St. Magnus the Martyr (Training Ground)

5 minutes on foot away from St. Pauls catherdral, tucked away on the side of the Thames and hidden away by the taller buildings on either side is a small church, dedicated to St. Magnus. From the outside, it looks quiet, unremarkable and rather dirty.


Upon entering the building, and activating a switch cunningly hidden in the 6 foot long model of the ancient London Bridge, a passage will open in the stone floors. A passage that leads under the ground to the dingy looking building nextdoor. Appearances are deceiving however, as the inside is gleaming metal and wires. This is the ultra-high tech training facility solely for members of the Windsor family. With extremely durable testing dummies, dressed in plain suits and bowler hats, floors and walls that constantly reshape and hidden traps and turrets everywhere, this is truly a place to let loose your flame and let off some steam.

No limits are placed on the power unleashed in this building, as the walls are practically indestructable. They are also sound-proof, and as an extra security measure, prototype scanner interference modules are set up around the building that will tell any unfriendly devices that the building is an empty office block.

Upon the completed construction of the family's training room, Upgrade walks into the room, cane in hand.

There was only one thing slightly off about her usual odd attire; she was wearing all seven Windsor Rings. Never before had they been removed from her office since they were first locked away there by the founder, and she found it unsettling to be even in contact with them.

Although they were still and their energies sealed away, it was time to awake their full potential, even if the time was not right to distribute them.

Holding her hands out in front of her, she lamented the loss of her jacket as she forced her sky flames to spike.

Trilby walked into the control room, took off his jacket and hung it on the back of the chair. Sitting down, he initiated the activation programme of the facility. As the circuits in the control panel began to hum, he turned on the microphone.

"As you can see, the room is totally malleable. I can program the floors and walls from here to resemble woodland, cities, pretty much anywhere you could ever fight. Well, I havn't completed the underwater programme yet, but I'm working on it. I can see you and track you're progress on the moniters here in the control room, and through the one-way window up here. However, so as not to interfere with your conentration, I've made the window impossible to distunguish from the walls. In effect, I can see you, but you can't see me, or even tell where I am."


As he spoke, his words were broadcasted to the training room for the First to hear, echoing slightly.

"So, what area will you fighting in today ma'am?"

As her flames whipped about her, her jacket disintergrated, although it was the only item of clothing to be destroyed. Apparently, everything else she wore was specifically tailored to withstand her flames at this level. Rolling her sleeves up, she had abandoned her waistcoat in favour of a regular white shirt, suspenders, her black trousers and tophat.

''I think a field would suffice, thank you Jones.''

Closing her eyes, she twirled her cane in one hand, focusing her flames into her hands.

''This place will be invaluable in the up and coming wars between other families and our own.''

Her own sky attribute flames burnt brightly, yet the rings remained unresponsive.

''I fear this level will not be enough, and I hope this new room is as strong as you built it to be.''

"As you say ma'am."

Trilby looked through the selection of areas available to those training in the room below, and selected the plain field programme. With a hum, the ground in the training room began to shimmer, fading away entirely to show a green field under blue skies that seemed to strech away as far as the eyes could see. Simulated breezes blew across the grass, making it ripple and bend in endless swirls and patterns across the landscape.

"With repect ma'am, I would ask you to try and hold back a little, at least at first. If the room holds for half an hour at half your strength, then my calculations were correct and you can fully unleash. I am fairly comfident that the room can withstand the majority of your powers, but rings can be rather unpredictable at times. I would rather tweak a lightly damaged system than start over again from smouldering rubble if it's all the same to you. Is there any particular variety of enemies you feel like destroying today?"

''As you wish.''

Flexing her fingers, Upgrade sighed as the rings made no difference to her flame type or level.

''Half power sounds good. Send a couple of generic thugs my way please.''

"One order generic thugs. Yes ma'am."

With a slight humming noise and a shimmer in the air, 6 figures appeared around the First. Each was dressed in a black suit and bowler hat, and each of their faces was a blank white oval. Their movements, in contrast with their doll-like faces, were completley natural, and they circled the First, keeping a watchful non-existent eye on her movements.

As the generic thugs circled her, Upgrade slowly drew the sword from her cane. It had recently been forged by an old friend, and could apparently conduct sky-flames quite well. Deciding to focus her energies on mastering the weapon rather then forcing the rings to activate, Upgrade began chanelling her energy into the smooth mahogany handle of her blade, watching as the blade began to glow silvery-orange.

The dolls continued to circle Upgrade as she drew her weapon, silently observing her every move. Suddenly, the doll directly behind her started running towards her, drawing a switchblade knife and bringing it down across her back.