Rpol H&H Campaign - pt. 32

[When last I left off collating posts from the old H&H campaign on Rpol.net here, I was at the end of a long, low point in the first scenario where nothing seemed to be going right for the Heroes.  In retrospect, I can see I wasn’t cutting them enough breaks and letting things fall where the dice fell (or however that saying goes), but it was difficult to get through at the time and made me doubt more than once that I was on the right track with H&H after all.  But here we move up closer to the plot’s resolution and things turn for the better at last…]

"What is he doing up here?" the man asked angrily.  "Didn't I tell you to leave them in their cells until you were told otherwise?"

"B-but, Boss!" the suddenly sobered hoodlum sputtered.  "He told us important information!  About the buyer who's coming!"

"You're lucky we're short-handed right now, or I would shoot you dead," the man told the hoodlum, who was now white as a sheet and trembling.  The man with the gun stepped toward the Daoist without lowering his weapon.  "You and your friends have caused us a lot of trouble, so you had better have some very good news for me," he said through clenched teeth.

"The buyew...it's an FBI twick!" the Daoist repeated.

"Oh really?  Well, someone might be FBI and if it's not the Ultra-Humanite, then that means it might be you.  I guess we'll have to bring you along when he arrives and find out which of you is and which of you isn't."

"Stephen, do you think that is wise?" the older saint asked, stepping up behind St. Stephen and asking him quietly, but urgently.  The Daoist only now realized that the man before him was the leader of the cult he and his comrades had been sent by the FBI to arrest.

"I don't see that we have any choice but to endure his company,” Stephen continued, “since we can't seem to keep these people in their cells.  You," he said quickly, pointing the gun at the Daoist's escort.  "Head back downstairs and check on the others.  If any of them are loose, you come back and let me know at once!"

Only once the escort was gone, heading back downstairs, did St. Stephen lower his borrowed pistol.  To the Daoist, he said, "You might as well pull up a pew and get comfortable.  We have a bit of a wait ahead of us."

The Daoist didn't care much for his current situation, and he hoped some of his friends were having better luck.  In the meantime, all he could do was wait.

The next 22 minutes were excrutiating for the Daoist.  Some people came and went from the room, mostly the women with the wheelbarrows, but St. Stephen stayed here and kept an eye on him most of the time.  Finally, when the Daoist could barely stand the wait any longer, everyone heard the sound of some sort of plane flying low over the temple.  Everyone froze up and looked to the ceiling.

"He's here," St. Stephen said.  The other “saint” stepped into the recently revealed side room and came out with a handgun and shoulder holster for himself and St. Stephen and two rooster-head masks.  Stephen turned to the other saint and said, "Keeps yours trained on our guest, Mendel," with a motion towards the other saint’s gun.  He then turned to the Daoist and said, "Behave and you'll get to live at least a little longer.  If you make a run for it, though...shoot him."  That last part was clearly a command to everyone except the Daoist.

Then a weird sort of parade began, with St. Stephen walking to the front door of the chapel, the Daoist pushed in behind him, followed by St. Mendel, and the Lone Gunman bringing up the rear.  It got weirder when the two saints put on their rooster masks, but the reason was soon apparent.  As the procession moved into the courtyard, the Daoist could see it swarming with killer roosters again, but that they all hung back at the approach of men wearing rooster masks.

The Daoist and his three unfortunate companions made their way through the north end of the gardens to the west gatehouse.  Only once through to the other side, with the gate locked behind them, did the two saints remove their rooster masks and tuck them under their arms.  From this point, a long red carpet had been stretched out, heading down a path between the small number of shacks and huts on this side of the gardens and, eventually, to a large grassy field before the forest.

Hovering in the air over the grassy field, getting ready to land, was a large autogryo.

The procession of four reached the autogryo just as the pilot got out.  The man wore polarized sunglasses, a baseball cap, and a black leather jacket.  The passenger emerged next and, to everyone's surprise, turned out to be a beautiful woman with shoulder-length black hair, wearing a red sweater and jeans.  She had what looked like a metal box clipped to her belt.

"Where is the Ultra-Humanite?" St. Stephen asked.

"Don't worry," the woman said, her voice dripping with disdain as she walked up to them.  "If you want to talk to the Ultra-Humanite, you talk to me.  Show me this fortress you've built.  I hope it's more impressive than these shacks around here."

St. Stephen looked back at the Daoist.  The seed of doubt the Daoist had planted seemed to be blossoming into full-born suspicion.  St. Stephen went for his machine pistol, drew it with lightning speed, and pointed it right at the woman, who did not even flinch.  St. Mendel and the Lone Gunman followed suite with their handguns.  The autogyro pilot, still hanging back, put up his hands.  The woman only stood there, though the Daoist now noticed the small metal box that had been clipped to her belt was now in her right hand.

"We were told to expect the Ultra-Humanite," St. Stephen said.  "Where is he?  Is this a trick?  Are you with the government?  You might as well talk.  We have you outnumbered."

"You idiots," she said with a sneer.  "I am the Ultra-Humanite.  And you may have me outnumbered, but not outgunned."

A whirring and clanking sound started coming from the autogyro and then it began to move.  It bent and folded, while other parts swiveled out, including two "arms" ending in machine guns.  It was starting to look more like a huge, humanoid robot than an autogryo.

"I'm holding a dead man's switch" the woman continued.  "I let go, and my toy here starts opening fire on everyone in sight.  Now, does anyone else have a problem with showing me around my fortress?"