm, Inframan snapped off the blade protruding from his knee joint, giving him enough movement to launch himself into the hole blasted by his Infra-beam, which had cut right through to Hong Kong's intricate sewer system. In the chaos caused by the blast, few saw Inframan escape and none were in a condition to pursue him, including the Masked Warrior, who painfully picked himself up, a significant distance from where he had left the ground and fought down the painful ringing in his ears. Whatever fight had been left in the mob was gone, the protesting students had retreated behind their barricades and even the police had begun to withdraw.

Cursing the cowardice of the police and the failings of his own aging body, Chen drifted stiffly into the smoke and made good his exit, swearing revenge on Inframan when they next met.

Ultimate Alliance: China - Part IV

As tear gas canisters rained down into the rear of the pro-democracy protestor's lines, an all-too-familiar wave of panic began to ripple through the ranks. Even now hardened by months of protests and living off scraps in unpowered and unplumbed University Dorms, the unforgettable burning sensation of CS gas hitting mucus linings could give pause to the men and women fighting for their freedom. Inflexible doctrine meant that the gas would also be followed by a police surge, already the lookouts were reporting that a line of riot shields had formed and was preparing to advance; those protestors who could arm themselves with makeshift shields did so as the designated medics prepared for more casualties. The surge came, the police crossing the open ground of the forecourt with practiced quickness, closing in on the makeshift barricades that protected the dorms. 

With a booming crash of twisting metal, a car landed only meters from the advancing police, halting them in their tracks. Before the shock could register and convert to action, a second object impacted the ground with incredible force, only to stand a moment later, a spotlight revealing the chrome and magenta form of Inframan. For a moment, the entire scene paused, with even the roar of the fires and crack of random shots seeming to fade for a moment to allow Inframan's arrival the gravitas it deserved. Training and experience soon kicked in, and a smattering of small-arms fire was shortly directed at Inframan, to little effect. Leaping more than a dozen meters, Inframan landed a series of kicks, clearing a space in the middle of police lines for himself.  

"These people are under my protection," the booming, semi-robotic voice of Inframan cut through the roar of battle, "retreat now and you shall not be harmed!

Inframan's answer was a roar from a nearby officer as several came at him with batons raised, he deflected the first into the second with his elbow just in time to be dog piled by a dozen more. Activating the rocket boosters in his feet, Inframan slowly rose, lifting a score of police officers as he left the ground, before tossing them into their comrades, scattering the crowd. Even in his battered state, the image of Inframan, hovering in the air in exactly the way humans could not set off a primitive response in many of the police, and even the hardened riot officers began to back away from the superman in front of them. Just as it appeared to the beleaguered pro-democracy protestors that the tide had turned, however, something impacted Inframan, and a moment later, he was thrown to the ground by a small explosion.

Through the clearing crowd of police strode a black-clad figure, sporting the unmistakable leather suit of the Masked Warrior, a ripple of disbelief and anticipation moved through those around the two costumed heroes. The Masked Warrior stopped only a few feet from Inframan, who had picked himself up, and the two began to circle, gauging each other's movements in the manner of practiced martial artists. Growing up in Hong Kong, Hayama had head stories of the Masked Warrior, even seen some of the films they made, but was never sure that he was really real. Assuming that what Hayama knew was accurate, then he was confident he could win this fight easily. Engaging his rocket boots, Inframan leapt into the air, aiming a powerful kick straight at the Masked Warrior. 

Ultimate Alliance Annihilation - Prelude I

The chromed gleam of Ulysses' iconic skull helmet was reflected in the view window of the bathyspheroid as he gazed out onto the edge of a nearby universe. A relic of an adventure long-past, the bathyspheroid was a unique, alchemically-powered machine that enabled a small crew to "dive" through multiversal boundaries and peer into a reality without entering it fully. The size of an average caravan, with only a kitchenette and marine style bathroom, the bathyspheroid was designed for two people at most, but today, five were standing in it's brass-heavy, but tastefully understated interior, taking in the sight through the view window. Made of a section of a massive, flawless diamond, the technology of the bathyspheroid placed a molecules-thick sliver of the window into the "target" reality, allowing observation and only risking being spotted by those with microscopic vision. 

