The Sun Worshipper

Victor climbed out of his sun bed and walked over to the mirror. He looked himself up and down and smiled. He was perfectly bronzed from his little toe up to his sun flecked exquisitely moulded hairstyle. He then struck a pose imitating a pistol from his hand and pretended to shoot at himself.

“Pow” Victor exclaimed.

This was followed by blowing some imaginary smoke from the top of his finger. He was looking good and feeling great. A sun bed a day kept the doctor away was his mantra.

Sun supports...

The Red Dart
As many of our readers know we have come out fighting against these outsiders. They have fought in our streets, damaged public property and injured many members of the public (you'll all remember the Jack Gresty incident!). We've had thousands of letters from you justly terrified that one of them is in your neighbourhood and live in fear of attacks.
There is one however, who you would not only love to have living in your street, but visiting your home for tea. We are talking about of course, the Red Dart After saving the Thames Whale we though he was good but, it was when he prevented a potential disaster at Heathrow yesterday. We just had to stand up and support this model citizen.....

Luke folded the paper and slammed it down in the vents behind his underground seat. The guy next to him looked alarmed. He gave him a conciliatory smile and decided there and then, the "Red Dart" was going cold turkey.

Second skin

Chris knelt beside the toilet, sweat pouring off his naked body, the feeling of nausea slowly subsiding.

It was always the same, waking up somewhere battered and bruised, with only a vague recollection of what had happen the night before. He’d either developed a rather bad sleepwalking habit, or had become ‘An American Werewolf in London’. Chris wasn’t prone to sleepwalking and he certainly wasn’t an American! So what was happening to him?

He typed ‘Gyges’ into Google’s search engine, the word had been troubling him for some time...

Little Allan Clark

He had been unconscious for several days now, but Jude had stayed by his bed side the whole time. Jude worried that he'd unleashed too much of his entropic abilities to bring him down. He knew that Issac was doing all he could to make sure he was ok but he was no medical expert despite what he said.
He was also worried what would happen if and when he woke up, he'd be scared, he might react. Even though they knew what happened when he touched solid rock, perhaps his powers extended to metal as well. That could spell big trouble for the newly built base which ran under a section of Kings Cross.
Jude was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of a cough... Little Allan Clark's eyes were open.

Sun scoop

The Sun editor stood in front of her top investigative team. She was angry and when she was angry her eyes appeared to match her hair, RED.

"I cannot believe it's been 2 months and we only seem to get eye in the sky pictures of these people, if indeed that's what they are. We need a name for them, we need to work out our stance on them and we need to find out what they do when they're not smashing parts of the city to pieces."

Just then a junior assistant ran in and stopped the meeting.

"This better be good"

"I've got this fella, Geoff Hall on the phone who says he's got all we need to know on one of these freaks. Says he knew him since he was a kid. He says he'll tell us all we need to know for the right price"

"Ok patch him throught to the office" She looked at the other reporters "as for the rest of you make yourselves useful and get some more leads like these for Christ sake."

Puppet One

I have found my first subject.

Joe Tolly a former army officer with an exellent track record and a list of very desirable skills. His only problem was that he had been in London on leave on July 13 2005. He had blacked out on the day and several times since. The army medics could find nothing wrong with him except a severe iron deficiency. But it didn't stop them discharging him. Joe's life had gone down the toilet fast. By December he was on the streets drinking meths and begging. That's how I found him.

After a few moments of probing I understood how to fix the holes in his threadbare personality enough to stop him dying.

A months work from a distance has allowed me to direct his fate and help him come to terms with his new powers.

I'm sure with some serious work his matter manipulations could be honed to other more complex purposes but making weapons is enough for now. There isn't much of the original individual left so I have to keep directing him when I need him to do anything difficult.

Now to find a test for him.

Gyges

It was an unusually dark evening, the moon a mere slit in the night sky. A tenebrous figure crouched atop the chimney of the Tate Modern. The purple 'Swiss Light' barely reaching it's featureless face.

Looking across the Thames at the splendour of St Paul's Cathedral and London's skyline, it could scarcely contain it's rage. How long would it be before this St Paul's was raised to the ground and the rest of the city with it... "Not while I draw breath!" it hissed.

The form stood upright invisible to those who walked the streets below. Without a moments hesitation it leapt off the chimney, it's taloned hands clawing at the brickwork to slow it's descent.

