Sawdon blows his top...

MI6s team of enhanced individuals have failed in their attempt to foil the robbery of a postal van by a gang of hijackers lead by Billy Hill. In the aftermath of the gun fight, Billy Hill died in mysterious circumstances and Sven has taken wing in pursuit of the other hijackers. MI6s team consists of Alfie Baldrick, the one man rifle section; Mimi Dubois, maîtresse of skills; Madeline Forsyth, the living shadow; and Sven Hyse, the Norwegian shapeshifter.

London, England, August 1948

At the scene of the hijacking we are met by Don and Jock from the Flying Squad, and the pair instantly take charge of the area. They direct the police units to close off the roads and ambulances are admitted to treat the injured and recover the bodies of the dead. Alfie turned to Madeline and informed her that Sven had made contact with Isy and that he had followed one of the robbers to number 10 Venice Street in Whitechapel. Madeline reaches into the nearest car and pulls out a copy of an AtoZ and hands it to me, after a few seconds I have located the street and we quickly make our excuses and leave the scene.

Sven had followed the robber to a pub in Whitechapel where a man smoking a cigarette had stepped out of the pub and climbed into the passenger seat of the car. They had then both driven to a house in Venice Street and entered. Sven, in his bird form, had hopped onto a first floor window ledge and looked in through the partially closed curtains to see a what was clearly a messy flophouse where the villains were hiding out. Sven landed on the roof of the property and transformed into a massive spider and crawled down the chimney, as he slowly lowered himself into the darkness he could hear voices talking on the ground floor. And what he hears is two East End thugs trying to work out what happened to Billy Hill.

The rest of us had split into two groups and slipped away from the chaos of the hijack location, we made our way separately to Oxford Street where we regrouped and flagged down a taxi to take us to Canning Street Mews. On route Alfie contacted Isy mentally and got him to contact the smartly dressed man to see if he could arrange a new car for us, given that our last one was full of bullet holes and had been rammed into Billy Hill's car. As soon as the car arrived we headed for Whitechapel and the last known location of Sven. By ten o'clock in the morning Charlie was driving us slowly up Venice Street, and as we passed number 10 I pushed out with my senses and made contact with three enhanced individuals within the vicinity of the property.

One of the returns was coming from the roof line of the building and I looked upwards out of the back window of the car as Charlie turned the corner at the end of the road and I could just about make out a large black raven perched on the chimney breast. Oddly enough, I also noticed that my back was really starting to ache, but I put that down to twisting awkwardly in my seat to look out of the rear window. Charlie pulls the car into the kerb, out of sight around the corner and Madeline transforms into a shadow and slides out across the pavement and up the side of the nearest building. She then ripples across the rooftops to the building opposite number 10, she slides behind the chimney on her roof and transforms back into herself.

Sven was surprised to spot Madeline on the opposite roof waving at him, but he flapped his black wings and headed over to her. By the time that he arrived, Madeline had once again transformed back into a shadow, and so Sven landed and, out of sight of the street, transformed himself into a parrot.

Two of them on the ground floor squawk!

Madeline's shadowy form asks if Sven has been inside, and the parrot answers;

Yes squawk! They have bag and are waiting for someone squawk!

Madeline tells Sven where the car is parked and says that she will remain on watch from her position. Sven transforms back into his raven form and then flies down to the car and hops in through the smoke billowing out of the open windows, with nothing else to do both Baldricks and I had lit up, and then transformed back into himself. Sven quickly relayed what he had discovered and told us;

One of them was called Eddie and the other was known as Taters. Well that's what it sounded like.

With my back still aching I settled back into the rear seat of our car and pushed out with my senses, no point in exerting myself if I didn't have to. I managed to make contact with the two enhanced within the safe house, and I pushed my enhanced senses into the first of them and discovered that it was the one that I had contacted previously, the one enhanced with ridiculous luck. I pushed deeper into their powers and discovered that they had the ability to cling to walls and ceilings, as well as the ability to emit a bio-electric shock. Leaving at that point, I pushed the other enhanced and discovered that they had the ability to read minds, and when I pushed deeper I discovered that was their only power, but it was a power that would put us all on our guard.

