TOP SECRET! Eyes only! Destroy after reading...

OOC I'll be sticking a few 'flavour' posts in here to set the scene and give a little background. It doesn't directly affect the players, but might shed a little light on why the characters are in the situation they are in...

Somewhere on the outskirts of Berlin, spring 1939

The air shimmered, leaves whipping up and swirling around, as the air charged with static electricity! Birds twittered and took flight, dogs howled in their kennels and cats broke off what they were doing to stand, hair on end, and run for cover. A farmer in his field ploughing with his tractor looked up and about. The stench of ozone was strong in the air. His tractor stalled, then refused, despite repeated attempts, to restart.

The clouds boiled dark and grey overhead.

The farmer had a very bad feeling...

A sphere of energy, 20' in diameter, suddenly appeared in his field near the edge, woods the backdrop. Lightning arced out in every direction, lancing into trees and setting them alight! Then there was a blinding flashing, and a roar like thunder! The farmer rubbed his eyes and blinked, looking over at where the energy sphere had been! He gaped! There were... Then he looked again to the side of the tractor. The young woman was beautiful, athletic, and naked, and stood beside the vehicle. How had she...? "Mein Gott!" he uttered. Her hand flew up, grasping his throat and twisting violently! With a CRICK! Josef Meinhoff died, and his body was tossed into the ditch he'd just ploughed. The woman looked about, then sped across the field faster than anyone had a right to. Plastered with mud up to the waist, she arrived back where the group was gathered. "Make contact with the others." said an imperious looking man in his late fifties. Despite his age, he was in remarkable physical condition and compared well with any of the athletic looking men and women stood around him. "The serum?" he enquired of a scrawny looking fellow who stood behind him. He stood out for being 'normal' looking, and of the group, was most conscious of being naked. "Yes sir. Safe. The organic matter protected them from the time stream transfer." The leader nodded, and looked out across the fields to the city. "Well then, we'd best get on with it. We have a proposition to put to the man in charge of this country." He started to stride across the field, then turned, as the others paused, shifting uncomfortably. Frowning, he was about to speak but saw the naked group of men and women before realisation dawned. "Ah yes. Acquire some clothing for all of us. We'll wait here until you return. Leave no witnesses."

He turned to look at the city. "Soon." he remarked.

"I was a Superhero in World War II - Memoirs of a Justiciar"

Excerpted from the bestselling biography available now in shops priced £11.99 from Paragon Press

"...told us that we'd be serving our country in ways no ordinary person could. That we'd be symbols, elevated beyond even film stars, and revered by the man and woman in the street. Heck, we were all for it, though for different reasons at the time. Most of us didn't quite know what we were getting into, after all, there had never been our like seen before. The Nazis were first, there's been no doubt about that. Can I even mention the word 'Nazi' these days? It makes me shake my head when I think about all those who died so that we can say what we want, do as we please. Now look at the country. Makes me sad when an old man can't go out without youths pointing a knife at you. Anyway, back then, we were barely older than the jobless feckless youth of today, save we were doing things no one had ever dreamed of, save the pair from America who cooked up Superman. You remember Superman? That comic book? No? I do. I remember reading how fantastic it was, and it was so far from reality that I laughed. I was too amazed to laugh when I saw Silver Sentinel fly the first time, or when I met the Vanguard, who were like us, but 'more' in every way, like Superheroes turned up to 100 when everyone else thought the scale went to 10. I often wonder what became of them, or of the others. Funny really. We were all so eager to join up, do our part, then sign up to this new top secret project that saw us given Super powers. We were like Gods! They gave us crazy costumes, in colours so bright and garish we stuck out like a sore thumb on the battlefield! Might as well have painted a target on our arses!"

"Anyway, after all the training, and tests and what not, they threw us into the thick of things. I mentioned the Nazis were first, right? Well, little did we know back then but they had their own metahuman program, and they weren't anywhere near as choosy as our lot were. Pretty soon we were on the front line, our costumes giving the normal rank and file a better fighting chance, though for us it wasn't so easy. You see, when you're young and full of beans, and someone just gave you super powers, you feel on top of the world! invincible! I remember a few of us turning up to help some guys pinned down by a few Jerry machine gun nests. There were wounded all over. The Germans would shoot to wound the first few, then wait till some of the lads tried to retrieve their screaming friends, then shoot them. Bastards. Anyway, me and a few of the others rolled up, costumes and all, and dove straight at the Germans. It was like running into a hailstorm save the hailstones were bullets. I remember one guy... what was his name...? Anyway, he'd grabbed a string of grenades and dashed at a machine gun nest. The noise was deafening, awful. Some of us could take a bullet or two. There were some who could withstand a few tank shells even. Most relied on their powers to somehow get them to where they wanted to be, be it through speed, trickery or sheer impossibility. You wouldn't believe the things I've seen. Well, that day, we were as brave as the Newspapers said we were. They don't mention how stupid we were though. That guy I mentioned? I think his name was Major Terrific or.. Major Justice or something. Anyway, he went down, but carried on crawling towards the machine gun nest. It was only a minute or two later when he realised he'd been cut in half by the machine gun fire, and his legs were some way behind him, along with his innards. Turned out his super powers made him pretty much immune to pain, but they also made him foolhardy, to a fault. Someone said 'no guts no glory' but I don't know if they were referring to something like that. There's nothing glorious in spreading your guts all over a battlefield as what's left of you crawls towards a machine gun nest. I was flattened in the blast when he set the grenades off, and sprayed in what I thought was mud, but turned out to be what was left of the Major. Aside from my hearing on my right side, something else died that day. You see, up till then, all the little skirmishes had been an adventure, fun even. Seeing my friend chopped in half then blow himself up sticking it to the Nazis slammed home the reality of what we were doing. We weren't immortal, or indestructible, or anything like what the newspapers made us out to be. We were kids, and we died like any other. I survived to see the war out, but my innocence died that day on a battlefield somewhere in France. All the glamour, adventure, fame, girls... all of it came with a price. Most of us paid that price in blood."

