The NEW Vanguard! Haunt Issue #6

ooc: Head to help out my friend with all the demons of Hell on my heels.

"Any idea how to use this," the Haunt asks. "Do I pour it on him, make him drink it, give him a shot in the bum or what? If it is a suppository, we are up the creek without a paddle!"

once he gets his answer he prepares to leave.

"OH! Don't try to hold them off too much," he says as he moves to the window. "If you can't talk them out of attacking, lead them to the battle site, because if this fails, we will need all the help in the world to stop this poor man. Just give me a minute or two to try to stop him before you arrive."

"Luck to us all!"

With that, he dives out of the window, shaping angel wings on his back, with the Fog trailing him and flies as fast as he can safely to help out his best friend.

Haunt thought back to the first time he met his best friend and confidante (OOC Feel free to fill that part in you get chance!)

Dr P had been there through thick and thin, through his faltering early days and unsure of his powers and himself, to the confident, powerful and effective crime fighter he was now. As he thought on Lady Lucks' final shout of "It needs to be swallowed!" he soared through the streets with fog all around and occasionally 'ducked his head up' above the buildings to see where the largest plumes of smoke were coming from.



That direction so... arggh. The London Eye! he wondered how many of this famous old cities recognisable landmarks would need rebuilding or forgetting about, and noted the number of police cars below trying to get through gridlocked traffic. Above, in the skies, several helicopters headed in from various directions and from somewhere else he heard a characteristic sonic BOOM! as either a jet or superhuman smashed through the sound barrier to get to the scene.

Getting closer, he saw smashed buildings, most missing chunks or looking distinctly wonky amidst the smoke and rubble. Dust rose making it hard to assess the full scale of the devastation, but it was clear that this had indeed been the path of that which was his friend.

As he closed in he heard the sounds of battle - machine guns of high calibre, even what sounded like explosions, and the more familiar sounds of superhuman powers in all their myriad forms and types trying to ...

All that was drowned out as with a huge roar and crash the biggest thing Haunt had ever seen came into view! He could feel every sweep of its colossal fists creating a wave draft of air that sent helicopter gunships spinning away, and tiny multicoloured figures - the UKChampions and others Haunt guessed - tumbling through the sky as they tried to right themselves!



Even from this distance, over a mile away, the beast looked HUGE! He glanced at the tiny beaker in his hand. What was that going to do against THAT!?!

A fiery figure light the sky up and torched the back of the beast. It didn't notice. A double decker bus flew through the air to crash against it's cheek. It didn't blink. A series of explosions around its eyes seemed to distract it, but a clap of its huge hands caused a hurricane force wind to throw up a dust storm and shatter buildings for blocks around! That's when Haunt noticed its eyes glowing... and with that a beam of pure energy shot from them, wild and out of control, into the sky! The beast covered its face and looked down before the beams issued again and started turning the Thames into a scalding white hot steambath! From here Haunt could hear cries as those caught in the superheated water were scorched by it's touch!

The guns fell silent, replaced by screams!

ooc: Ok, been thinking about this for a few days now. Here's some images to share with you:
This is from Police Comics #11, a pretty horrific story even by today's standards.
https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/preview/cache/1512134852police%20011-10.jpg
https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/preview/cache/1512134889police%20011-11.jpg
Going to be doing this to Doc P.

"AW DOC, NOOOOOO!!!!" the Haunt screams, his heart breaking to see his friend turned into such a horrible thing.

"Needs to be swallowed. Needs to be swallowed. Needs to be swallowed," those words continue to ring in his head as he pauses looking at all the destruction and death around him.

"Swallow it is," he mutters, flying straight to his friend's misshapen massive head.

hoped for actions: fly to Doc's mouth, at last moment shapeshift into looking like a gelatin capsule with medicine being protected by his body, fly down/get swallowed by Doc, "burst" open when down his throat and release the medicine. Then try to get out of Doc's mouth before something really bad happens to him. But may have to stay in his throat in order to block his airway so Doc P can't throw up the medicine. Put HP into whatever I need to in order to avoid whatever attack Doc sends my way prevent me from going down his throat. And if hit, HP to absorb enough damage to continue to stay conscious and able to prevent Doc P from not taking the "medicine"

OOC Those pictures don't work for me for some reason?

