Patchwork Universe

Dr James Kirby · Good Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 214 Location: Empire City

In a secret location, somewhere in Empire City, five men sat in conference. They sat around a large, round, black glass table, in five seats spaced equidistant around the table.

"I called you here this morning to discuss a situation that arose last night. As you may know, last night Von Damme attempted to steal the Quiet Zone projector from my laboratory. I believe his intent was to use it as a weapon to cast targets out of the universe as we know it."

A murmur of disapproval went around the table.

"During the attempted robbery, the projector was activiated, and he and I were exposed to the projector's ultra-rays. While there was no apparent effect on me, shortly after, as we were battling on his zeppelin, I encountered what I can only describe as a dimensional discontinuity, and found myself elsewhere."

"I was pursuing the zeppelin in an autogyro last night, and it suddenly vanished" interjected one of the others, a muscular, athletically built man. This was The Sentinel, nominally the leader of The Defenders, the peak of human potential, both physical and mental. "I had presumed that this was some form of cloaking device."

"Apparently not" replied Kirby. "To my perception, the city is bounded by four rectilinear dimensional discontinuities, describing approximately a ten square mile area. The limits appear to be bounded by the docks to the west and east, 65th street to the north, and 23rd street to the south."

"To your perception?" enquired a pale, black clad figure. This was The Spider, master of stealth, infiltration and disguise. He fingered the brim of the black fedora in front of him as he spoke. "Does anyone else see this discontinuity?"

"Not that I have observed. Those I have asked have not seen it, and moreover, traffic and pedestrians appear to move in and out of the mist without impediment."

"Then it is a cage" rumbled the huge voice of the eight foot tall being sitting across from Kirby. This was The Titan, victim and product of Nazi eugenic engineering, and now fascism's deadliest enemy. "A cage built for you."

"And Von Damme also, if he also traverses these discontinuities as I do. What I have not told you is that beyond the discontinuity I traversed lay an area roughly the same size, which resembled, I think, Great Britain, of perhaps a hundred years ago. Beyond that lay a city, which did not appear to be any that exists in our world at all. It was golden, and above it floated a huge island of stone..."

"Then this cage has other prisoners" commented the last member of the group. He wore a long-tailed tuxedo, his hair was smoothed back, and he wore a dapper, pencil thin moustache. Before him on the table lay a top hat and a cane. As he mused, he rolled a coin across his knuckles. "This is the work of some powerful entity or other. Perhaps the misuse of the projector cut into the realm of this entity, and you and Von Damme were imprisoned in retaliation. Perhaps inhabitants of the other domains you speak of commited similar acts."

Kirby pondered. He knew what The Sorceror was getting at. By "entity", The Sorceror was implying the intervention of some demon or godling or other. Kirby prefered to think of such entities as merely the inhabitants of other dimensions, without colouring them with supernatural qualities. This was the subject of heated debate between the two, but both knew this was not the time.

"The question now, it seems, is what should be done about this?" begain The Sentinel, now taking charge of the meeting.
"It seems to me that there are now two priniciple problems. Firstly, James is effectively constrained to a ten mile square of Empire, something that is both unacceptable from the perspective of his personal freedom, and also alarming when we consider how this will affect his ability to work with the team. Were something to happen three miles north, we would be effectively without his aid.
"Secondly, whatever the nature of the world or worlds that surrounds us, it cannot know the dangers posed by Von Damme. If he is free to roam, with the full resources of his zeppelin at his disposal, he may encounter people ill-equipped to defend themselves against him. He may even discover areas with technologies in advance of our own. If such things fell into his hands, it would not bode well for his eventual return here."

Kirby gave an inward sigh of relief. Perhaps another team might have responded with scepticism, but The Defenders were people who'd been to many unusual places and dimensions before, and all this was very much in a day's work.

"This was my concern" replied Kirby "In light of my limited usefulness here, and of our responsibility to reign in Von Damme wherever he might be, I am taking a leave of absence from active duty. I shall be present while I can, and will obviously continue to provide technical assistance and analysis where I can. This matter seems to me to be a priority, however, and I need to give it my full attention."

The Sentinel nodded his assent. "Then it's settled. The team will render any assistance it can. Alexander, you especially will need to work to determine which supernatural agency, if any, is behind this, and perhaps work to determine how the walls of this prison might be broken." The Sorceror nodded in agreement.

"One other thing - this may well be a prison, of some sort. If so, and if James can enter neighbouring cells, then the inmates of neighbouring cells may enter ours. We need to be vigilant on this, other inmates might have a valid criminal reason for their incarceration, and might be dangerous. On the other hand, James' imprisonment is unjust in our eyes, so we must not presume the worst of any interloper."

"I shall inform the police that any unusual individuals arriving in the areas James mentioned should be watched, and one of us should be called via the usual channels. Remember, they'll possibly be confused and disoriented."

With that, the meeting moved on to other matters, like what the 4th Reich were planning to do to the water supply.