Bluebook Session 20a: Information, Conversations, Visitations and Merchandising

Sam entered his room and wondered if he’d be able to get any sleep tonight. He really didn’t fancy switching off the lights, just in case anything suddenly started glowing neon green. He had a feeling the others would be having the same issue tonight.

He sat down on the bed, just as his monitor unexpectedly flared into life on of its own accord. What the..?  That definitely shouldn’t happen. He looked at the rear of the monitor hoping there were no glowing tendrils. Nope, just the usual cables and connections.

He readied himself for an attack and – burst out laughing instead. The screen had flared into life showing an old film clip, one he recognised immediately. It was a scene from the 1931 version of Frankenstein, the scene where the lighting strikes, the monster opens its eyes and his creator, Henry Frankenstein shouts out.

Suddenly the speakers blared out “Look! It’s moving. It’s alive. It’s alive… It’s alive, it’s moving, it’s alive, it’s alive, it’s alive, it’s alive I tell you, SHE’S ALIVE!” and the monitor and speakers suddenly shut down…

How did that happen? Wait a minute, did the screen really finish with SHE’s alive? He needed to find out what happened. “Frankie, did you switch on my monitor? Or did someone else?”

Frankie ‘s mechanical voice came over the internal comms system. <<I did not turn it on Designation: Young Sam and according to my sensor readings its been switched off all night.>>

“But it just showed a clip from an old movie… I didn’t do it, so it had to be you.”

It seemed as though Frankie hesitated. How does a computer system hesitate? Then in a strange voice it replied, <<Well, I don’t think there is any question about it. It can only be attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error…>>

Was Frankie suddenly channelling HAL from 2001 a Space Odyssey?  This had all the elements of an Annie joke…

He considered physically disconnecting the system but no. If that WAS a message from Annie he wanted to keep the channel open. She’s alive? Then so was hope.

He smiled.

Ok so sleep had now officially departed as an option. They had a team meeting planned for next morning so how to spend the rest of the night? He briefly considered watching the full Frankenstein movie but instead elected to research what Marcus had said… What experience had he had with Dalton’s Defenders whilst they were away?

He switched on his computer, hesitated for a moment and then scoured the HeroNet forums for the last month.

It took him some time to work out the full story; Seems a group of cyborgs, or robots possibly, had carried out a major robbery in Wessex a couple of weeks before – the term ‘Cybertribe’ came up a couple of times, particularly from someone on the forums called Rez… He remembered a young woman with a blue streak in her hair, a Mallory Chao, who liked to be called Rez; someone who had never returned after hiring them to investigate the Silver Storm and appeared to have been a holograph of a missing hospital patient… A Mallory Brooks wasn’t it? Mary had once told him that she’d been removed from a private ward by a robotic figure; Interesting..!

This group, the Cybertribe, had apparently tried to break into Dalton Technologies to steal something – exactly what they stole or tried to steal, was the subject of much forum speculation.

Anyway, Dalton’s Defenders tried to deal with the attack themselves and messed up. Lots of collateral damage and the Cybertribe escaped but not before Marcus Moore in his Omniweapon armour decided to also get involved, flying in, weapons hot and a three way battle broke out – with Dalton on record as screaming  down the phone, “forget the cyborgs, just don’t let that fucking thief Moore get access to any of my inventions!”

Wonder which one of his darling Defenders released that recording into the public domain?

The Defenders even ended up attacking Marcus’s first response police officers in the crossfire. Apparently, Marcus is said to have literally walked into the licensing office afterwards and personally torn up the group’s applications for HCP status! He would really need to ask Marcus if that part was true.

Moore, Omniweapon, whatever you wanted to call him, was apparently escorted off the premises by Dalton’s security whilst the thieves waltzed away in the confusion.

There was obviously no love lost between Marcus Moore and Sir Damien Dalton… He looked at his tablet, 3am… He needed a good cup of coffee!

Next morning as Sam wandered to the kitchen, Adam passed him in the corridor dragging a trolley piled high with new equipment. Boys and their toys eh? He looked as though he was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday. Was he just coming home? He looked happy though. He smiled at Sam and handed him a postcard for Mary and, whistling some anonymous show tune, headed for the hangar.

Sam smiled; it was nice to see his brother happy.

He glanced at the card. Shouldn’t read it, but… It was from Mary the Younger, her father still hadn’t turned up yet but according to her aunt that wasn’t unusual. Instead, she’d decided to go to London to spend some time with a recovering Max but had something to show them all when next she saw them. Walking in to the wonderful smells of breakfast, she passed Mary the postcard and sat down.

Jeeves had prepared a full English and as the team sat round the table mentioned that he had a conversation with the Challenger-Wildeman’s AI, Alex and had some ideas of how best to sort out the merchandising issues.

Before he could say anything, a video call came in over the encrypted channel… Marcus or..?