Haunt gathered up his resolve, formed his plan and started flying towards the gaping maw of the beast.

At such a size, it should have been ponderous, clumsy and easy to track. Instead the creature seemed to 'shimmer and ended up in a different place, accompanied by a cloud of rising dust and debris. What the... was it teleporting?

No. Not teleporting - the hops were small, in comparison to it's size. It was fast. Haunt looked in it's wake. Heroes scattered where they'd been swatted away. Some dazed, some unconscious. Was that ... Endeavour down there? The Paragon like super heroine who seemed capable of boosting her abilities to accomplish almost any task? A quick glance showed...

Scarlet Centurion, Hammerblow, Giggle Girl, SteelMax, Mindgrip, Charmer and Fiery Fox all down. New-ish heroes who had recently appeared 'on the scene' and scored reasonable successes against established bad guys. All were dazed, unconscious or perhaps worse. Another glance showed other brightly coloured costumed types in similar states of disarray. There was a veritable army here, and many were UKChampions. Some of the more powerful ones, like Excelsior, Majestic and Overboost appeared dishevelled and confused. They'd thrown everything at this thing and it had rebuffed them. Majestic was a strong Class 4 Superhuman, able to go toe to toe with just about anyone and extremely experienced, yet here he was trying to corale a creature that swatted him like a fly from the sky and left him dazed as he tried to figure out just what had happened!

Getting closer, the creature turned and with a blur of it's hand, attacked!

OOC Initiative...

I will try and update this tomorrow - sorry to leave you hanging (!) but I need to fully flesh out the character that Dr P has become. I have just about finished the write up but run out of time. Suffice to say it is the most powerful challenge Haunt (and most of the gathered heroes here - I will name drop some more from the Who's Who of a couple of years ago as I describe the battle) has yet faced!

ooc: for the images, just try logging into digitalcomicmuseum.com. Then going over to Quality Comics, then Police Comics and then preview or download issue 11.
Basic story is evil magician/alchemist "dies" and is buried but his evil brain is alive. He takes over the body of a paralyzed man who is in a wheelchair, makes him grow to giant size, dragging his legs behind him, smashing houses and killing the folks inside until Plastic Man shows up to try to stop him and gets eaten for his pains.
Basically, helpless cripple forced to do evil things that he can't stop himself from doing and has to die in order to be stopped. As I said, pretty horrific story.

All those comics, btw, are in public domain so lots and lots of stuff from the 30s and 40s there.

OOC Apologies for the delay. I did hope to get more updating done this week but have had too much on Next week I am away in Lanzarote (as the only holiday I've managed to get on this year) and my timing could have been better (instead of two weeks before Christmas) but it was this or nothing so...

Anyway. First of all, (DISCLAIMER!) this is the most powerful foe Haunt has ever faced, and right up there with some of the big bads all you guys have tackled over the years...

Second...

The CREATURE wins initiative...

Roll(2d10)+0: 1,9,+0 Total:10 + AoF 13 (23) vs TN11 + INT (19)= +3 Effect (16) vs RV10. 6RAPs

As Haunt got close he felt something he would not normally recognise. Indeed, perhaps it was something akin to what his own foes felt when he unleashed his powerful fear effect.

Except on a much large scale.

He felt the urge to run, to hide, to leave the scene as quick as he could!

OOC Absorb this as damage with HP - I'll assume so otherwise Haunt will have to flee!

HAUNT HP 264

Gritting his teeth, the hero flew on even as he saw below dozens of police and army personnel frozen in fear, along with others - government agents, some lesser known supers who even Haunt didn't recognise, and one or two of those ROOK androids he'd seen off. The other ROOKs he saw were dismembered smashed smoking ruins in vaguely humanoid shape.

They were all helpless.

Dr P, or whatever he'd turned into, needed stopping!

Haunt grit his teeth, ignoring the fear and some distant shouting. Telling him to get back, fool, you'll die...

OOC Roll(2d10)+0:  5,8,+0 Total:13 + Dex 18 (superspeed) (31) vs Dex 9 + TN11 (20). Hit +5 Effect. This is going to hurt.