Joining Ulysses on the bathyspheriod was a small collection of his most loyal advisors, drawn from both his Hussars and Cataphractii; he had brought them here to witness the beginning of the end. Though most realities were finite in nature, few had an edge or boundary in the way most imagined it, the current example of "The Crunch" being a typical example; a scar of energy across empty space where another universe pushed into this one. Built around this event horizon was The Kyln, an impossibly ancient and cyclopean structure of unknown origin and purpose, currently used as combination power generator and prison for the inhabitants of the Andromeda galaxy. Ulysses raised one hand, palm up, his suit generating a holographic display buzzing with information and analytics, but dominated by a countdown, implying that something was only minutes away from beginning.

At a verbal command from Ulysses, a retrofitted databank began to record the scene outside the view window. The mood inside the bathyspheriod shifted from tense anticipation to muted horror as the Kyln was ripped apart by an explosion the size of a solar system. Though sound did not travel through the vacuum of space, the view window vibrated slightly as the reality they watched trembled, almost as in anticipation, or revulsion. Even at the cosmic distance Ulysses and his companions were from the Crunch, they could see the change that came over it as something ripped through from another reality. The amorphous blob of sickly green that pushed through the multiversal boundary slowly resolved as it spread into the invaded reality, revealing billions of living ships, devouring all in their path. 

"It comes, and there is no escape," Ulysses broke the silence, "he has come, the Living Death That Walks. Annihilus is here." 
 

Ultimate Alliance: China - Part III

Stuck for hours in an overly-stuffed chair in, yet another, board meeting, Chen Zhen subconsciously engaged in the simultaneous, yet contradictory, actions of tensing his legs, and rubbing the fused portion of his wrist. Edging ever closer to his sixtieth birthday, Chen found himself more and more haunted by the spectre of youth; be it in the business world or in his own reflected face. As a young man, Chen's world ended at the city limits of Shanghai, it was his birthplace, his patch and his charge, handed down from his father. For generations, his family had protected Shanghai through their influence, business and through the identity of the Masked Warrior, a dynastic vigilante persona who had stood against corruption and violence in the streets since the 1930s. Chen had given much of his twenties, thirties and even a hefty proportion of his forties over to the duty of protecting the city. Finally, age and injury had forced Chen to retire the Masked Warrior until his son was ready to take on the role.

On the eve of Chen's fiftieth birthday, a major dip in share price due to a weak US market caused him to work late, not a big deal as the exclusive steak restaurant his son demanded that they go to would hold the table until they arrived, but it did mean that the family town-car was idling outside corporate headquarters for longer than expected. Chen exited his building into the autumn rain, prepared for the good-natured chiding his wife and son would give him, finding instead a gang of youths tearing through his car, taking anything of value they could lay their hands on, down to tearing out the walnut panels from the doors. Leaping into action with no care for his secret identity, Chen battered the youths with a lifetime of martial skill and experience, driving most away and rendering several unconscious. Too late, Chen discovered that his wife and child had already borne the brunt of the attack, his wife throttled during the act of her necklace being stolen and his son with a split head on the curb. 

Chen would only remember the remainder of that night in fragments of blood and bone, but his wealth and a team of lawyers kept any legal repercussions at bay whilst he found his way far enough out of his grief for the rage to clear. The scum that attacked his family were starving street kids, all underage and desperate for any food or money they could find. Those that survived his initial wrath avoided any serious gaol time due to their youth and circumstances, leaving Chen with a blazing desire for revenge. Throwing himself into his Masked Warrior identity, Chen began a crackdown on street crime in Shanghai like hadn't been seen since the days of the revolution. Orgainsed crime was running scared for months before a plan was hatched to bring the Masked Warrior down permanently. Lured into an ambush, Chen barely escaped with his life, but was too badly injured to continue on in his vigilante identity. Years past and things calmed down, but it seemed that the days of the Masked Warrior were done.

