Dear Christine,

The situation here continues to slip further out of our control, and I fear this is merely the begining. My powers, abilities This thing that has happened to me awoken within me continues to wreck havoc upon my life and I don’t know how or if it can be stopped. I awoke, to use the term that fits best, earlier today to discover that I had lost an unknown number of days. My companions, compatriots? Does that sound better? iform me I had transformed into some mass of flesh during the events at the farmhouse, alive but most definitely not human. That was three, or was it four days ago. I don’t know what triggered it, nor why I returned to my original form, but even my hair was back to its usual unkempt state.

Much has happened in those days, too much to share right now. We make our way to a new safer location, one which we have been promised will have answers. Even though I know you will never see this letter I dare not write down our route in case others have use of it in the future. Just know that as soon as it is safe I will make my way back to you.

Love,

Alex

The party drove off and stopped off in a nearby village. Here, The Cube turned back into Alex. Alex kept reciting a series of numbers: 67509846-6532156248-958065332-1121804756-54676987-88-5423658, eventually grabbing the laptop and typing them out before snapping out of it and apparently having no memory since turning into a Cube. Alex attempted to give medical attention to Jason, doing alarmingly well as his power triggered involuntarily.

They got a call from another person calling themselves D. D had no idea how Company found the party so quickly. He told them to change phones, cars, clothes and warned that The Company had access to implantable tracking devices. Once they changed phones, D said they should call him again.

The party got a new phone and called D, asking for help with checking that Annabeth hadn’t had a tracking device implanted into her. D met them, scanned Annabeth and the party, declaring them clean. They were then asked to meet another group of Empowered and take them to a nearby aerodrome where a plane will be waiting.

They met the other group and started driving towards the aerodrome. Along the way, something happened. Everyone in the car felt a sharp pain in their chest, and some of their powers triggered. They were plunged into pitch blackness, the car seemed to start sinking, it became extremely cold and sounds started to appear to originate from different places. Perhaps worse, Alex and Flynn both felt as if their powers had triggered, but weren’t able to identify any effect…

Annabeth awoke to have a conversation with a woman called Kitty. Kitty told Annabeth that if she did not call her and betray the party within a week, one of Annabeth’s friends was “going to suffer.” Shortly after this, the party broke into the office where Annabeth had been captured and rescued her and Gordon too.

The party then contacted D, and arranged to meet at a roadside hotel. D turned out to be Daniel Williams, one of the researchers from GB31. Annabeth recognised him and the party left, not trusting that it wasn’t a trap. After a telephone conversation with Daniel they agreed to a different, more public, meeting place – A nearby motorway service station.

Daniel gave them some background on his organisation – A splinter group from The Company who believe that the Machiavellian cruelty of The Company (Which the party have taken to calling GB31) could not be tolerated. He told them that the original group had been around for a very long time and existed because they think that the awakening of powers seems to coincide with the down fall of civilizations. Both organisations are seeking to stop this from happening, they only differ in their approach. Daniel told them that The Company’s main strong hold in Europe is in Britain as well as the main branch of his organisation. However The Company has much greater reach across the world, and Daniel’s group lack the same resources. At the moment their main goal is to get the empowered away from The Company, and the party agreed to help guide others out of the country. Daniel gave told them that D simply refers to the group’s leadership, not specifically him, and gave them a device which updates to represent the current number to contact them, which changes frequently.

As Daniel was getting up to leave, a team of armed and armoured people burst in and shot Daniel. Jason went haywire with his power twice in as many minutes, causing the whole building to explode before dropping unconscious. The party rescued him, and The Cube, and drove away into the distance with a badly shot up stolen car with a flat tyre.

Further extracts from a statment made by Gregor Warner:

So we had got free. We’d got a van, a laptop and some co-ordinates. Shame we didn’t have a clue.
We checked out the co-ordinates and they showed a location in Dartmoor. We drove there through the night, well i did while the others slept. When we got to the location it turned out to be a farm house with its own generator some quad bikes oh and an envelope addressed to us on the table in the kitchen.

The letter told us there would be a package at the local post office addressed to a Daniel Williams in 2 days and signed D. Jason managed to get the laptop working at least partially.

The following morning we saw on the news that there had apparently been a riot in the area where we had escaped from and it had been sealed off. Jason shared with us what he had found out on the laptop and that he’d found out that he could control earth, shame we didn’t have any of the other planeteers. While Beth made some breakfast i went for a walk to clear my head and get some peace.