Effect 35 vs RV 13 = 22 Damage. Haunt can absorb 13 but there's no point. It's not killing combat, so he's walloped for 22 damage (he's on 7 Body hence the no point in absorbing anything. Were he uninjured he could have absorbed enough to stay conscious from what was a Dr Manhattan level hit, but he's 3 points shy of being able to do that).

There was a blur. How could anything so big move so...

Then pain.

Darkness.

=========

"...hear me? C'mon dammit mate..."

The voice was familiar.

Haunt was awake. The pain had gone. Was that a good or bad thing?

he opened his eyes and saw... a familiar face? Yes. Yeoman. He'd met him once. Good guy, worked with the Vanguard every now and again. friend of Wandafar, Frostbite, Lionheart.

Lionheart. How useful would he be right now, with his inhuman speed!

"Good to see you're still us. Fool move mind. You literally splattered like a white slime patch all over the rubble of this building. You seemed to be twisting even as you fell, forming your body around something? What...?" asked Yeoman.

The vial!

Haunt gasped, then concentrated. The vial emerged from within his hand as he held his palm open. It was unbroken, protected despite the bone shattering impact. Why hadn't the creature killed him? It was capable ... unless.. something was holding it back. His friend, Praetorious. Somewhere in that beast he was still alive, fighting, straining to hold it back!

Where was it...?

Yeoman saw the look. "It took off. Moved. I thought it teleported at first, but it appeared about a mile away in a cloud of dust. It's fast... seems to adapt and gain powers it needs to win. The strength, speed... attacking that thing en masse with all the heroes basically gave it a blank canvas to copy and paste powers it needed as it saw fit! Man, I got close and nearly froze in terror! What... hey hold on, you just took a huge hit... what?"

Haunt rose to his feet. His costume was shredded in places, but reformed, like the skin underneath. His regenerative powers were incredible, and had roused him hours, days even, before he should have been able to get up. That he was alive was a miracle. That blow! Closing his eyes, he could still feel the bone shattering impact, and he was a hero who could pretty much ignore anything smaller than a battleships' main guns! Less experienced or powerful heroes had no chance! Exposure to the stronger heroes had empowered the beast so it could beat all of them...

If Lionheart had been here, it would be even MORE powerful... Haunt glanced at the vial. Then up at the creature, now a couple of miles away and striding away, clouds of dust in its wake. If more heroes turned up, it's powers would increase with every one, and it would become invincible! He needed to stop it now!

OOC Haunt is back on FULL body...

HAUNT BODY 13/13
HP 264

"This vial," he told Yeoman, "contains an antidote for turning that monster back into the good man he was. He needs to drink it. I'm going to do my best to dive down his mouth and pour it down his throat before he becomes even more powerful and unstoppable. You need to keep all the most powerful heroes who are not present yet away from him. He will just copy THIER powers and make him even more unstoppable."

"Lady Luck knows how to make more of this potion," he continues. "So if I fail, someone else can make a try to use it to stop him."

"And for God's Sakes, don't let the government drop an atomic bomb on him! He will probably survive and become so powerful he can destroy the Earth!"

"Also make sure all the detective types look for clues for where I had my first dust-up, the organization that turned that good man into this monster used that place as their base. It's pretty much destroyed but there were some deep hidden levels below, so some clues might still be found about them. And if we can find that out, we can stop them from doing this again to someone."

The Haunt then stood silently watching and thinking, trying to come up with the best way to approach his friend without being seen and blasted again. Fly in as fast as possible? Move slowly along the ground, using the terrain and his shapeshifting abilities to hide himself until he got close enough? His Fog might help hide him as it mixed with the dust from all the destruction. Moving fast along the ground? Casually walk up to him? Try burrowing underground to get close to him then slither up his body?

"DO you know if any of the heroes who fought here have any X-ray vision or some kind of Life Sense that he might have copied," he asks Yeoman as he considers his options. "I need to get as close as possible to him without him noticing for me to have a chance at stopping him."

ooc: Right now, I'm thinking burrowing underground and then coming up at his feet might be my best option to getting close to him. But Yeoman might have answers to my questions that might change that idea.

Yeoman rubbed his chin.

"Well, knowing that thing is your friend makes it hard. You know he's going to end up dying or spending the rest of his life in jail, right? No way the UK Champions will let the deaths and injuries slide."

