Lot’s happened since the last time I had a chance to record anything. We did manage to get Raptor back, but it turned out just a bit more complicated than we had hoped.

Frostburn’s people managed to pull some intel out of the encrypted data, just three nuggets: 1) there is something called Project: Ragnarok that has to do with a large network of those portals from Peekskill, 2) there is an oil tanker in the Norwegian Sea that is related to Ragnarok, 3) a memo about arctic combat and survival tactics for infantry.

We spent a few hours chasing our tails looking for Raptor in Jersey and Randall’s Island, but all we found were cold leads. We finally had to scramble to get to the oil tanker – it was apparently heading toward some destination, and we figured it would be a good idea to stop it. Anything Wired Alchemy wants is something we don’t want. I was hoping we’d find Raptor there, but had to admit the odds were against it.

Thanks once again to Frostburn and his people, we had a plane waiting to take us to Greenland and then a chopper to take us to the tanker—which was apparently barreling full-speed at an oil rig in the Norwegian Sea. Huge ecological disaster, loss of hundreds of live, property damage in the hundreds of millions, not a good thing by any sane definition.

The chopper let us down on zip lines, except for Cole…he figured he could just jump down from 100 feet up and trust his iron form to shrug it off. I’m gonna have to watch the kid—he’s got a good heart, no question, but he can be impulsive. As it turns out, the impact was enough to make him woozy. And the six demonic robots on the roof of the bridge didn’t give him a chance to recover. Yes, six robots, reminiscent of the endoskeletons from the “Terminator” movies, but based on a demon skeleton rather than a human one. Their left arms were energy weapons that could hurt Cole even in his plasma form. He’s not used to anything being able to touch him; he’ll have to get over that sense of invulnerability.

It was a tough fight, but we managed to put the robots down. Cole took a serious pounding—he just never really got his legs under him after the bad landing. Frostburn and I managed to handle them, but it took some dirty tricks. Frostburn has a neat trick where he freezes the ground and the bad guys fall on their asses. We headed down to the bridge after that, but all the controls were smashed. We figured we had to head to the engine room and figure something out.

On the way there, we came across what was left of the crew—all dead in a handful of ways, the robots’ energy weapons and other things. We found a room filled with weird Wired Alchemy equipment, smashed to bits. In the center of the room was Raptor. He was unconscious, beat to shit—and missing his wings! Frostburn managed some first aid to stabilize his condition, but we had to press on. Didn’t have too much time left before the collision. We left Cole to watch him and headed into the engine room.

Who should we find waiting there for us but the four-armed demon. He surprised us, jumped down from a catwalk and cold-cocked Frostburn. It was just him and me, and I had a score to settle. This big bastard put Graham in the hospital, and if I let him stop me all those people would die on the rig. I managed to evade him in the pipes and turbines, then got in a lucky shot that opened his guts up. I heard his voice in my head saying “next time, you’re dead,” and then he teleported away in a cloud of brimstone. Add telepathy and teleportation to his abilities—hadn’t been sure if the teleportation was him or the sorcerer, now we know it just might be both.

Over the din of the turbines I heard more of the robots’ energy weapons so I headed back to check on Cole and Raptor. Sure enough, four more of the robots. But Raptor was awake—and even without his wings, he seemed to be doing fine. It was wild to see: he was flying with wings made of energy, firing electric bolts from his hands, and protected by energy runes that showed up on his body when he took a hit. The three of us took the robots down and had a quick reunion. Raptor had been captured and Charles Yarger came to see him talking about Ragnarok.

Yarger basically wants to spark Ragnarok or Armageddon early, be the last man standing, and so become the first god of the new world order. Or something like that. He needs three angels to do it, though, and since Raptor wasn’t cooperative they had to strip him of his “angel” status so they could bestow it upon someone else. They used the Pandora nanites to remove the enhancements, but somehow the nanites bonded with him, became a part of him. Hence the new abilities.

We still don’t know the specifics of Yarger’s plan, still don’t know what the tanker and the oil rig have to do with any of that. Hopefully Frostburn’s tech people have had more time to crack the encryption. But luckily for us, the nanites let Raptor communicate with electronics. He was able to hack the control panel in the engine room, and now the tanker’s under control. So now we have our friend back and we stopped the tanker. And I eviscerated a demon. All in all, not a bad day’s work.

I think tomorrow’s going to be another doozy, though.