S2E7: Meanwhile…
Featuring: Aster, Izzy, Void, Red
Last episode, we saw The Engineer disable Seraph’s technology, Bon Chance gather a band of villains to kidnap the Mayor, and the emergence of Janus, who had snipers shoot New Seraph and Sundog.
Aster discovers that another version of her superhero tracking software is being used. Tracking down where it’s active, the heroes find that someone has been fitting boxes 
with advanced technology to CCTV cameras, particularly in the region of City Hall. The technology seems impossibly compact and advanced for current manufacturers. The circuit board is marked with an off-on symbol as a logo. They manage to disable some of the hardware – but it seems to have been being installed for a long time.
Stop. Hanging. Out. With. SUPERVILLAINS
The heroes are horrified to see Sundog and Blue teaming up with Bon Chance and other villains to storm City Hall, and rush down – too late to prevent the conflict, and the shots fired from Janus’s snipers. It seems the CCTV camera hacking was used to plan and coordinate the snipers – but how did Janus know the attack would happen?
Red makes contact with The Engineer on the communicators – and he confirms he’s been disabling Seraph’s old technology, which he built, to prevent his son Todd getting his hands on it. The Engineer says he won’t act against his son directly, but he’ll help in other ways if he can.
From what they say, the heroes think the snipers used bullets made of “space ruby” and filled with the blue “power suppressing” liquid.
S2E8: Fallout
Featuring: Joule, Sundog, Blue, Red, Glitch
Seraph stood between Bon Chance’s gang and the Mayor, but was felled by a sniper shot arranged by Janus. Janus has issued a threat to all mutants in the city. How will the city react?
The camera shows Bon Chance in the sights of a sniper. The gun fires, and the scene moves to slow motion. Just as the sniper shoots, a blast of energy from Hard Light causes a flare of light, and we see the sniper flinch, only slightly. The crosshairs now aim a little high and to the right, and as the bullet moves towards her, Bon Chance is moving the other way. It clips her hair, but misses her head – and ricochet’s from the pillar behind her. We see the ruby tipped bullet crack on the pillar, and oose blue liquid – the broken bullet spins sideways, and passes through Sundog’s flaming aura. By the time it hits her, most of the bullet has gone, leaving only the ruby tip, and a splash of blue liquid.
Time speeds up. Sundog is down and bleeding. Blue takes an unconscious Sundog across the city to Dr Liliana. In Lily’s hideout, we see Lily call in Sundog’s mentor TJ (the retired Alpha Achilles, who hasn’t been seen publicly in decades). Lily says to TJ, “Are you still managing to suppress your powers?”
Later, across the city, a series of minor “accidents” are happening to powered villains and powered heroes who are engaging with human criminals. Janus issues an ultimatum: “Policing should be left to the police.” Public opinion is split, there is definitely support building for Janus’s anti-vigilante position. Most superheroes are lying low.
Joule, Sundog, Blue, Red, and Glitch discover Elastica assembling a team to attack a police convoy. Elastica explains that the convoy contains the evidence of what Janus did on the rooftop, and she’s concerned the police are suppressing the truth, or working with Janus. She plans to steal the evidence – our heroes aren’t sure whether to help them, or stop them.
But the convoy appears, and Hardlight and Elastica leap into action to stop the truck. Then all hell breaks loose. There’s a bus that won’t stop heading towards a bunch of civilians — Blue and Joule hurry to stop anyone getting hurt. But Janus, somehow, knew this would happen, and has set a trap – there are bombs under the street that trigger when Joule draws on the local electricity, and drains the power preventing the bombs from triggering. The street explodes, and through superhuman effort, Joule contains the explosion.
This is how it was reported on the news:
TV News
We were sent the footage of a major incident in Chinatown
High quality footage shows Red throwing caltrops across a street. A civilian car spins out of control and crashes into a police van, escorted between two police cars. Red is seen leaping across the street to the civilian car, coming under fire from the police. Blue leaps down from a rooftop and stands off against the police, protecting Red.