It was Bethany, dressed in the blue and gold of a Claremont Academy school uniform, her blazer hanging on the back of a chair and a man in his mid-20’s in what looked like an expensive Armani suit standing, bored, behind her.

Bethany waved, “hiya. Jeeves has been in touch so I thought I’d give you a call. Ah, thanks for allowing Jeeves to help the Amazons settle in, all of the younger girls are now at Claremont…  Oh, this is Jimmy the fish. Say hello Jimmy…”

The man glowered, “You’ll need to ignore Bethany’s little joke. You see my father is Jimmy Selachi Sr – known as Jimmy the Shark – head of corporate law at Selachi, Bruce and Leno, and a real piece of work. His ego being what it is, he named me Jim Selachi Jr – or as Bethany likes to joke, she calls me Jimmy the Fish since I seem to lack my father’s killer instinct.

I’m the legal adviser and corporate lawyer on her “Father Issues” Team looking at legal methods to take down Daddy Dalton. In fairness, she’s not the only one with father issues. Not all of us are proud of our family ties…”

Jeeves cleared his throat and nodded at Jim, “This seems an opportune time to explain that I set up a limited company yesterday called The Balance PLC. It has four trustees, you three and Bethany. You’ll need to sign the papers sometime to complete the registration. We think we worked out a solution but perhaps Jim or Bethany would like to explain..?”

Bethany nodded at Jim who continued, “OK, I’ll do my best to keep this simple. Under the 2005 Superpower Registration Act as well as defining legal rights for heroes, costumed identities are recognised as legal entities, allowing costumed super humans to engage in commerce, testify in court, or be sued without revealing their alternate identity.

So your costumes and imagery are already copyrighted in most countries but as The Balance doesn’t wear costumes it couldn’t be applied in this case and there is always a fair use clause that applies to comicons, fan material etc.

However, there is a legitimate interpretation that unique appearances such as Young Sam’s or Banshee’s are the equivalent of a costumed ID though Akira would not be covered by that. Any chance you’d adopt uniforms..? No? Ok, moving on. So, by registering as a company means we can copyright and register you as a legal entity.

Jeeves has agreed a deal with Castle Comics that in return for international rights to use the Balance in a comic that they will pay a fee, part of which will go to charity at Bethany’s request. Ah, Alex has insisted that contract includes editorial veto on all storylines by the way. That I do approve of by the way.

The Millennium Comic stores will be allowed to sell all of its existing merchandise but must then restock from an authorised supplier – Jeeves is sourcing possible suppliers to approach. I believe quality is more important to you than income?

In the meantime, I have copyrighted the name ‘The Balance’, but not just the word ‘Balance’, sorry. The judge refused that. I’ve also copyrighted each of your names though there were issues again about Akira’s name, some manga already using that name? Oh and Banshee is also in common usage as is Sam so again I copyrighted ‘The’ Akira ,‘The’ Banshee and ‘Young’ Sam names instead. Best we could do but a lot will depend on how we spin it to the media…

Ah, I understand you’re not too keen on doing interviews and press releases or talk show walk-on’s? That will severely limit your media presence but it’s your call… Pity, that’s where the real money is.”

Sam looked up, “I’m very much up for doing interviews and talk-show walk on’s and stuff.” Seeing Mary’s face, his voice dropped in volume and he was left muttering, “I just think we need to be a more visible kinda’ group…”

It was hard to tell if Jimmy had heard his outburst as he continued, “Anyway, Mr Jeeves knows how to contact me and I’ve been instructed by Cruella here,” He pointed at Bethany, “to pull together whatever legal contracts you need and ensure that Bethany’s share and a percentage of your share goes to charity. There are several good reasons behind that including reducing your tax bill and maintaining your public image… Look I need to run but Mr Jeeves has my contact details..?

Bethany, I’ll call you later with the results of my team’s latest legal assault on Daddy dearest..?” and left.

Bethany smiled and continued, “at my suggestion, the marketing fee from the contracts will be divided. I take a third – the profit from which will be donated to a local charity.  You each will receive a percentage of the profits from your individual merchandising as well as a third share split equally from team merchandise. I am insisting on a percentage going to charity. Think of it as your agent’s fees, if that helps you accept it better.”

She stopped for a second and then continued, “I’m planning on building a series of Container Towns in London and Manchester so that people ignore the settlement above you… hiding your container town amongst several, with all the others having a higher public profile. I’ll be donating my share of the marketing profits to maintaining them.”

Bethany chatted for a bit longer, primarily about how Lillian had been left amnesiac but had settled in at Claremont though she’d lost several years of her life whilst under the Dragon’s influence and how Aura had temporarily decided to stay on and help the  housekeeper at the Avery estate when the rest of the Amazon’s had gone with her to Claremont.

That was when Bethany really got weird; talking about the house being jealous and insisting on referring to Donna only as Lady Arcana?

