The MBL ROLL CALL!!!
Danny Hearn
Mick Harrison/Mxy
Grimm
Dirk Bell
Kristofer "Chance" Schanz
Edulcore "Euro" Cicciotto aka "The Raptor"
Grissom "Sandcrawler" Montag
Phil Smith
Priest
Ameristar
Tayden
Tobias "T.C." Christopher
MIA
Kristogar Velo (on leave of absence)
Larry Lance (on leave of absence)
Sam "Shift" Dawson (on leave of absence)
Turkish Stringfellow (on leave of absence)
Support Staff
Kit Piper (MBL Consulting President and financial advisor)
Dr. Henry Quantos (MBL Consulting scientific advisor via computer-linkup from Canada)
Shirley Francis (MBL Consulting secretary & Mick's girlfriend)
Blackwulf the Everchanging (MBL Consulting personal trainer)
Charlene "Charley" Montoya (MBL Consulting maintenance chief on loan from Sandcrawler Security)
Li'l Jo (Tobias' cat)
***
It’s five minutes to 6 PM, of December the 31st, 2002, the last day of this incredible year. I am sitting at the table in the main dining room, waiting for the meeting called on by Kit Piper, nearly one hour ago, when most of us were preparing the party for this evening .
The last weeks have been intense. After the havoc caused on La Perdita by the hurricane, the vampires and the Beast, and the loss of the Psi Unit, we were helping to rebuild the island, its building and its institutions. Then, many of us went away from the isle for personal business, to breath fresh air, to leave behind the horrors we all witnessed.
Others, like myself, remained here, to explore this lovely place that got so messed up, to know his inhabitants. For me, it was a nightmare at the beginning. Many strange people appeared looking for my sword Ladnikia*, and I had a very hard time to hold them at bay. Then, I kept looking for a certain break-dancer demon, I had many questions for him, but he seems vanished. “He’s away, but he will return in a few weeks” Chewy the bodyguard of the metahuman bar always said, when I got there, but weeks after weeks I never have been able to find him, and slowly I lost interest. I am sure, some nights, to have seen him in the darkest alleys of the town, but trying to following him always got no result.
After the hurricane, request for hiring our company for strange mission were frequent, but, busy with the reconstruction of the Complex, that as for now is very far to be completed, we had to refuse them. Then, when all the guys that went away returned, and we were at full capacity, there were no more requests. It was like we were totally out of business. Kit was getting more and more depressing each day passing.
Finally, the tide has turned, and someone is looking for our professional help, to recover a long lost book.
I close the newspaper I was reading. The usual stuff about metahumans discrimination in the USA and American products ban in Mandelovia, and a strange little piece about a whole fisherman village disappeared in northern Norway.
I stand up. And go to the east facing window. I spread my re-grown feathers,catching the last rays of the setting sun, then re-assorb them inside my arms.
“Hey, peacock, how’s the sun?” asks Jackie, or Ameristar, like she wants to be called. Still an enigma for many of my teammates, after the adventure I shared with her, I know her a lot better, and I am more inclined to accept her witty humor.
After Ameristar, through the door comes Mick. Lately, seeing him not hand in hand with Shirley is rarer than a panda bear. They have not yet tied the knot, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they will announce it soon.
He takes seat next to me and Ameristar.
His hat shadowing his eyes, enters Dirk. He sits at the opposite end of the table, foot over the table, and begins to polish one of his big guns.
Everybody is arriving, now. Danny takes his seat chatting with his other half brain, the one he calls Hal, and then talks to Phil, the mentalist guy. I am not really aware of the full extent of his powers, I know he has telekinesis and some sort of mind reading ability. I wonder... can he speak with Hal, too?
Grimm and Blackwulf arrive together, they are the best buddies here around. They knew each other from before their arrival here in La Perdita, and it shows. I still miss my best friends from the early “Rivolutionaries” day: the mysterious Kristogar, the young Tobias, the talkative Larry, and especially Naecken. Only two remains today, from those fabled day, Danny and Mick. And while with Danny, at that time, was not so easy to become friend to, with his slow adaptment to this era, Mick now has eyes oinly for his Shirley.
Luckily, I have found a true friend in Kristofer, or Chance, as he is codenamed (and he, in truth, alone among every other, gives a lot of importance to codenames). He has been away for some time, exploring this world so new and different, for him, at last how much is alike to his former planet. Kris comes from a “parallel” Earth, a place similar to our own but with slight differences. I am fascinated from the tales he tell me about that place. First, because the “myself” of that Earth was a true hero. Second, because the place, altough not perfect, seems a Paradise compared to our own. It’s surely the place where I would grown my son, when I will rescue him. I have no doubt that Kris is looking to find a way to come back. “Hi, Chance!” I greet him, as he enters the room.