Joule is seen creating a barrier of energy that the police seem to be behind.
Hard Light sends a spinning disk of light that slices through the top of the police armoured van. Sundog leaps down onto the police van and blows off the damaged section of roof. Nocturna jumps down and grabs police officers and seals them in their car.
Then Joule seems to channel energy – the whole street dims – then there is a massive explosion from under the street. Then the camera cuts to show stunned people in a wrecked street, and lights going out across the city.
The final image is of Sundog removing a case from the police van.
The newscaster says, “this footage does seem to have been edited though. Witnesses recorded the following on their camera phones. “
Lower quality footage shows the street erupting from underneath, and Joule throwing an energy barrier across the explosion, containing it. That’s when the lights go out.
The newscaster says, “it’s hard to be clear what exactly happened. Witnesses seem to suggest that Joule stood to protect bystanders from a superpowered attack on a police convoy though. “
The Mayor’s office has been asked for comment. We’ll report back if we hear more.
TV Panel news discussion:
Backdrop photo of Joule restraining a massive explosion with an electrical barrier, while the lights of the entire city go out.
Phineus Thrupp (news reader): “What we saw last night was a non-government superhero displaying signs of potentially Alpha level power. Joule tapped the electricity of the entire city to save the lives of those cops and civilians. I’m just glad that power’s in the hands of a true hero, instead of a vigilante like Nightfox”
Pierre Crook (scientist): “But that power shouldn’t be in the hands of anyone. It’s not guided by the police, the city, or the government. I would call on Joule to surrender herself to the proper authorities, so that she can be regulated like the weapon she is.”
Trinity Taylor (chief of police): “I want to say, on record, that I am grateful to Joule for saving the lives of 11 police officers last night. The attack on a police convoy by mutants was despicable, and put many lives in danger. And the antics of our so-called saviour, Janus, just make everything worse. Joule, if you want to work with the police, come forward and identify yourself, and we’ll find a way to make that above board”
Harmon Simons (Mayor’s spokesman): “You can’t possibly be considering regularising the police’s relationship with an out of control monster like that!!.. ”
(show breaks down into arguing)
Later
Our heroes discover that the explosives set up on the street had the on/off switch logo, and were specifically designed to trigger if someone drained electrical power from their circuits – ie, targeted at Joule.
The evidence retrieved from the van comprised:
- A single sniper bullet with a red crystal tip.
- A small video camera attached to a box of electronics — the same future tech as the explosive
- Fragments of something that broke. Look like a smashed up drone.
S2E9: The Older Generation
Featuring: Void, Blue, Aster, Izzy, Nightfox
Guest Stars: The Engineer, The Saint, Whisper, Seraph, Dr Lily
The Engineer, The Saint, Whisper and Seraph seem to have been deeply involved in how present circumstances emerged. Is there anyone who knows what happened? Or are there records?
Blue and Nightfox are on patrol (together for mutual protection) near the University. They’re both attacked – with molotov cocktails aimed at Blue, and gunshots aimed at Nightfox. Both seemed to be warnings, but did show understanding of their weaknesses. Finding it hard to keep up with Nightfox, Blue gets hungry for pizza.
Izzy heading home with shopping alone – spots Nocturna breaking in through the window of an office building. Becoming Ghost, she goes in to see what she’s doing. As Ghost, she can see that Nocturna is a psychic construct wrapped around the Korean teen, Kim. Ghost pulls the construct off Kim, and it disappears. She chats with Nocturna, tries to persuade her to stop being a vampire.
Nightfox and Blue see Todd having pizza with Charlie. They seem close.
We see a flashback of Alice accessing bank records for her mothers account, and showing Void that their mother (Whisper) was being regularly paid by Archimedes.
