Knifefight...

Having rested and healed the EIS team have discovered where Doctor Jackal visited while he spent time with the Mescalero tribe and have hitched a ride to the town of Las Cruces, the last known location of Doctor Jackal. The EIS 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.

Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States of America, November 1949

As the Sunday evening sun sets over Las Cruces the team walk along the high street making note of hardware stores, gun shops, and banks. Everywhere is shut with the exception of an all night diner, and as the team walk they discuss their next move. They agree that they are going to continue to track down Doctor Henry Jackal and therefore they will need to reequip and find some money.

Spotting an open church, the Siera Vista Church, they head in and take a seat in the pews waiting for midnight. Sven transforms into a bird and heads up to the roof to keep an eye out while Madeline and Mimi transform into shadows and slip into the darkness of the shadowed corners leaving Alfie to snooze on one of the pews. Just before ten in the evening a car pulls up outside the church and a man walks up the steps to the front doors. Sven watches from his vantage point as the man enters and takes a cursory look inside before turning off the lights and locking the door behind him before he drives away. After the sound of the car has receded into the night Madeline opens one of the windows and Sven flaps down and lets them know that the coast is clear. Madeline and Mimi slip out into the evening heading for the bank.

Sven flies to the roof of the bank and confirms that all is clear before Madeline and Mimi slip quietly under the front doors of the Wells Fargo Bank. They quickly spot the vault at the back of the bank and attempt to gain access, but they are foiled by the fact that it is airtight. Madeline examines the locking mechanism and discovers that it is alarmed and tells Mimi that she is not sure that she can disable it with the tools that she has and so they agree to look elsewhere. They pair of shadowy ladies leave the bank, forgetting to inform Sven as they go, and head for the nearby Hayden's Hardware store. Once again they slip in under the shutters and locate an office at the rear of the store. Madeline quickly locates the safe, and unlocks it even quicker. Within the safe she discovers $70 in cash and looking at Mimi she says:

I'm not comfortable taking this from people who may be struggling to make ends meet.

Mimi agrees, but it doesn't stop them from helping themselves to several cartons of cigarettes and a pouch of pipe tobacco for Sven. At that exact moment, the Norwegian shapeshifter was just realizing that Madeline and Mimi had not reappeared from the bank and so he flapped back to Alfie within the church to inform him that they may need to break the pair out again. Alfie convinces Sven, though it didn't take much, to get something to eat at the all night diner before making any decisions. In Alfie's words:

Can't make a decision on an empty stomach!

Madeline leads Mimi towards a sporting shop that she had seen as they had entered Las Cruces, when they get there they both spot a high end ladies clothing shop and so enter there first. While Madeline searches out the stores safe, Mimi gathers an entire new wardrobe for herself. Once Madeline locates and opens the stores safe she finds a cash box inside containing $800, which she helps herself to before locking everything up once again. They move quickly onto the sporting goods shop and realise that they have found exactly what they were searching for. Mimi grabs a shopping trolley and they start to move through the outdoor survival section loading it up with five rucksacks, bedrolls, survival kits, canteens, and Bowie knives. They also take two compasses and two pairs of binoculars as well as several maps of the surrounding area and America in general.

Moving swiftly to the gun cabinets, Madeline helps herself to five Colt 45s as well as a hunting rifle with a telescopic sight for Sven. They load up the rucksacks and ferry them in shadow form out of the shop and load them into the boot of a car that Madeline steals, they then drive back towards the church but finding it empty Mimi naturally assumes that Alfie will have headed for the all night diner. She is proven correct and it is not long before all four of them are on the road and heading for the airport. By four in the morning they have booked into a motel near the airport and Sven has driven the stolen vehicle back to Las Cruces and returned in the form of a bird. Madeline hands Mimi $300 and then gives both of the men $100 each, making sure that they don't have all of their eggs in one basket like last time.

After a very late breakfast the following morning the EIS team head to the airport to get the lay of the land before planning to break in that evening and find any record of where Doctor Jackal flew to. When they arrive Mimi sees a newspaper stand and wanders over to get a newspaper, as she approaches she spots that the newspaper salesman is looking at her with a curious look in his eye. When she asks for a newspaper he says:

Mr Shannon is worried about you. You should come with me.

