Chapter 5

Chapter V (March 31 - April1, 1984):

Between two ruined buildings a puff of smoke appeared. As the smoke disapated, five people were there. Cheshire Cat, Poltergeist, WHite-Out, Lord Scarlet, and Unknown walked to the edge of the buildings. On the other side of the buildings, was a fifteen foot walkway, riddled with potholes and bomb craters. And beyond that was the river Thames. And on the other side of the Thames, where Big Ben should have been standing, was just a bombed out skeleton. And next to it, instead of the Houses Of Parliment, stood a large sprawling mansion, in some architechtrual design most of the gropu there had never seen before.

"we're not in Kansas anymore." Cheshire Cat said.

"That," Lord Scarlet said pointing "Is Rudolf's London Mansion."

"Mansion?" Cheshire Cat said. "That place is big enough ot have it's own zip code."

"Look!" Lord Scarlet said excitedly. "Isn't that Rudolf? On the balcony there?" Unknown strained his eyes, squinting to see, but agreed that it was. "By God, man, get us over there!" In another puff of smoke, they were gone again.

The next instant, they were on the balcony. A brown haired man in a black business suit, black shirt and tie stood there. he wore a cloak over his shoulders. Lord Scarlet pointed his sword at the man. "Now, Rudolf, you DIE!" A red ray of crackling energy shot from the end of the sword. I expanded as it moved so when it reached the man, it engulfed him completely.

Lord Scarlet expected the man to be burnt to a crisp...or at least smoldering. The only thing that happened was the disguise worn by someone else burnt away. beneath it the man wore a blue costume, with white boots and gloves and a black cape.

"Thunderstorm?" Lord Scarlet was shocked. The man called THunderstorm raised his hands. Winds, rain, lightning, everything in a thunderstorm shot from his hands. He kept it all in a tight naroow line, so that when they hit Lord Scarlet, it was as if he had been hit by a truck. He went sailing backwards, over the railing and into the river. Poltergiest went to the air and approached Thunderstorm, but he didn't get far. He washit from above by a blast of heat and fire. He was knocked back down into the balcony, scorched, smoldering and unconscious. A man inside an aura of flames landed next to Thunderstorm. WHite-Out fired his rays of ice at both of them, but the Flamester shot his heat and fire at the ice, and they canceled eahc other oout. They both kept firing, if one would stop, the other wouold overcome the first.

"We've got to do something!" Cheshire Cat exclaimed.

"I'm thinking!" Unknown said, his panic not nearly contained. He knew if these two were here, then others of the FOrce would not be far behind. He didn't notice the snake-like object slithering up behind him. The thing wrapped itself around Unknown. It jerked him into the air. From the roof, a head came up to Unknown, its neck stretched back to its body on the roof. The thing was a man's arm, a stretching man!

"Oooh" the stretching man said. "Caught a big one, didn't i?"

Cheshire Cat knew this was a hopeless scene now. She blinked out, re-appeareing behind White-Oout. She wrapped her arms around his waist quickly and blinked out again. Flamester stopped his fire, and Elastico dropped Unknown, after ensuring he squeezed him into unconsciousness. The door tot he balcony opened and the real Rudolf stepped out. "Good work, my Force. I'm glad we took these death threats seriously." He looke daround the balcony. "Who's that?" he indicated Poltergiest.

"Probably one of thier new recruits." Elastico said, strentching his whole body down to the baloncy. He looked towards the river. "Should I retrieve Scarlet's body?"

"Let him drown." Rudolf said. "Take these two to the dungeons." The Force members followed thier orders.
*****
"They're leaving." Cheshire Cate told WHite-Out.

"There's nothing more we can do here." White-out said, peering between the ruined buildings. Cheshire Cat had blinked them to the same spot Unknown had arrived at. "I wish we could get back to New York."

"We can.{" Cheshire cat said. "I'll just have to take the trip in shorter jumps." She took WHite-Outs hands and then blinked them both out.
*****
The area around the mansion had returned to normal. Suddenly, the water erupted upswards into a small column of water, before crashing back down. A man crawled up the wall and over the railing. He lay on the ground on the bank opposite the mansion and regained his strength. "Rudolf will die. And THunderstorm too. So swears Lord Scarlet!"