In the Sanctuary, Void discovers a message on a screen, “Assuming it was one of your two who accessed my bank account – it’s probably time you knew the story. If you don’t already know, you’ll find answers in Seraph’s computer system. You’ll need this code, or the Saint’s code – and then it’ll take two descendants of the original crew to unlock it. Im sure you can figure out how.”
In Seraphs lair above the Art Gallery, with Jenny’s help, they find a genetic scanner – which registers Void as related to Whisper, and Blue as related to Seraph. Unlocking the system they see a video record from 2000 along with a set of files.
Flashback scene. Nov 2000.
The Saint, Seraph, Dr. Lily, Whisper and the Engineer are all in a van.
Captions and narration describe each of the characters in the van:
Seraph – cover name Angela Jones
Seraph is a clone of the original Seraph, who was badly injured in a previous battle. She is being mentored by the Original Seraph. She wants to live up to the image, and ensure that the Seraph identity is immortal, and a shining hope.
She does know she’s a clone, but considers herself a successor rather than an invention. She gets irritated if anyone suggests she’s not a real person.
Sebastian – The Saint
The Saint is a young, angry “found in the wild” mutant who Archimedes have recruited to play a villain role in their staged crimes, replacing Whisper who used to be their villain.
Sebastian is already chafing at the role Archimedes has assigned him, and is looking for ways to break free and decide his own future
Charlie Müller – Whisper
Charlie gained her powers by being given illegal mutagens as part of an Archimedes program. She was trained as an antagonist for the original Seraph, until she lost control of her powers and crippled Seraph. She can feel every use of her powers changing her, awakening your darker self. As she’s been replaced “on screen” by The Saint, she’s expected to ensure everyone stays “in role” during the mission, using her mind control powers if needed.
Charlie is starting to have second thoughts about Archimedes
Jim Summers – The Engineer
Jim has always been a technical genius, but recently he’s been able to run technical experiments in his head and know how they will go before he does them. His gadgets make him the equal of any mutant, and Archimedes provides all the funding he needs.
This is his first field mission. He’s determined to be “on screen”.
Liliana Bedelia
Liliana has a deep and abiding sense of guilt because she unlocked the genetic sequence that let Dr Crook clone Seraph. Her role in this is not publicly known – she was only a research assistant at the time.
She is field commander for Archimedes on this mission. It’s her first time in the field. She just has to get the others to play their roles, that’s all. Sell it to the public.
The mission is shown via short video clips and photos, clearly orchestrated by Archimedes. A group of minor supervillains attack the warehouse, only to be confronted by The Saint, to be told “work for me, or die”. The Saint and The Engineer stand off against the villains – while Seraph waits to fly in. Unexpectedly, two minor heroes approach, and Whisper is sent out by Liliana to deal with them and prevent them from interfering. The scene of Whisper dealing with the heroes brutally, leaving them seriously injured, is marked “NOT FOR AIR”. The footage ends with Seraph flying in, and driving off The Saint in a grand battle.
Later, at Blue/Sundog/Glitch’s flat.
Blue arriving back to the flat full of pizza and tipsy
“Hey! GUYS! Turns out I’m part Whisper! Also I saw Todd at a pizza place!”
She immediately goes to bed and fails to explain any further.
S2E10: The New Villains
Featuring: Nightfox, Red, Joule, Void, Sundog
Bon Chance, Elastica, Nocturna and.. one other are carrying out the Saint’s vision of a new generation of mutants. But what is that vision, and how will Janus respond.
Also, who is this Todd who is entangled in Nightfox and Joules social circles – is this really Janus, and what is he doing?
In Void’s lab, After analysing the bullet from the evidence case stolen from the cops, the team discover that there are two types of organic material in it – the hard red space ruby, and the blue suppressive liquid.
Todd Rosenburg bears a strong resemblance to early photos of Todd Summers (Janus). Joule’s ex Sarah is now dating Todd’s friend Nikki – and Todd, of course, is dating Nightfox’s friend and confidante, Charley.