Those words sank in as Haunt realised Dr P himself would just as likely hand himself over to the authorities as anyone else.

Still, job at hand and all that.

Yeoman continued "Problem I... we have, is that we operate on the edge of the law. Ever since the civil war thing all us unregistered types have had to toe the line and more or less behave ourselves. Way I see it, we have several choices..."

1) Try to go it alone with Haunt and Yeoman against the invincible beast
2) Try to convince the UKChampions and authorities that the big guns stay away and the street level guys take over
3) Round up as many unregistered superhumans as you can and see what powers they have between them to help

"At this point, I do not think numbers matter," the Haunt says after mulling it over. "He duplicates the powers that are used against him. Unless we did some sort of massive one wave attack against him, any attack would fail."

"The only powers I can think of that might work against him is if someone had superspeed and intangibility and maybe invisibility combined. They could zoom up to him, phase into his stomach and drop this drug into his system. Other than that, someone who had the power to duplicate this formula in huge quantities and then could somehow spray it at his mouth like water from a firehose and spray it from several directions at once."

"If you know anyone like that, we can try to have them do this and stop the madness but if not ... we might be better to go it alone. You distract him at just the right moment while I plunge down his throat."

He looks to see if Yeoman has any other ideas.

"Hmmm" thought Yeoman. He glanced at Haunt out the corner of his mask covered face. "You sure you're ok? Took quite a whack, seen a few of the others struggle to get up, and yet you popped right up about a minute or so later? you might not have lost your marbles, but there's every chance there's a hole in the bag, know what I mean?"

A look from Haunt had him raising his hands "Ok, ok! I don't know anyone from that description, with those powers. Some speedsters can 'phase' through stuff, but they are the really fast ones. Say..." he looked around. "This is a party with all the available big names attending. Ok, not the REALLY big names, but that's a blessing right? Where's Lionheart? Fast, strong... And... maybe adding fuel to the fire."

"Wandafar would know. That lil creep knows just about every damn thing. Lil punk." he muttered.

"Hope he's ok." he mumbles. "Anyway. I think we can assume that the UKChampions will continue to throw absolutely everything at it, as will the army and special forces. The thing will mutate, evolve, probably to the stage where it pretty much can ignore 'em. If it's not already there..."

He sighed, looked at the now distant massive form that was tearing up a chunk of building and throwing it at someone. A huge crash followed, and the earth shook, even from here...

"I think it's up to us. And... hang on a minute..."

A pause. "I clobbered a guy a few years ago. He was a nasty piece o work. His power was weird... he can ... could... do weird stuff. Basically he could put his hand on something, then spew it out with the other. Solids? They would shoot out in a stream. Gas? Same. Liquids? Well this guy was trying to blackmail the city of Manchester after poisoning the water supply. Mr Changeover... no. Captain Swap? Hmmm... Catalyst! That's him! He's in the nick not far from here, the one with supers in it. Doing a loooooonnnnnggg time. You want lots of that black goop? That punk could do it."

The Haunt grunts at that information and thinks it over.

"So what you are telling me is that there is a hardened criminal who might be able to help us save London and perhaps the world but no one else comes to mind who can do something fast enough to make a difference? And, of course, we do not have the time to go through regular channels to get him release. so we are going to have to break him out of jail to use him. Further, we have to convince him to put his butt on the line to help us save everyone."

"So if we do this or should I say, I do this, get this guy out, convince him to save the world and actually do that, I will be hunted by every law enforcement agency here and maybe over the world too for numerous crimes, including said jail break."

He thinks some more.

"Well, heck! The Law is already after me for various actions I've taken. It's going to make trying to help people and bringing other criminals to Justice a lot harder if I do this after this is over but if we don't have a country or a world if I don't then, stepping to the side is worthless."

"Well, tell me where is he and how to get there and an idea of what he looks like and I will go and make myself even higher on the Wanted: Super-criminal list. And you won't have to worry, I won't be telling anyone where I got the information so you can stay free and clear."

Yeoman thought about it for a moment. "You're serious aren't you? I always figured you for the mysterious, spooky/gloomy type but now I know you're nuts too. I was going to suggest going through channels but you are probably right. No time. The clean up bill - should London actually survive this mess - will run into millions anyway. The justification at our trial before we get sent down could be that we were trying to save joe public yet more hard earned tax pounds."