Akira had to ask, “How does a house talk?”

Bethany smiled, “Primarily through using condensation or ice build-up on mirrors or windows but if it’s really not happy then it starts to leak what looks like blood out of the walls. Though in fairness, it’s very fastidious and always cleans up afterwards – I keep on expecting to see a horde of little French pixies running around with dustpans and brushes. Doesn’t your house in Wales do the same thing?”

Akira had to admit to not having gone back, yet…

He reached for a slice of the veggie-bacon that Jeeves prepared for him specially and to his utter surprise; heard a bark emanating from the floor.

He looked down expecting to see Rascal, though he rarely followed Jeeves down into the BASEment, preferring instead to stay in Container Town with its residents.

Instead at his feet sat a little, extremely cute corgi with what looked like a pair of long, pale antennae emanating from its forehead. The creature wagged its tail and barked again, its tongue hanging out, waiting unexpectedly.

“Where did you come from and how did you get in here?” He tossed the bit of bacon at the dog-like creature wagging its tail enthusiastically. It grabbed it in mid-air and swallowed it in one.

Just then the base comms sprang into life; “Hey anyone seen a little brown dog?” It was Mikey from upstairs in the junkyard.

Akira spoke up, “We’ve a strange-looking corgi down here. Any idea how it got in?”

Static, followed a second later by Mikey appearing on the main screen, “No, what I definitely want to know is how it managed to override Hercules and Xena’s programming…” Hercules and Xena were two of Mikey’s robotic dog-like security she used to guard the yard above.

Mikey continued as Bethany giggled on split-screen, “They should have chased it out of the yard; instead they started playing with the ruddy thing. It’s presence somehow overrode their security programming in a matter of seconds and turned them into canine friends… I’m having to reinstall their initial encoding again.”

Bethany glanced at the clock on the wall behind her, “Well that was weird. I have to go, school’s about to start. Have fun…” and the screen went blank.

As they looked, the little dog-like creature wandered under the table, ate another bit of real bacon from Sam this time and as they watched, it just vanished in a burst of spatial displacement, as though the room has just ‘swiped left’. One second he was there, the next nothing.

They spent the next ten minutes searching. The door had been closed, there was nowhere for it to have vanished to. A full security scan of the base witnessed the dog, dog-like creature? Whatever it was, the base security recorded it walk out for the first time from under a dining chair then a minute later it walked under the table and just vanished.

It looked as though it was going to be one of THOSE days. Adam kept on muttering that perhaps it was HER pet? When asked who the ‘her’ was, he went red in the face and wandered off to test the entry points…

Mary, still nursing the postcard in her hands, watched Adam leave the room with a slightly quizzical expression and then looked at Sam.

Akira and Sam were in discussion regarding the little visitor; was it some form of animal meta (there being zero other examples of that), an alien life-form, some form of pooka  or fae; supernatural in origin or even a ghost… each trying to outdo the other with a more ridiculous solution.

A bemused Mary said with a slight smile, “Excuse my ignorance, but is there a Royal Family still in this world-version – and do they have corgis?”

Sam looked over, “Yeah King Charles, I believe he still maintains the late Queens’ kennels at Balmoral still even though he and Queen Amanda prefer spaniels. I’m pretty sure it’s not one of theirs.”

Mary looked amused, “So Charles is finally King but who’s this Amanda?”

Sam looked surprised, “Ah, yeah Queen Elizabeth II was assassinated in 2014 by Irish rebels. Queen Amanda is a granddaughter of Earl Mountbatten I think.   He’d had a bit of an off and on relationship with her for years, married after… Did Charles divorce his first wife on your reality? Sorry I’m not really a follower of royalty. Akira?”

Akira shook his head and muttered, “Nope, brought up as a monk remember?”

Mary continued, “In any case our mooching pooch clearly has the powers of both ‘cute’ and ‘teleport’, and Akira is our expert in one of those areas, if we need an expert view…  But does anyone feel threatened?”

Sam smiled, “Yeah, I’ll never feel safe eating bacon again.”  He immediately picked up the another slice of bacon and popped in in his mouth.

Akira “not about the visitor, but I am concerned that our security didn’t seems to have worked and we don’t know about it straight away. That worries me. If it can get in and move around unnoticed, what else can?”

Mary nodded, “Is there a way to block against teleportation Akira?”

Akira thought for a few seconds, “I didn’t think anything could teleport anywhere blind. Either this creature can somehow, possibly using something as a beacon, or it doesn’t care and it’ll find itself embedded in a wall at some point in the future.

The beacon crystal in the reception room should have attracted it and then base security would have activated. Really don’t know how it’s did this…”

“Could it have been homing in on food?” As he said that, Sam grabbed the last rasher from the table, now cold, and munched it down with obvious relish. “So, what now?”