The gang heads to the university labs to talk to Nikki, who is a postgrad genetics and microbiology person. They discover that Todd’s father is supposedly the genius who owns Lionhead Electronics (whose files were stolen in the Season 1 bank robbery).
They go over to the university lab – Charley is working on bulletproof material. In the same lab, Todd is working on stuff to go on the outside of aeroplanes. Todd’s lab is only for materials — similar to Charley’s projects. Charley is working on long-fibre materials like kevlar — i.e. bulletproof. Todd is working on short-fibre materials — fireproof. These can be woven together to make something both bulletproof and fireproof.
Nightfox uses his exceptional senses to analyse a carpet tile from the lab. VOCs including formaldehyde, plasticisers, glues. New electronics, electronics factories suggested. Todd presses a button on a machine which makes a loud ultrasonic sound, making Nightfox wince. Todd looks smug.
The team work out where Todd’s other lab might be from considering what types of things he’s likely to do there. Both the docks and the area where Sundog lives have places where they scrap vehicles. And the Lionhead Electronics factory is conveniently located. They make parts for mobile phones.
To ensure Todd isnt there – Joule and Red go for dinner with him, Charley, Sarah and Nikki that evening – while Sundog, Void and Nightfox break into the factory.
In the factory, they discover the plans for a flying wasp-like drone, armed with a power suppressing stinger. The factory has otherwise been cleaned out. As they leave, they are attacked by a drone in the street – as if Janus was expecting them to be there.
In the restaurant, we see Todd checking his watch at 9:30pm, exactly when the drone attacks. He looks smug again.
Void throws up a barrier to prevent the drone reaching them, but the drone flies through the barrier as if it’s not there and stings Nightfox, who seems to become much more clumsy. Sundog blasts a fire escape off the wall and the drone is crushed under the falling wreckage.
S2E10.5: Under the Sea
Featuring: Blue, Glitch, Sundog, Red
Special Issue – A psychic giant crab asks for help? What is threatening the blue underwater mutants that live off the coast? Is it the new offshore drilling rig – or something much more serious.
The giant psychic crab from episode S2E3 and S2E5 contacts Blue and Glitch by sending images – and the team go to meet it. It takes them out to sea, where they discover the blue mer-people from Untitled S1E1 near an abandoned drilling platform, and underneath them, an air-filled dome community. The merfolk take our heroes down to the dome, where they explain that they are the partner and children of Trident, the British aquatic Alpha. He came to the dome to kill them all, they think – but the crab surprised him and drove him away.
Most of our heroes go to the surface to try and intercept Trident – while Glitch stays below to hide the dome with illusions, and make Trident think it’s been moved.
Sundog, Blue and Red meet Trident, who tells them that Archimedes has jurisdiction over Storm City and has ordered that his children are a security threat, and need to be removed. If he doesnt do it himself, they’ll send a strike team.
Glitch gets very distracted by an attractive merboi called Finn, and the experience of “sharing air” under water. The illusion gets a bit less good.
Sundog, Blue and Red agree with Trident that they’ll fake the aftermath of a fight between Trident and Seraph, and then Trident can disappear along with his family. Fren Crab will help them move the dome south, out of Archimedes jurisdiction, and where no-one will look.
The fight between Seraph and Trident doesnt make the news, which only makes the conspiracy theorists believe it even more.
Conspiracy forum:
Red: Trident and Seraph destroyed an oil rig after he killed all his children and I think she might have killed him. It was clearly in Storm City territory and he decided to go for it anyway and it was a big fight.
Horus: Clearly lies, that rig has melted metal, neither of them have fire powers. Obviously this is some sort of false flag coverup to hide what the state is really doing off the coast.
Brit123: Seraph could never take Trident anyway. He’s a true Alpha!
(forum discussion ends up spiralling into personal insults)
S2 E11: Finale part 1
Featuring: Aster, Izzy, Nightfox, Joule
Janus’ plan becomes clear, and others are unwittingly entangled in it. But is Janus wrong in intent, or just in method? Can enough of what he intends be discovered in time to stop him?