He then puts a sign up saying back in fifteen minutes and heads towards the back of the airport. Mimi and Madeline follow, and Alfie and Sven spot them moving through the crowd and follow on. The man leads both ladies to a van and tells them to get in, but Mimi delays until Alfie and Sven arrive. All four of them then get in the van with the man and he drives off. As he is driving he carries on:

My name is Colin Wilson and I was supposed to meet with you over a week ago. What happened to you?

Madeline and, unbelievably Alfie, explain what happened during the previous week but make a point to leave out any information about the Mescalero tribes involvement. Mr Wilson goes on to tell them that Federal agents have the teams names and pictures and are currently seeking them in connection with Einstein's disappearance. He also confirms that Doctor Jackal has been spotted in San Francisco, the British agents had been keeping Jonas Salk under observation since his name had been linked with Doctor Jackal in conversation with Albert Einstein. Mr Wilson tells the team that they can't risk air travel due to the possibility of being spotted and suggests that they travel via Route 66 and then north on Route 101 to San Francisco. He leaves them with:

Contact Terrance Alton. He will meet you under the clock in the main train station on Wednesday.

With that, Mr Wilson drops the team back at the airport and they part ways. Madeline heads out to the long stay car park and steals a 1941 Dodge Town sedan and drives it round to pick up the others before handing the keys to Alfie. Alfie drives to the motel and they collect all of their gear and head towards Route 66. Several hours later they pull into Flagstaff and find themselves a motel for the night. They set out once more very early on Tuesday morning and continue west along Route 66, realizing that they will have to drive continuously to make their rendezvous Alfie dupes out Billy so that they can rotate the driving duties. When they are crossing the mountains in the late morning they are passed by a large group of motorcycles, all of the riders sporting back patches with the moniker Los Canibales.

A few hours later as they are driving through the small town of Victorville Alfie and Sven spot the same motorcycle gang roughing up a young couple filling up with petrol in a small gas station. Sven tells Alfie to slowly drive into the gas station and as he does so Sven winds down his window and asks if everything is OK. One of the bikers turns to him and asks them to leave in no uncertain terms, but Sven sees one of the bikers pawing at the young woman and takes objection and starts to open his door to get out. That was the moment that the biker kicked Sven's door closed and leaned against it. Alfie asks out loud if the team are going to help and Madeline and Sven answer simultaneously:

YES!

Sven shoves his door open, pushing the biker away from the car and Alfie climbs out of the drivers side. Madeline transforms out of her shadow form and prepares to get involved. Alfie looks at the bikers holding the young couple and says:

Let them go!

Sven takes a more direct approach and just lands a powerful punch on the jaw of one of the bikers. The biker staggers back a couple of steps and then launches himself back at Sven hitting him hard, but the big Norwegian just shrugs the attack off. It is enough of a distraction for the young lady to escape her attacker but the biker holding onto the young man punches him hard in the stomach and he doubles over in pain. Several of the other bikers rush towards the newcomers ready for a fight.

Sven swings hard with a haymaker but the biker ducks out of the way. Billy climbs out of the car just in time to see one of the bikers miss Alfie with a punch and Alfie to connect with a beautiful uppercut. Madeline uses the front of the teams car to scissor kick a biker backwards and follow him keeping him off balance. Mimi steps out of the car and with a laugh in her voice shouts:

Hello boys!

Mimi heads to intercept another of the gang while Billy sees a punch parried by another. Alfie has more luck and staggers his opponent backwards with a well placed jab. Madeline continues to harass her target swinging in a high kick followed up quickly with a back kick that knocks the biker backwards yet again. Sven lands a solid combination of a left jab and a right hook driving his man back a couple of steps. Mimi swings a punch but it is easily dodged and then she finds herself rapidly sidestepping the thrust of a knife. Billy's opponent has also pulled a knife and plants it straight into his guts, but Billy's armour deflects the blow. Billy punches back but is parried. Madeline high kicks and catches her opponent square on the jaw knocking him out cold.