Unfortunately before i got far another van came tearing into the houses driveway and a couple of people, a man and a woaman, ran into the house. As i reached the van i heard shouting in the house and saw someone lying unconcious in the van. Both of the people were empowered as well and the man had a gun and was holding Jason, Beth and Alex at gunpoint. The big guy, apparently called Eric, started to freak out and the oven exploded. I tackled the woman while Flynn who had also been outside disarmed Eric.

Once the smoke had cleared we saw Alex seemed to have turned into a fleshy cube with a heartbeat. The woman tried to explain they were escapees as well and ha also been given this location. We let them stay the night but kept an eye on them till they left first thing the following morning. Once they had gone and we’d checked on the Cube Flynn, Jason and i headed to the village to pick up the package. On the way back Flynn accidentally started deconstructing a houses wall and Jason tried to fix it but instead blew it up injuring several people and getting us caught on camera phones people were using to take pictures of what had happened.

We opened the package to find it contained an old mobile phone with only 1 contact on it D. When we got back to the house we were attacked by a metal spider which knocked out Jason with some sort of drug before Flynn and I managed to take it out. We quickly packed up and left.

Once we were clear of the area we phoned D. He told us he worked for a group working against GB31 and asked us to contact Gordon Howell a researcher from GB31. When we eventually reached his house in Anglesey the next day we discovered it had been broken into and he had been abducted but had left a dictaphone with the word Chester on it.

We decided to head to Chester where GB31 apparently has some offices. When we got there Beth decided to check it out pretending to be lost and looking for directions headed into the building…

After the explosion the group was able to unite in concern and shock, at least resolving the issue of the shotgun being wielded aggressively. As the dust settled however, the group found that Alex appeared to have turned into a ‘fleshy cube’ (with a heart beat). Eric and co did not make great friends with the party and it was agreed that they would leave the next day.

The party went to collect their package, leaving a still shocked annabeth at home. On the way out of town Flynn’s power went haywire and reconstituted one wall of a house, causing the rest of it to start falling down. In an attempt to stop it falling, Jason accidentally turned it from a falling house into an exploding one. At least four passers by were injured, and the party discovered later from a news report that one had died. After doing their best to tend to the injured, at the expense of allowing their pictures to be taken amidst the chaos, they left quickly.

Upon opening the package they found it contained an old mobile phone with just one contact in it – D. Deciding that getting away from here was more important than the phone though they started packing up. As he was collecting Alex/The Cube, Jason was ambushed by a robotic spider. The party eventually managed to subdue it using a combination of Gregor’s power and Flynn with a shotgun. Unfortunately they spotted another one escaping.

After speaking to D, the party agreed to do a job for him and his organisation. They were to meet a researcher using the pseudonym Gordon Howell in Anglesey. Driving through the night, they got there and waited until morning before going to visit him. Unfortunately they found that his house had recently been broken into. Gordon had been kidnapped and apparently taken somewhere in Chester. Stopping only to loot Gordon’s house for food, supplies to water The Cube/Alex, and his hard drive, the party rushed to do some research into where he might be and if there was any news. They found that there had been a resurgence of power-incidents over the last couple of days and from D, that The Corporation owned an office in Chester. Could this be where Gordon was taken?

The party drove to Chester, taking the opportunity to experiment a little with their powers, and arrived at the address D had given. Annabeth attempted to perform some scouting ahead by going in to ask for directions. Unfortunately the staff recognised her and rendered her unconscious.

Arrived at safehouse, a farm on the edge of Postbridge, Dartmoor. A 4 bedroom farm with attached barn (where the van is now stored). At the back is a shed containing a dedicated electrical generator and 4 quad bikes. Inside a note lies by a bundle of money (~£1000), telling the group to collect a parcel from the local post office on the 12th January using the name Daniel Williams. The note is signed ‘D’, which the group speculated may be aforementioned Daniel.

After resting and catching up on the news the group were interrupted by the arrival of three individuals. Initially hostile these individuals appeared to be from the facility. The first, identified as Erik was armed and openly hostile, while the second who appeared to possess some form of gravity manipulation was calmer. The third individual was unconscious in the back of the people carrier they had arrived in. With Erik almost convinced the party was friendly the calm was shattered by an explosion in the kitchen, occurring at the same time as Erik collapsed.

July 10th. The scale of the rioting in Farnborough last night is this morning becoming apparent, with much of the high street resembling a war zone of broken glass and burnt, smashed up merchandise. While the full details remain embargoed under emergency anti terrorist legislation local police forces admit that they were unprepared, with the violence emerging seemingly out of nowhere. Official reports confirm a number of rioters have been detained, however their numbers and whereabouts are unknown at present. Police are also unwilling to confirm reports of heavy injuries to the constables deployed however local sources at Farnborough district hospital have suggested a number of officers are being treated for burns, lacerations and broken bones.

