Issue #24

No sooner had Thunder finished writing up his report when the Chief called him into his office. There they discussed the bad intelligence, the ambush, and the significant likelihood that Major Mapleleaf Jr.'s cover had been blown. It had in fact been well over two hours since MM II's last scheduled check-in, with no word him. Thus, the Chief had already arranged with Dr. Stone for Thunder to travel down to Buffalo, NY under an assumed identity and locate the young super-mountie. He would be leaving within the hour onboard a Gentech helicopter.

When Thunder asked why he was going in unofficially, the Chief explained that the Buffalo PD could well be the source of the leak and they weren't taking any more chances; though naturally the city of Toronto would deny any connection to Thunder's activities in the unlikely event of his capture.

Before Thunder left for Gentech, the Chief furnished him with a small file. This contained a picture of Major Mapleleaf II, a brief outline of his investigation, along with the address of an electronics/robotics company called Event Horizon, which MM II strongly suspected to be a front for Fabricators Inc. The file also contained the name and address of the company owner, William Preston; though simply as a matter of fact.

Setting down in Buffalo with still a couple of hours to go before sunrise, Thunder (who was beginning to feel the weight of the last few days) chose to first pay Mr.Preston a visit at his mansion-home; convinced that the man must know what is going on in his own company. Making his way to the mansion, he arrived to find Preston about to drive off. Thunder landed beside the car, ripped the drivers side door off the hinges and pulled him out with one hand. He then preceded to shake him, violently, demanding to know what he did with Major Mapleleaf. When this met with little success, Thunder flew high up into the air with him, setting the man to shrieking and exclaiming that, yes, he did know where "Major Maplealeaf" was. So, Thunder landed on the mansion's third story roof, where Preston told him that "Major Maplealeaf" was in a secret room, sealed with a titanium door, and hidden behind a bookshelf in his basement rec room.

Leaving the man on the roof, Thunder entered the mansion, evaded an automated energy canon by smashing through the floor, and quickly located and tore through the titanium door. On the otherside he found a relatively small, but fairly impressive hi-tech workshop. He also quickly found himself under attack by a 10' tall robot (think Locust Battlemechs, or the 2-legged mechs the Empire used against the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi, or "those robots" from Robocop) with 2 swivel mounted .50 caliber machine guns. While Thunder made fairly short work of the mech, he found no sign of Major Mapleleaf. And when he went to confront Preston, he found that the man had somehow gotten off of the roof and stolen off in his doorless car.

So, with the sound of sirens growing closer and closer, Thunder took to the air. His next stop, Event Horizon. En route, he spotted Preston's car, which was also headed for the robotics company, and ended up tracking him to a secret elevator hidden behind a stall in a washroom of the executive building. This elevator led to a secret sublevel within the facility.

Fighting his way through a number of robotic, vaguely humanoid sentries of lesser and greater sizes, Thunder found MM II already free and making short work of a troop of lesser sentries. He was a clean cut, wide-eyed young man of disturbing courtesy ... even by Canadian standards. He told "Mr. Thunder, sir" that Preston was making his way to his tran-station to make an escape, and it would be a great aid if Thunder could stop him while MM II went to rescue his local cop-friend, Detective Vanessa Richards, who was also being held in this facility.

And so it was. Armed with MM II's directions, Thunder fought his way past a number of automated energy canons, and managed to at last peel back a huge, thick titanium door and gain entry into the tran-station. However, he arrived just in time to find the tran-car speeding off down an underground railroad track. Standing between him and the tran-car tunnel, on the platform, was Voltiac and two mercs in hi-tech battle armour highly reminscient of that used by Little Princess "Chargers". These suits however were distinguished by a spartan paint job, a prominent serial number, and they were also equiped with arm-mounted .50 cal machine guns.

While Thunder was once again able to make short work of Voltiac, the battle-armoured mercs. proved to be formidable and their defeat was only accomplished thanks to MM II's timely arrival. He took a burst of .50 cal. that would otherwise have nailed Thunder, and was thus left laying in sorry shape.

Encourage by the young hero to give chase to Preston, Thunder sped off down the tran-track tunnel, and followed it for several miles. After fighting his way past another small mech. and smashing his way up an elevator shaft, he found himself at a small, private airfield. Unfortunately, the battles had held him up long enough that William Preston was able to escape. Or so it appeared anyway.

Heading back to check on MM II, Thunder found Buffalo cops begining to swarm through the installation with Det.Richards in the lead. She informed him that Voltiac had escaped, that MM II was being treated for some "flesh wounds" and would be okay, and then thanked Thunder for his help here this night. Then, in sincere gratitude, she encouraged him to leave before the Feds arrrived.