Izzy is in the supermarket, when she runs into Kim – the teenager who becomes Nocturna. Kim is with another girl, holding hands, and looks happy. When she sees Izzy, she runs over, and gives her the Nocturna comic book. Kim says she doesnt need to be Nocturna any more – and Nocturna is in the comic book. She wants Izzy to return the book to where she stole it from.
Taking the book home, Aster and Izzy examine the book. In Izzy’s head, Betty tells Izzy that there really is something in the book. Nightfox notices a signature on the inside cover of the book – “Imaginos”. The team remember that Imaginos was the daughter of The Imagineer, an Alpha who could make anything he could imagine real. Imaginos is dead, according to all records, killed by her own powers, that she couldn’t control. Izzy locks the book in Aster’s safe.
Aster discovers that Janus is using her software again – to track supers. He’s particularly focussed on tracking The Saint and his crew, and the area around City Hall. The team haven’t been able to track Todd since they raided Lionhead, but Aster determines that what he’s doing would need powerful computers, and a fast network connection, so starts narrowing down where he could be.
Nightfox gets a message from Charley, saying that she, Nikki and Sarah are going to go see Todd’s new office. The location is an under construction office building – with excellent security – the network connection and power have already been installed. Charley tells Nightfox that they are meeting Todd in his office on the 37th floor, so they head there immediately.
They meet Todd in an office at the end of the hall on 31st floor – Charleu, Nikki and Sarah are nowhere to be found. The hall has ultrasonic transmitters which means Nightfox can’t use his enhanced senses. Todd monologues at the team – about how he can predict the future with his computer models, and he foresees a future in which the “cauldron” Archimedes have created in Storm City leads to all out powered gang warfare in the streets, and a corresponded crackdown that leaves thousands of people dead. So he’s going to precipitate the conflict early, so he can stop it. He claims he will provoke the Saint into attacking the Mayor – and then save him. But he might have to take out BonChance first, her powers seem to mess everything up. He claims he has no superpowers, just is good with technology, and he seems to have strong feelings about powered people.
Nightfox gets another text from Charley, saying that they have figured out they are not on the 31st floor – they’re on the second floor, but someone has obviously changed the signs to confuse them. He tells her to take the lift down and leave – and Izzy decides to become Ghost and go find them – leaving Betty with the group.
Betty verbally lays into Todd, telling him bluntly that he does have powers, and how pathetic he is. Todd is stunned, and easily overpowered by the team.
On the second floor, Izzy discovered three inactive wasp-drones, and that the three women had gone down to the basement by accident – and discovered Todd’s computer system there.
The team destroys the three drones, but decides not to destroy the computers yet – they don’t know what the drones will do if they stop getting their orders. They take Todd to Seraph’s tower, and lock him in the cell. Todd protests that this is kidnapping, and demands that they call the police.
Thu 8th April: S2 E12: Finale part 2
Featuring: Sundog, Red, Void, Glitch, Blue
Can the wheels set in motion be stopped?
Todd has been captured, and is in the cell at Seraph’s tower. He’s loudly pointing out that they can’t keep him here forever, and smugly assuring them that his plan will work even if he’s not there to activate it. It’ll all happen at 18:00 today.
The team meet with the Saint and explain that Todd believes he can provoke him into attacking the Mayor. Sundog says she thinks she should melt Todd – but the Saint says that no matter what, he’s the Engineer’s son, and that would send the Engineer over the edge, and he’d stop at nothing to get revenge.
Joule is still at Todd’s office building, in the basement, and can destroy his computers at any time. But they are worried this will just activate his plan early, even if the drones are less intelligent without the computers. Also, the computers should let them track down the drones.
Sarah shows the team a picture of a dissected “space ruby”. The ruby is hollow, like a nut, with hard material only on the outside.