"As well as saving their lives of course, but hey, the papers and authorities won't look at it that way."

He glanced over at where the behemoth was pounding at the ground - and some hapless heroes no doubt - with a pair of London double decker buses.

"Yeah, I said we. Come on, let's go. in for a penny in for a pound, eh?" muttered Yeoman.

He flew up, turned to wait a moment for Haunt to form wings, then headed away from the battle. En route a couple of costumed figures - one jumping from rooftop to rooftop, the other flying with the aid of a jet pack, paused in their flight to shout "Hey! The fight is THAT way! Cowards!"

Yeoman gave a most unheroic gesture and kept going. "Looks like an industrial estate, but it's a front. The prison is underground. One way in or out. Most of the heroes will be occupied so that's one thing, but they have agents and robots guarding the place. Power dampers as well. If we do this, there's got to be an understanding. If either of us gets captured, the other has to keep going and get the job done, right?"

They landed in the shadow of a warehouse and looked across the street. "HM Hardware" looked innocuous enough. signs outside the window declaring prices of various drills and tools. All of which looked pretty darn expensive to Haunt.

"I've got friends in the hero community and back when I was considered one of the guys who played ball with the government, I got to look round this place once when I brought a perp in. If I remember right, there's a backup generator in the place, about a dozen cells and an area for cooking and the robot maintenance. The cells have a power dampener on them. Even getting close to the door will play havoc with your head, and your powers. Something to do with electromagnetics and the bio rythmns of the body? I dunno. Wandafar called it 'Crude but it verks.' Then 'I vud hef done it better.' Typical." said Yeoman.

"One of us can find the local substation and smash that up, the other should get in there and take out the generator. That will shut the power off to the cells enough to find the clown we're after. There is the small matter of robot guards mind. Can't reason with 'em, can't bribe 'em, can't charm 'em. If your names not on the list, they won't let you in. So which do you want? The easy job or the hard one?"

"Hmmm...," The Haunt muses over the information, "I'm not a big fan of destroying the power to the place, that would let the other criminals get out if we do it that way. Then we would have to spend a lot of time rounding them up afterwards and would be partially or wholly responsible for any criminal acts that they commit while free. Breaking out one criminal is bad enough but more...?"

"There has to be a control room of some sort in there, right? How about we smash in, you find and take over the control room and let just our friend out while I take out the robots and such defenses until you can temporarily shut those remaining defenses down? I'm one of the strongest heroes around and pretty resistant to most types of damage that we might run into. If we knew exactly where he was, I could just drill through the ground to get to his cell but since I do not have that power ...?"

He looks questioningly at Yeoman to see if the man does have that power.
ooc: And I will be very surprised if he does.

OOC Purely for interest sake, the only stats I cooked up for Yeoman...



Don't think I've converted him to DC yet. Shouldn't be hard. He's a mid level brick. Grade 2 strength is 'middle of the road' so in DC terms he's probably a bit less than Haunt and a few points more than Frostbite. That said, he's a veteran so may have improved slightly over the years he's been active. And of course, Golden Heroes (bless it) gave a new meaning to the word 'street level' with flight no faster than a car and whatnot ...

"Ha! Listen mate, I fly up to stuff, hit it, then whack it some more to make sure it stays down. In this day n age with the 'chat first then decide if you want a scrap later' way of doing things that the UKChampions prefer, it kind of makes me an out of touch one dimensional dinosaur. Suits me!" laughed the veteran hero.

"The place is gonna be camera'd up to the eyeballs. Let's... I don't know, at least try to make some attempt at disguise? We need to give ourselves every chance of avoiding the long arm of the law... and Adjutants bully boy squad... (OOC Although Adjutant aka Albert Watkins, most powerful of UK's heroes, is at this moment in time, still AWOL... that will be addressed in an upcoming adventure...). Hang on, alright?"

Yeoman flew off into the sky and out of sight. Strange that he knew where he was going (OOC of course haunt doesn't know that in Yeomans' civilian life he is a London Cab driver and so has to have 'the Knowledge' of every street and road in the entire city...). That left Haunt looking at the non-descript warehouse and wondering if his time as a hero was about to come to an end! It would hardly do for the 'avenging arm of justice' to be seen breaking criminals out of jail!