Melancholic and weary, Chen retired to his private office to reflect and enjoy a quiet drink before calling the car to take him home. The evening skyline of Shanghai always had a calming effect on Chen, and when combined with $500 whiskey, it could numb the pain of regret and years. Tonight, however, Chen was not destined to find respite, instead, a rising plume of black smoke broke the skyline and any reverie that may have been due faded quickly into cold reality. Several large screens in Chen's office constantly steamed the local and international Markets, but a secret switch in a draw would flip to news networks and police scanners, a remnant from the days of the Masked Warrior. The major networks were already carrying reports of a fire burning at the Baoshan Campus of Shanghai University, started when a student-led protest turned violent. People were hurt, students and police, and footage of black-masked, anti-government protesters throwing Molotov cocktails at police and into buildings made Chen's blood boil. 

Scarcely aware of his actions and blinded by visions of trouble-making youths assaulting his family, Chen found himself pulling on the spare Masked Warrior costume he had habitually kept in his office, even all these years later. The costume was tight in places, and the leather gloves cracked and flaking from age, but once the mask and hat were on, Chen felt the weight of years lifted; The Masked Warrior had returned, and trouble-makers should beware.

Ultimate Alliance: China - Part II

A longstanding colony of the waning British Empire, Hong Kong often found itself between two worlds, culturally, politically and also in terms of its people. MI-13 had been concerned with the mystical aspects of the Chinese mainland, as well as the growing number of giant monster, or "Kaiju", attacks on nearby Japan, but lacked the resources to implement any permanent defense network against such threats. When the Japanese started to fight back against their own Kaiju with the Super Sentai Teams and Ultraman Project, Hong Kong science and military personnel began work on their own version, drawing as much from the American "Six Million Dollar Man" as much as the Japanese programmes and code-named Project: Inframan. Due to budget constraints, the project never came to fruition and by 1974 was shelved and all-but-forgotten. In 1975, however, Hong Kong was rocked by the attack of Dragon Mother and her Monster Legion and Science Officer Rayma became Inframan to defend his homeland.

After the Monster Legion was defeated, it was found, as suspected, that Rayma could not be separated from the Inframan parts, and though the stoic young man took it in stride, the loss of his old life was a grave one. For several years, Inframan was experimentally deployed at part of the Hong Kong Police, but as the machine parts of his body wore down, they became less controllable and several incidents of property damage and injury of suspects resulted in the trial being terminated permanently. With nothing to do and no reliable way to be repaired back to full function, Rayma reluctantly agreed to be "switched off" for the foreseeable future, until such a time as Inframan was needed or he could be returned to being human. Decades past, and Inframan was eventually forgotten, left to collect dust in a government laboratory and often considered a myth or hoax by those who had never seen him in action. 

When the 2019 Hong Kong Riots started, Black Bat, aka Cassandra Cain, former Batgirl and member of Batman Incorporated, immediately took a stand against the totalitarian actions of the government, working from the shadows to aid the protesters and harry police. As the situation worsened and Chinese troops massed on the border, Black Bat reached out to the broader superhero community, but received no aid from her peers wanting to avoid aggravating the Great Ten and creating an international incident. However, Black Bat had one vital ally that, according to most of the world, didn't exist; Oracle. With almost unparalleled hacking skill, Oracle dove into the secret history of Hong Kong's superhumans, quickly finding the story of Inframan and the resting place of Science Officer Rayma, still in suspended animation and long forgotten.

Breaking in to a secure, but abandoned, facility was no struggle for the daughter of Cain and former Batgirl, but even after following Oracle's instructions to reactivate Inframan, the real work had only just begun. Having been "sleeping" since the 1980s, Rayma was disorientated and unwilling to believe that it was now well into the 21st century, let alone that Hong Kong was Chinese territory and troops had started moving in. When Rayma saw the riots for himself, and the accompanying youth movement for Independence and a free Hong Kong, he quickly made up his mind on what to do with his new lease on life. Out of date, somewhat broken and lost in a world not his own, Super Inframan had returned to defend Hong Kong once more.