Dear Chris and Di,

Well we got to Flynn’s mystery location – a farmhouse in the middle of Dartmoor. No one was there but whoever sent us there had left a letter and a bit of spending money, turns out we could have avoided the business with the ATM after all. The letter said we were to wait around for a couple of days before going to pick up a parcel in the nearby town with further instructions. Not sure I like just doing whatever this mysterious person says but it’s not like we have any better ideas.

Finally got some sleep after our breakout and had a troubling experience. Seems that my power can trigger while I sleep, but I suppose the good news is it’s not always life threatening when it does.

As it turned out we weren’t going to get a wholly peaceful couple of days wait because a car arrived with a two more of the escapees. An aggressive pair, one was waving a shotgun wildly around, I think we managed to calm them down but then something caused an explosion. I don’t think anyone was seriously hurt. I just hope they stay calm.

Love,
Alex

New Year, UK. Approximately midnight. The world is busy celebrating the start of a new year, history will instead mark it as the start of a new era. Throughout the world a small number of individuals experience a more drastic shift, as super human abilities spontaneously awaken before vanishing just as suddenly. In the UK Annabeth Quinn burns down a library; Alexander “Alex” Thompson miraculously heals a wounded reveller; Theodore Flynn melts the walls of his daughters house; Gregor Warner drunkenly turns objects into stone; and Jason Warren triggers a major earthquake in London.

In a digital, connected world news of these events spread quickly and the world is forced to accept that not is all as it seems. Over the next few days a series of supposedly connected events are reported before the phenomenon disappears again. In reality however those newly empowered by the events of New Year have been abducted by an unknown organisation. The empowered spend six months in confinement being studied and researched, six months during which their powers are almost non-existent. On July 2nd, however, the situation escalates once again as their powers more fully manifest. Aided by a member of staff at GB31 a mass escape occurs, during which the group begin to experience their full abilities with Alex in particular being forced to confront them after accidentally killing a security guard.

Stealing both an encrypted laptop and unmarked vehicle the group begins the journey towards a safe house on Dartmoor, breaking into an ATM in order to purchase clothes and supplies, unaware of the changes that have engulfed the world during their imprisonment…

Dear Chris & Di,

I hope you’ve not given up on me, I’m alive and coming back as soon as I can. I promise.

I was abducted on New Year’s Eve by two police officers. I was taken to some sort of research facility where fifty or so of us were held. They spent 6 months doing strange tests on us. Some of the others thought that they were trying to make us exhibit some sort of powers. After tonight, I think they might have been right.

Someone opened the door to our cell during the night. One of the other inmates, Flynn, thinks it was one of the guards because she gave him a message earlier that day. Naturally we made a run for it.

On the way out I saw some of the other prisoners beating a guard, I tried to stop them but I suppose 6 months of pent up rage is hard to quell. I’m sure he was only doing his job, but I suppose they didn’t see it that way.

One of the other inmates was Gregor Warner – that bike racer you got into a while back. Anyway, as we were heading towards the exit, he ran upstairs, I guess he thought we were underground. Hard to tell with no windows. I followed him to try to get him back to ground level, but we had to jump into a doorway to get away from some guards. I don’t know if they spotted us, but it became a moot point. I don’t want to go into detail why.

We went back outside and Gregor ran on, away from the stairs down to ground level. I tried to chase after him but something strange happened. You won’t believe this but I swear it’s true, my legs started to grow. Really grow. They got to about 6 foot on their own, I had to throw myself to the floor to avoid crushing against the ceiling. They went back to normal after a few seconds, but it’s this and the unpleasantness with the guard that makes me start to belikve in the ‘powers’ talk. This is also why I’m not coming back yet or evening posting this. I’m not going to come back until I know it’s safe for me to be around you.

It was around this point that the earthquake started. Implausible again, I know, but it did. Suddenly, a huge earthquake. Gregor jumped out the window and after I’d managed to get up again, I did too. Daring escape!

We met up with some of the others: Flynn, Jason and Annabel and managed to take a van using that poor guard’s keys and drove away.

Flynn’s mystery message included some GPS co-ordinates, so for want of a better plan we’re heading there. We’ve managed to get some money – enough for food and a change of clothes at least so I suppose we can say we’re on our way.

Love,
Alex