Looking to push forwards Alfie jabs but his punch glances from the bikers defence. Now knowing that the man attacking her is armed, Mimi fast draws her own newly acquired Bowie knife and stabs him in the guts, smiling all of the time. Billy drives a punch into one of the bikers stomachs and doubles him over while Sven hits with another combination and floors the biker that he has been fighting. The biker roughing up the young man draws a knife and stabs him and the young man drops to the floor with a yell of pain. Billy parries an attack as does Mimi.

Madeline rushes towards a group of bikers exiting the gas station shop and is a little shocked when one of them points a handgun at her and opens fire. She is hit twice but her enhanced armour soaks up any damage that would have been caused. Mimi and the biker that she is fighting circle each other slashing with their knives but failing to score a hit. Both of the Baldricks parry attacks from their opponents but then another biker blindsides Billy and stabs him in the back, Billy is relieved when the attack glances off of his armour. Seeing that most of the bikers have drawn knives, Sven reaches for one of the axes hanging at his belt and decides to up the ante.

Madeline dives for cover and calls upon her powers to animate the shadow of the gunman. Alfie lands another punch, but it again doesn't have any power behind it. Billy is stabbed at twice by a pair of bikers, he manages to block one of them and his armour protects him from the other. Madeline sees one of the bikers pull out a swan off shotgun and aim it in the direction of the fight, but he doesn't pull the trigger. Sven evens up the odds for Billy when he slams his axe into the back of one of the bikers attacking him, dropping him instantly to the floor unmoving.

Madeline orders the animated shadow to attack the first gunman and then she transforms into a shadow herself and starts to slip silently towards the shotgun wielding biker. Alfie hits again, but still he can't get enough power into his arm to stagger the biker. One of the other bikers pulls out a handgun and shoots Sven from only yards away, but his enhanced armour absorbs the damage. The big Norwegian retaliates by slamming his axe into the mans chest and dropping another of the assailants unmoving to the floor. Mimi laughs as she manages to slice a line of red across her opponents arm, but the laugh is cut short as the biker plunges his knife into Mimi's side.

Finally understanding that they were the only ones continuing to fight without weapons both Baldricks pull out knives. Alfie slams his to the hilt in the chest of the biker attacking him, finally dropping him. Billy also drops the last of the bikers attacking him just in time to see Mimi stabbed in the guts and dropping to the floor unconscious. Sven charges towards the gunmen, his axe dripping in blood, and is greeted with a hail of bullets which do nothing but make him stronger thanks to his enhanced ability to convert energy into strength. As she closes in on the shotgun biker Madeline drops a dome of utter darkness over him meaning that he can't target anyone with his shotgun.

The Baldricks rush to Mimi's aid, with Alfie slashing his knife at the biker that stabbed her cutting deep enough to drop him on the spot while Billy leans down and administers first aid stopping Mimi from bleeding. Madeline turns solid and launches a double kick at the biker in the dome of darkness knocking him backwards and staggering him. Sven hacks at another of the gunmen with his axe and the biker drops to one knee with a howl of pain. Seeing the way that the tide is turning, three of the bikers leap onto their motorcycles and roar off down the road leaving their gang members to fend for themselves.

More bullets fly at Sven, but again they just deflect from his armour and he is amongst them laying left and right with his axe. Madeline pulls her pistol from its holster and fires at the shotgun biker, three bullets strike him in the chest and he collapses. Sven slays the last two bikers remaining and then returns his axe to its loop on his belt. Billy administers first aid to the young man and finds that he is still alive. He discovers that the couple are called Dallas and Bianca Reed, and that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Billy responds:

It’s all right mate. Just don’t move about too much. In case you hadn't noticed, you’ve been stabbed.

Alfie loads the unconscious body of Mimi into the back of the car and Madeline shouts that the team had best disappear quickly. Sven punctures all of the motorcycle tyres before climbing into the car and Alfie tears away back onto Route 66. They had passed Los Angeles before Mimi regained consciousness and just after midnight they pulled into a motel car park and stole another car to replace theirs in case it was reported in the gas station incident. Alfie and Billy take it in turns driving along Route 101 and by six on Wednesday morning they are driving into the outskirts of San Francisco.