Minutes passed. It seemed a painfully long time. Haunt wondered if he should go it alone...

Just then Yeoman dropped from the sky. "Fancy dress shop not far from here. Old place. You're not gonna like this. I figure you can more or less squeeze yourself to fit in just about anything. I had to borrow a hat and coat from a tramp, pay him, go in to the shop in my civvies, BUY the costumes and get back here."

He fished out of a bin liner two dusty looking old black suits with rumpled white shirts and bowler hats. There was also a black tie and a dicky bow. To finish it off were a pair of domino masks, and a stick on short moustache.

"So, erm... you wanna be Laurel... or Hardy?"

OOC So I take it your plan is to go in, smash the place up, act like crooks, be careful not to actually hurt anyone and get the bad guy out before someone turns up. True, the heroes of this city (and more from around the country who are closing in on London) have their hands full but agents/automated guards/drones will turn up in numbers shortly after the alarms go off, you figure, so you'll not have long. The next few posts will be combat heavy!

"I'll be the fat one," The Haunt says with a grin hidden behind his full face cowl. He actually changes his body so he does look exactly like the famed fat slapstick actor of old, albeit all white, then changes into the outfit Yeoman offered. "Though to be honest, I was thinking of looking like one of the bigger, more popular heroes that had ticked one of us off lately and let HIM explain why he attacked the place later."

"OK, so the plan, which never survives contact with the enemy is for us to bull our way in, you find the control room and shut down enough security for us to get our man while I tackle the security coming our way until that time. And we try not to permanently hurt anyone!"

"Only problem with framing good guys is that it generally backfires. Ask me how I know.." he said with a sigh. "When things come out in the wash they are discredited, p'eed off and in many cases decide to throw in the towel or become a bad guy."

The pair walked towards the 'shop front'. Entering, they saw a counter, and racks of tools/supplies as you might find in a hardware store. It looked convincing. Very convincing.

Haunt was just about to ask if they'd got the right place when an ageing shop assistant came out, wearing a rumpled uniform and wiping his hands on a rag. He paued upon seeing the two outlandishly dressed men in the shop front.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" he asked politely.

A glance around revealed cameras of the dome type on the ceiling and one on the wall.

Yeoman spoke up "Righto. Get on the floor and keep ya gob shut or I'll knock ya block off grandad!" he snarled, grabbing a hammer off a rack and waving it with some menace.

The 'old guy' raised an eyebrow. "You fine gentlemen are making a big mistake. The authorities have been alerted and your next actions may be your last as free men. Choose them carefully."

"Stanley, I do believe he thinks we are joking," "Ollie" says, grabbing a pry bar, "you want to tie him up while I go look for the safe?"

The Haunt moves around the counter as if the old man isn't a threat and starts for the room the man came out of, he expects to be attacked at any moment and is prepared to grab or punch the old man as needed.

"Your attack is ill advised and worse - suicidal." stated the old guy in a pleasant tone. "Scanners indicate that one or both of you are superhuman. You should know that this facility was built to withstand superhuman attacks."

"Shaddap!" said Yeoman as he made to restrain the man by pinning his arms behind his back.

And fell right through him!

"Hologram!" shouted Yeoman. He scooped up a claw hammer, tossing it at one of the windows.

It seemed to stop in the air about a centimetre or so from the glass, then dropped to the floor, as if all it's inertia had been drained!

"We're stuck in here!" shouted Yeoman.

"Indeed you are. Surrender." stated the hologram. "Automated defences created by the finest minds are already in place. You have not been attacked yet merely as a courtesy. That courtesy shall be removed if you do not comply, immediately."

Haunt moved round the counter and towards the back room. It was bare, save for a plain wooden door at the other side of the room.

Just then, a shimmering, crackling 'spot' of energy formed in the centre of that room... Behind Haunt, the hologram piped up "Temporal disturbance detected! Alpha One priority lockdown initiative in effect!"

The 'dot' began to grow... and widen... becoming what appeared to be a kind of energy 'mirror'...

Yeoman shouted "Now what? We need to get out of here man, before we become residents!"

"Down is good! Let's do that," the Haunt calls out. Forming powerful drills with his hands and arms, he attempts to drill down to the next level.