Power lunch

Bevan wiped his mouth with a napkin and placed in on the remains of his lunch. He'd got used to living the high life and looked forward to many more years of it. Finally all his dreams had fallen into place. Just 5 months ago he'd been an administrative clerk in the Mayor's office, now he was his right hand man. Recently tiring of the small fry political game this was the opportunity he'd been waiting for.
It wasn't like he had total control over everyone but they found him charming, witty, intelligent and generally likeable. Where before he'd been ignored, managers began inviting him to lunch, listening to his ideas, seeing his potential. Naturally Bevan had thought nothing of it and convinced himself that it was all his making and he was right. Just not in the way he believed....
The meeting had gone well but Mr. Zane had remained stoic despite Bevan's normally successful attempts at humour. One of his more brilliant traits he thought.

Darius returned from the bathroom.

"I have to leave I'm afraid, I've had an urgent call, my assistant will contact you to iron out the details"

"Yes, and thank you Mr Zane, let hope this is ..." turning on his rather poor Bogart impression "the start of a beautiful friendship"

A woman laughed on the next table. Darius starred.

"See you in a week or so Mr Jones" and left the resturant.

Bevan smiled for a moment before turning and introducing himself to the enamoured woman on the next table.

Jude unleashed...

Sebastian stood at the roof exit of the small office building. He adjusted the radio/camera headset, pulled his costume from his butt crack and checked his watch. 45 minutes until his dose ran out. He strolled to the edge of the building and tested his latest heroic pose. The radio buzzed in his ear...

Vault This had better work, we need this to work... I checked the satellite image, the trail of destruction spread for about half a mile. I could see the fuzz hovering above the giant stone figure, they'd slowed him down but had been unable to stop him. We needed to act before the army arrived or worse the Morphora team. I'd picked up some calls from them a few minute before.
"Luke can you tell your idiot boy to focus..."
"No worries, I already have mate"
"and Jude, he's ready?"
"Well, as he'll ever be"

Luke turned and looked at Jude as the transmission ended. He was sitting at the back of the van biting his nails.
"You alright there fella?" Luke whispered
Jude looked up
"I guess, I mean he's only a 10 foot stone killing machine, right?"
"You'll be fine, just make sure the belt stays on until he's in range and remember how we practiced"
"Luke?" the radio piped "now!"

Jude opened the door and stepped out of the van. The high street was empty, the news reports had seen to that. London residents were adapting, as they always did, to unpleasant circumstances. The Police helicopter could be heard overhead, he was close. Jude took a deep breath, stepped from behind the van and grabbed the belt. The van pulled off and screamed down a side street narrowly missing a giant fist. The helicopter sound quietend as a red flash zipped from the top of a nearby building and carried it high into the air. Jude unclasped the nullifying belt and took a deep breath...

Executive decisions

Darius sat fuming in his executive office. He'd just flown back having cut short his winter break on the family island, to deal with this mess.

August, bloody, August. That's when these freaks appeared and that's when the whole plan went from shit to shitter.

All the tech they'd spent years to develop for the new coprorate protectors. These fuckers appear and because of one poor management decision the whole project is in tatters. Not only that, but Morphora are maligned by much of the public and the target of attacks from the freaks.

This latest one in their artificial envionment lab in Wales was the hardest blow so far. Plans had been stolen, a simulator was missing some rare components and locations of other labs had been taken from the internal network.

Darius poured himself a drink and continued to stare out at the London skyline, he wanted to smash something. Other than the VP of Marketing he'd destroyed for moving too quickly on the protectors. The only plus side was they had some of the "altered beings"(as the scientists had called them) not only captured but under their influence.

Just then a a flyer could be seen circling Monument. Darius slammed his glass down. Why should they run around unchecked when we are stiffled by law. This was war... and at that moment he knew just how to make the first counterstrike.

Rain

The Welsh hills were barely visible in the rain. As the grey and white motorcycle approached the dome the engines silenced.

The bike with no clear rider paused for a second before the tyres and several other components dropped to the floor. A smooth metallic figure stood up and starred out from its expressionless mask. In a swift movement the figure pressed a finger to it's palm and disappeared seen only in a rain soaked outline for a moment before darting off round the side of the dome.

It would be several hours before a Morphora guard would find the motorcycle parts and by then it would be too late...