CHESS has been on red alert for three days. Today is December 31, 1999 and it’s the day that the
Blue Blood is supposed to launch his attack. Teams have been dispatched to the
Deep Six Holding Faclity for the presumed inevitable break out.
Marshal Strong and
Magnum are about to have
Gates teleport them to the Supermax Prison when all the lights go out.
They are suddenly swallowed up by their own costumes! And, they feel an attack on their internal organs. Through sheer luck and force of will, they survive the dual attack and then Magnum detects that the whole Mesa is flooded with killer nanites. He uses his magnetic power to create a powerful EMP pulse that deactivates the nanites. Strong notes that every monitor in the base is playing on a loop. It has some old footage of an Octopus changing colors and the voice over is of Steve Irwin saying, “The Octopus is a master of camouflage and it has blue blood.” Over this looping video is a digital code of 10100101 over and over again. What the hell is going on?
Realizing that the Blue Blood and leader of the Octagon is the Clarence Fishburn, the Octopus really scares them. This “idiot savant” has been the head of CHESS’s R&D since the death of the Quidnunc. He has been the head designer of most CHESS advanced weaponry. He designed all the CHESS metawear!
Strong lights up his stellar rod, the only piece of tech that is still working since the EMP blast. He and Magnum try to make their way down to the Octopus’ lab. They find
Daisy Nixon wandering the halls. She says that the people who say they are her parents are dead. Along with the only person she actually liked, Dr. Young.
With no other choice, they take Nixon, hoping her meta powers will protect her if it comes to a fight. Neither can imagine the Octopus being too formidable in combat.
They are attacked in the stairwell by Dust, a metahuman created by the Control Freak and defeated by a pre Mr. Clean Lance Muldoon. He has been contained in a steel box and recently been transferred to, you guessed it, the Octopus’ lab. Strong inhales some of Dust which harms him, so he attacks with fire, which seems to have done the job.
Unfortunately, Magnum and Daisy see a purple glow down the stairwell. Magnum recognizes it from his old sparring partner, The Purple Rhombus. Magnum knows that the host of this alien metal artifact is usually an innocent pawn; he tries not to hurt him. He attacks the hand holding the rhombus, but is stopped by a force feild. Nixon fires a few power blasts, and they too seem to be blocked by the strange purple aura.
Marshal Strong tries to kick Omar, the host of the Purple Rhombus, and succeeds in injuring his foot. Marshal’s foot that is, not Omar’s.
The three rat pack the Purple Rhombus, trying to wear down his force field. Omar attacks back with a thought blast. He merges the thoughts of all three an fires them back at high intensity. As he does this, he tells Nixon that out of the three, she is the only one who scares him. They each take some damage from this attack, while Marshal Strong makes some sense from the glimpse into Daisy’s psyche. He thinks she is possessed, and it has something to do with the Devil. Is this some trick of the Purple Rhombus? When this is over, this bears investigating.
Magnum collapses the force field at the cost of one of his neutronium blades. Strong then transforms Omar’s hand into pudding. Omar screams that it’s not supposed to end this way. That he was promised ultimate power! He collapses in the corner unconscious, and they kick the rhombus away and gang blast it. The rhombus prevails.
Since they blasted half the corridor apart, they have to vacate the stair well or risk being hit by falling concrete. They are then set upon by Mayfly, or rather, a new Mayfly. They recall that the first Mayfly was woman who was given a drug that gave her insect powers, and that very drug reduced her lifespan to 24 hours. They see this Mayfly’s name tag, and its Michaela Smith, the Octopus’ nurse! That bastard! Strong hurts his hands wearing down her chit nous armor, while the bug lady tries to dine on his face. Magnum has his hands full with Sera, the daughter of Ares! She is wearing D6HF prison gear and carrying brand new ancient Spartan style sword.
A serum quickly realizes that her sword is no good against Magnum’s magnetic defense. He pulls the sword from her grasp and flings in into the dark. Sera then removes he r nylon shoelaces, and runs behind the large man and tries to strangle Magnum. Unfortunately, the laces were not designed to withstand that much pressure and snap.
Strong defeats Mayfly and Nixon and Magnum are double teaming Sera. Sera are taken as a serious threat as she has killed a CHESS metahuman before. He was imprisoned for killing Elusion.
She is knocked out eventually, and Strong examines her to make sure she is not faking. She is out. Then an argument breaks out over Magnum wanting to slit her throat, and Strong prevents him saying it’s not the right thing to do. While this is going on Daisy goes over to the prone Sera and tries to kill her by grabbing her head and vibrating it to mush. Sera jumps up and double taps Nixon into a wall. At this point Magnum says, “I told you so…” and slices her twice in the back with his remaining sword.
At this point, they see the Octopus walking out of the darkness carrying an array of small devices in his exposed tentacles. He is wearing Spider Man Pajamas that are a size too small. He activates the device and all anyone can see is a ruby glow. He welcomes them all into the new era of Ioiooioi, the new electronic god.
It is then that they realize that all their meta powers have been taken away….