Somewhere Else... a dark place...

"You took a risk coming back here. What do you want?" said the creature in tattered robes as it looked about. The city of iron bustled about with others going about their business. The word was they were preparing to mobilise, and that all Shadow Demons, high and low born, would find a place in the other reality once the shadows had darkened to a point that they could move freely from their own realm to the next. The creature in tattered robes was high born, a cousin of the royal family and an indirect heir to the throne. He had gone into exile with the ruling family and knew there was no going back to what had been. The laws and rules regarding population control had been dissolved. The place was burgeoning, across the vast world and the universe with new shadow demon life and it would only be a matter of time before it was fit to burst!

In short, the new regime had seen to it that they HAD to invade and expand. The old regime, for all their faults, had ruled for eons with something approaching restraint. Now that was gone.

The material plane of reality would know the wrath of the Shadow Demons. The portal would open, and they would pour into the material plane of existence like a swarm, instead of, as now, a few powerful individuals and small groups of lesser demons.

Garrr'Zorr Vorrg Shadvarnazzi sighed. As part of the ruling family his life had been carefree. Do what you will, when you will it, but that had all changed. The new regime had ordered he serve it, or die. Instead, he'd gone into hiding. Now in one of the great Shadow cities he hid like a lowly, standing out for his size but emanating enough of a threat that he was left alone. He'd moved from place to place after being discovered. He looked at the black scar wound on his arm where it had nearly been severed and remembered the legion of Shadow Varks - elite death troops who fought until they were destroyed or victorious - he'd had to cut through scores of them, and those who beheld it had never seen the invincible legion smashed as he had done so. The slaughter had been messy that day, even for him! He grinned at the memory. He was only doing his part for population control! Now more powerful prey hunted him.

It was only a matter of time before they found him.

He turned to face the true heir to the throne, Raddavarrx Korr Vunnnshark the third, the first of the Shadow Demon royal family to align itself with a mortal host and oppose the new ruling order in the material plane. Garrr'Zorr was in awe of the Demon. Of all the old ruling class, it was this one that had showed temperance, compassion, wisdom and benevolence, traits alien to the rest of Shadow Demon society at the time. It had shone a light in a world of darkness, and brought about the destruction of the ruling royal family!

"Have you not done enough? We are in exile. I hide knowing it will soon be time to fight again, or die. You? You are the most powerful of us, and you draw trouble like a magnet! Even speaking to you places my soul in dire peril! You turned our thoughts and out nature upside down after your interaction with the mortal James Caldwell. It was his fault we know of the material plane, and ultimately the pair of you that destroyed the status quo here! Now it is inevitable that the material plane fall, and you brought it about!"

Raddavarrx, only one of the royal names he went by, shrugged, He looked about in the tavern, seeing a burly pair of guards stare at him across the crowded room. His power shone like a beacon, as did his cousins. He stared back, and the guards shivered, suddenly needing to be elsewhere. "My host is my friend. As are you. And you are needed. I have found you a host."

"NO!" barked Garrr'Zorr, slamming a clawed fist on the table. Demons turned to look, but turned away with a glance from the exiled High Prince. If they knew the former heir to the throne of the Shadow Universe was here, they'd have tried to claim the reward - or run knowing that with a thought the Prince could wipe them all out!

"I will not play your games! We are NOT heroes!" he hissed. "You have no idea what..."

"I have EVERY idea!" hissed the High Prince. "It was I who started this crusade against the usurpers! There have been.. setbacks..."

"You could say that!" snorted Garrr'Zorr. "Your mortal host seems to die every few nanktons of time! They are fragile, think small thoughts and live small lives! You lower yourself to align with them!"

The High Prince shrugged. "I have ... changed. I have learnt of humility, honour, belonging, friendship. He came to this place looking for some way to save his lost love. He failed, and unleashed the greatest threat to every universe ever known! Did he give up? No! He convinced me, ME!" hissed the High Prince "Of the most powerful race of beings in existence, I was at the peak! This mortal convinced me to join with him and fight! He is special... and I have found you a special host. A young mortal. He has been prepared but the process will take longer."

Garrr'Zorr snorted. "Simply render him comatose like the others. Besides, I will not play your games!"

The High Prince frowned, lip curling. "It was not a request, cousin."

Garrr'Zorr, supreme warrior of the high family, slayer of creatures that would boil a mortals blood if they simply beheld them, unbeaten, as many of the high family were, in battle, considered his next words. The High Prince was still family, and though usurped was commanding he do his duty.

"As you will it cousin." he said, bowing his head. "though when we manifest in the mortal realm, leaving our own forms comatose here, I have thoughts of plunging into cleansing fire to rid myself of mortal stink!"

The High Prince shrugged. "You will change. I did. As did my brothers and sister, well, at least one of my sisters. Make yourself ready, and say your goodbyes. We will..."

Garrr'Zorr stood. "By your command." he whispered. "I am ready."

The High Prince chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder as he rose. The pair of them stooped, but still towered over many of the smoky taverns inhabitants. "We have fallen far. I think, with your help, we will rise again. Come..."

Interlude ends...

OOC this will be reprinted in the notable events section... What does it have to do with Silver Sentinel? Everything...