Since Todd said he’d take out Bon Chance first, the team go to meet with her, to try and warn her. While they are there, two wasp-drones appear. The wasps are very hard to grab, because their propulsion makes them slippery – and they have space ruby incorporated into their design, making them immune to powers.
Blue gets stung while trying to grab a drone, and suddenly feels very weak. Sundog makes an energy construct that can grab one without being hurt – then Void destroys it. While they are engaged with that drone, the other one circles around behind, and stabs Bon Chance through the chest – she seems dead.
The team use the computers to track the drones. There are 19, all near City Hall, and all in pairs (apart from the one that got away after attacking Bon Chance). The team start hunting down and destroying drones, along with The Saint, Elastic and Hardlight. Nut its taking too long. City Hall is defended by police, including snipers on the roof. New Seraph arrives in a truck and flies up to the roof. Everyone is tense and expecting trouble.
Between the team, and the Saint’s team, when 18:00 rolls around, there are still 15 wasp drones left. Then, at 18:00 exactly, the news broadcast comes on, and Phineas Thrupp leads with the story that he has evidence that the Mayor has been conspiring with Archimedes to put mutagens in the city water supply. He’s also personally been involved in murder – he shows a video of the Mayor killing the Saint’s son, James.
The Saint loses it, just as he told Sundog the Engineer would if she killed his son. He is intent on killing the Mayor. He goes to a nearby rooftop, along with Hard Light and Elastica, lurking in shadows… presumably planning.
Although they are fighting wasps, Sundog abandons the rest of the team and flies over to the roof where the Saint is with Hardlight and Elastica. She tries to talk him out of killing the Mayor — “This is just what Todd wants!”. Her plasma inadvertently lights up and reveals the Saint and his crew to the snipers on the roof of City Hall. A sniper shoots the Saint in the chest and he falls.
Sundog, already fighting her own rage to do the right thing and not just kill everybody, flies to the roof of City Hall and melts all the guns so nobody can shoot anyone else. New Seraph flies over and punches Sundog with energy charged fists, triggering a catastrophic meltdown in which Sundog melts the roof – NewSeraph and all the snipers fall through. Wasp drones close in from all directions.
In the nearby cellar, Red is hit hard by a wasp. The sting shatters the space ruby around her neck, and she falls to the ground, apparently bleeding from the chest. Blue tries to help her, but when she touches Red, she feels weaker, and Red accidentally pushed her across the room – seemingly super strong. Void carefully tends to Red’s injury – but when they hear the explosion, Blue and Glitch run outside.
On the roof, Sundog is a maelstrom of fire. Blasts melt all the wasp drones, sending molten metal raining down on the streets below. One blast targets Elastica and Hardlight, sending them flying from the nearby roof.
Blue looks very determined, and leaps into the air… for the first time, flying. She flies to the rooftop and grabs Sundog. She’s unharmed by Sundog’s plasma aura. She talks Sundown down from her rage, and then scoops Sundog up in her arms and flies away.
On the street below, Glitch, Red and Void are looking up in stunned silence.
Credits roll. End of Season 2
Mid Credits Scene:
Phineas Thrupp, showing footage of Blue flying to the roof and grabbing Sundog “Clearly, we can see that Seraph is back. Storm City can rest easy again.” Showing image of Sundog burning through the roof of City Hall, and raining molten metal down on the police below “And hopefully Seraph will turn this one into appropriate custody. Looks like we have a new major supevillain to rival the Saint… Sundog”
Post Credits Scene
An online TV show called “Viewcube”
Hey there heroic peeps! If you live in Storm City you may know me as Red. I wander round the city with a bow and arrows and try to help where I can, how I can. You can’t do better than your best right? Well I am changing the name and the look because now I actually have powers! Some of you may have guessed that I didn’t before, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Anyway, new powers, new branding and all that, so I’m going with Ruby Star, I think it’s got that little bit of sparkle that fits my new look.
*gestures to pieces of ruby embedded in her chest*
This is Ruby Star saying: Keep on shining!