It was eleven o'clock in the morning when the telephone rang in Major Sawdon's office, and after a couple of seconds, Sawdon got up and closed the door so that Jonny could not overhear. But even with the door closed Jonny could hear the Major's raised voice and the sound of him slamming down the telephone. The door to his office flew open and Sawdon, with a face like thunder, asked Jonny where the team were. Jonny replied;

Whitechapel sir! London sir! Following criminals sir!

Major Sawdon looked confused for a moment and then ordered;

Give me a full report now soldier! Who fired the sub-machine guns?

Jonny blinked twice, swallowed deeply, and replied;

Alfie and two of the criminals sir!

Jonny then continued to relay a full report to the Major on what had transpired on Eastcastle Street. Once he had finished the Major demanded;

Give me everyone's locations!

Jonny swallowed once more and did his best;

I'm here sir!

Major Sawdon's face went a shade of crimson that Jonny didn't believe possible, and he shouted;

Don't be flippant soldier, give me their exact locations this minute or I will have you thrown in the glasshouse. And contact all Baldricks and relay to the team that they are not to move on any targets until I say so.

Alfie tells us that Sawdon has gone full volcano and that we are not to move on the targets and so we break into an empty number 9 Venice Street through the rear of the building and set up a watch on the safe house. Madeline also unlocks the vacant house that backs onto number 9, number 48 Fellbrigg Street, and Charlie pulls the car up outside that house so that we can sneak in and out without being seen. Leaving Alfie and Sven watching from within number 9, I transformed into a shadow and slid up onto the roof with Madeline to keep watch. Not long after I had arrived a red car pulls into Venice Street and a man gets out and heads into number 10. As soon as he has entered Madeline slides down the outside of the building heading for the underside of the red car.

Inside number 9 Alfie turns to Sven and tells him that Major Sawdon has told Jonny that there is a truck inbound and it will be with in Fellbrigg Street within five minutes and that the Major insists that someone important meets them. Sven swears in Norwegian and heads to meet with them. The three men exit number 10 and I realise that they are going to take both cars and so I quickly slide down the building and slide onto the underside of the second car just before it pulls away from the kerb. The two cars head off in different directions.

Sven meets the truck and tells the soldier in civvies driving that they are in the wrong street and that a red car has just pulled in and they need to get to number 10 Venice Street as soon as possible. The truck pulls away and Sven heads back into number 9, when he gets there he sees that both cars have gone and he turns to Alfie to ask where they went, Alfie just responds;

They drove off sir!

Sven shrugs and replies;

Then I guess it is time for me to finally get my breakfast!

I remember spending a good hour clinging to the bottom of the car containing the two original hijackers as they drove around the Whitechapel area, I guessed that they were trying to make sure that they weren't being followed. They eventually pull over on a main road and I realise that the other car is there also, one man gets out of each car and head into one of the commercial properties that looks like a second hand jewellers, after twenty minutes they reemerge and get back into the cars, I also notice that the bag that they are carrying looks much lighter. I didn't know it at the time, but Madeline had also spotted that her car was also being followed by a truck.

Over the next couple of hours the cars followed the same procedure at several more low end businesses, all of which either I or Madeline managed to make a note of. Eventually the car that I was on stopped and the passenger exited and headed for what looked like a residence, but I couldn't tell what number as the car I was hidden on drove away. Not long afterwards the car parked up and the other criminal got out and headed into number 14 Ronald Street. I transformed back into myself and found a telephone, I contacted Isy at the safe house and got him to let the others know where I was, I then headed back to keep watch, and find somewhere to sit down as my back was still hurting.

What I didn't know then was that Madeline had shadowed her mark to a private residence and just as she was about to slip off of the car she had noticed the truck that had been following them pull in. She waited, and watched, and what she saw was two men with rifles leap out of the rear of the truck and shoot her mark. Madeline knew by the sound of the rifles that they were tranquillizer rifles, and watched from the shadows as they men in the truck bundled the unconscious body of the man into the back of the truck. She then quickly slipped from the underside of the car to the belly of the truck.

Madeline stayed on the underside of the truck, and was only mildly surprised when it pulled into Hyde Park Barracks. The unconscious man was moved swiftly to a gurney, which Madeline slipped onto the underside off, and then moved to a hospital ward where he was hooked up to an IV. Madeline looked around not quite sure what to make of this development.