OOC Drills vs... well, reinforced concrete and a force field...

Roll(2d10)+0: 9,5,+0 Total:14 + Drill 14 (28) vs TN11 + OV20 (31)= Fail

Haunt plunges his drill like hands into the floor, easily punching through the tile coating and into the concrete below.

Then he is rebuffed - the immovable object under his drills more than up to his irresistible force!

Haunt stifled a curse and turned... the crackling energy portal formed into a doorway, from out of which stepped...



The muscled figure was as tall as Haunt and menacing in aspect. No doubt there as to his intentions!

"MORTAL! HEED MY WORDS! YOU MUST NOT CURE YOUR FRIEND! THE FATE OF THE WORLD IS AT STAKE!" he hissed!

Robotic metal tentacles shot out from the walls to reach for both Haunt and the newcomer! Haunt batted a pair away with the drill arms whilst the newcomer simply allowed them to coil around him... then immediately became as a porcupine, puncturing them with thousands of razor sharp spines! The metal fell away in shattered fragments!

The newcomer took a step closer to Haunt. "You must trust me." he snarled.

The voice was... familiar?

"Doctor Praetorious will prevail! Trust in our friend!" he whispered.

"AUTOMATED DEFENCE PROTOCOL 17 IN EFFECT!" shouted a robotic voice.

The newcomer turned, glancing at the floor and walls. "Force Field. I'd forgotten. It's been so long..." he turned and offered to Haunt what looked to Haunt to be... a grenade?

"OK ... thanks?" the Haunt muttered. "Sounds like you are a time traveler. Want to give me more details, like ... your name?"
The Haunt takes the possible grenade and looks it over while trying to figure out why the voice is familiar. {Will Detective Skill or Acting Skill help in this?}

The newcomer growled "Because I am you... in the year 2033... In this era we still had need of a secret identity, so I shall not divulge more, save to say that I have sacrificed much to give you this simple message... Praetorious must not be cured! Not fully... stopped, yes, but the cure will mutate into a virus. In my time there is..."

Gas started to fill the room!

"The Grenade, Haunt!" rasped the newcomer...

"In for a penny, in for a pound," the Huant mutters, hoping his future self is in a costume and that he really really doesn't turn out looking like THAT all the time!

He attaches or throws the grenade at the force field [not sure if it is a sticky or throwie grenade].

"Fire in the Hole," he yells to Yoeman, then backs to cover.

Yeoman yells "Do you know this guy? He sounds like you, bit of a weirdo... like you and... oh. Grenade?"

He dived flat on the floor whilst 'future Haunt' formed himself into a wall to curve up and around both Haunt and Yeoman!

The grenade went off... and the lights went out!

There was silence, and the gas stopped hissing too!

"I have have disabled this bases' defences and electronics, including the automatons they use to protect against intruders. Both you and Jack are bulletproof and should have no problem releasing Catalyst. Just be aware that the metahumans in this place will have had their power inhibitors disabled too! With that in mind you must hurry - the EMP Grenade was set for a short duration!" said Future Haunt.

"Hey! Watch it with the secret ID, weirdo!" muttered Yeoman, looking about at the various cameras and sensors. "I don't even know who you are!"

"You will." hissed Future Haunt. "Rush King." He thrust out a hand to Yeoman who took it and turned to Haunt. "I.... came back to this point in time because my future is lost. I have tried other times, tried to prevent all of what happens but I cannot change the future myself. My past self - you - must do it. I cannot advise you the correct path either."

"Let me guess. That messes things up worse, right?" asked Yeoman.

Future Haunt nodded. "Time for us all to go. The temporal hop doesn't last long. We will meet again, both of you."

"Rush? What kind of a name is that?" muttered Yeoman.

Haunt could see his future self starting to fade from view!

"So wait a minute," the Haunt yells at his future fading self, "so we are supposed to get Catalyst to help Doc but not cure Doc at the same time? And does this mean I don't become as rich and famous of an actor as I think I should be!? Definitely got to change that future!"

The Haunt obviously has his priorities straight here!

Whether we get an answer or not, head down the rabbit hole! And I am feeling strange enough over this to change into the Rabbit of Alice and Wonderland fame as I do so.