Then arrives Tayden, the last reclute of our team. A fallen angel. One year and a few months ago I wouldn’t have believed it. Now the fact seems perfectly normal. I even find a sort of sympathy for him, like I have been, in another life, a fallen angel myself.
Now are arriving Grissom, our security advisor, with his assistant Charley, and the enigmatic Priest. They, too, seems to have developed a sort of friendship. Danny looks askance at Priest. The big man arrived in the Complex to kill Danny, and was easily asked into joining the team. At the time, it seemed almost normal, and since then, Priest has proved trustworthy, yet I can understand Danny’s feelings.
The same uneasiness is between Dirk and me (and Chance), on the surface about guns matter, but at heart, I think, more about opposite political vision. And, after all, me and Chance are Europeans, and in this year I have learned that we really see things differently than from our cousins on the other (on this, I should say) side of the Ocean.
Another argument that has not been settled is between Chance and Ameristar. She is convinced that my friend is somehow connected to the mysterious circle of the “Hoods”, the society that tried to kill me and Turner when we were travelling across America, stalking us by the omnipotent “Georgio” a sort of overpowered Terminator. I am sure that it’s all a misunderstanding, but is easy to see that Ameristar has different ideas.
A young girl arrives, and sit quietly, her usual innocent look on her pretty face. Her name is Daniela, and by any account, she should be dead. I killed her, after she was vampirized. My sword drank her evil soul. She should have falle and vanished, incinerated, yet she had not. She was one of the Psi Unit, and after the destruction of that team during the Hurricane, she has asked to stay with us.
Lastly, with a big smile a some papers in hand, comes Kit Piper, our financial advisor. Our director, we could call him.
“Guys... and ladies... we have a job!” There are smiles, hurays, some grunts (you can imagine from who) and many curious gazes toward the paper.
“It’s from an anonimous collector. A very rich collector, seeing the check he has sent for our first expenses.”
“What he is collecting, Kit?” asks Ameristar.
“Books. Very old and rare books. He wants us to retrieve the only known copy of the Liber vitae, a text that many consider written by Merlin himself. The historical Merlin, a Briton archbishop of the sixth century.”
“And where is this book?” asks Grimm.
“Eh... it was last seen in the XII Century, at Canterbury, England.”
“What? And how are we supposed to find it...”
“ There is a clue. Recently, in Italy, has been discovered, in the lower basement of the Uffizi Museum, in Florence, a sixteen century painting, by the Italian painter Tanfo da Perugia, depicting the Portoguese explorer and condottiere Joaquim de Cuccubao. Tanfo was the official artist of the expedition that Cuccubao lead in the heart of the Amazon jungle, looking for the Eldorado, the fabled golden city. Well, to make it short, it seems that Tanfo was the only survivor of the expedition, and returned in Europe, he painted a last picture of Joaquim. And in his hands, there is a copy of the Liber vitae!”
“You mean that our only clue is a fucking picture? It ain’t a photo, the cursed painter could have made it !” shouts Dirk.
“No, I don’t think so” says Chance. “First, at that time a painting WAS like a photo, they showed real thing that the figured one actually owend. Second, in the sixteen century there was no memory of the Liber Vitae, it’s something that was totally forgot by the time. So, the artis had to actually see it, to depict the book.”
Kit continues: “More important, in the background of the painting there are images that can help you to find the place. Mountains, temples...”
“Have you a picture of the painting, Kit?” asks Ameristar.
“No, it is currently under restoring, and there is no image available, on the Internet or anywhere else. So, you will have to introduce yourselves in the laboratory where the painting is worked over, photographing it, and then be back here deciphre it and to prepare the expedition. So, I have tickets to fly to Italy for five of you. Danny will be appointed field leader, he will choose the other four and tomorrow you will leave. Now, I think there is a party to start”
In that moment, the door opens and Shirley appears: “Hey guys, you wouldn’t believe who has returned!”
A blur, and next to Kit appears Tobias Cristopher. Our speedster is back at home.
* see the upcoming Hero Revolution Special “Raptor and Ameristar: Residence Evil”
[ 01-09-2003, 01:25 AM: Message edited by: TheTimeTrust ]
