The Rise of Supremus - Chapter Six

Seven weeks passed. There had been no sign of Supremus, and no sign if anything. Anglo-Force had written this case off. They had closed their file on Supremus.

    During the Second World War Gruinard Island, a few miles off the coast of Scotland, had been used to test chemical weapons. For many years the soil and rocks had been infected with the anthrax virus. It had only been declared safe by the Department of the Environment in the past few years. It was then brought by a wealthy businessman, who intended to set up home on the island but he found the island not to his liking and later left. He did not try to sell the island because he knew that no one would ever want to buy it. Instead his accountant wrote it off as a tax loss. It had been deserted till six weeks ago. The power had been turned back on, and from the mainland you could see some sort of activity in the main building. Two weeks after this orders began to reach the mainland for some scientific equipment. Of course the inhabitants of the small village, being mostly fishermen, had no idea what this equipment was for. They just sent the orders on, and the equipment was delivered to the village a short time later. The fishermen in turn took the equipment to the island in their fishing boats. Their instructions were to leave the equipment a few hundred yards away from the main building. They did not question these orders, mainly because they were paid a pretty sum for this simple task. It was on this day that another large package was being delivered by two of the local fishermen. They pulled their boat onto the small beach and slowly lifted the box out of the boat and onto the land. It was about ten minutes later when they reached their usual place. They put the box down and soon found a large envelope nailed to a wooden post in the ground. One of them pulled the envelope off and opened it. He then pulled out a large wad of notes.

    “How much is there Angus?”
    “Three hundred pounds this time. He’s leaving more and more our every time.”
    “Aye, but I don’t like it! How come we’ve never seen this man? Who is he? What does he look like?”
    “Who cares as long as he keeps paying us!”
    “But haven’t you heard the stories? The villagers say he’s building some sort of monster, like that Frankenstein feller in Europe.”
    The other man laughed loudly.
    “Do you not know anything? Those sort of experiments are against the law everywhere in the world! He’d be hanged if he was doing that! Now come on! We’ve got some spending to do!”
    The two friends made their way back towards the boat. As they walked away they did not notice the box they had just left start to glow and then vanish a few seconds later. All they cared about was spending their easily earned cash.
    The large box reappeared in the main building, inside one of the larger rooms. A minute after it had arrived the occupant of the building entered the room and approached the box. He waved his hand over the top and the lid flew off. Inside was a power converter, the final piece of equipment that was needed. It would have been interesting to know what the fisherman would do if they knew their client was in fact Supremus, and he was about to blow up the world.

    It was two days later, and Supremus’ work was complete. For once in his short artificial life he had used his great intellect instead of his great power. Drawing on his vast I.Q. he had constructed a machine that he thought would give him ultimate power by taking the energy from the core of the Earth itself. It was now that he had to find a way of connecting this huge machine to the core itself. The most logical place, of course, was a volcano. A volcano itself would give Supremus tremendous power, but after a while this power would fade away. Supremus thought that power from the core of the Earth itself would give him an unending supply of power.
    Supremus walked over to his computer database. It was during the construction of his machine that he had created this huge database which was connected to virtually every computer mainframe on the face of the planet, drawing the information with the aid of satellites. He used spy satellites to find the location of every volcano in the world, and he soon found what he was looking for. There were two undersea volcanoes about fifty miles off the coast of western Africa. These two volcanoes would be perfect for what he needed. He could reach the Earth’s core through one of these, and soon he would become omnipotent. But now he had another problem. He would have to find a way of getting to that point in the Atlantic Ocean, and he would also need a ship that could hold his machine. But to someone like Supremus this would not be a problem.

    Things had been quiet in the last few weeks at the Anglo-Force mansion since the altercation with Supremus. Sure, they had been busy stopping bank robberies and the like, but nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Daniel Reid had continued to keep an eye on the sensor readings in the faintest hope that Supremus was still alive, but there was nothing. So it was during this quiet period that the team used for other activities. For instance, Watt used this time to organise his wedding, and to go to parts of Britain he hadn’t seen in a long time, most notably the home of Dr. Magus, Craigmillar Castle. Before he left for the Time of Legends Magus asked Watt to keep an eye on his castle for him, although in reality the castle did not need anyone to look after it. Magus’ butler Toombs had taken a holiday, his charge Thomas Leacock was away at boarding school, and the dogs and cats had gone to the Time with Magus. All the same, Magus felt safe knowing that Watt would be keeping an eye on his home for him.
    Watt flew high above the castle and circled ahead a few times just to make sure there was no one around. Craigmillar Castle held some significance for Watt, for after he was injured in the plane crash he was brought here by Magus, and it was here he learned of his newfound powers. He hadn’t looked back since that day.
    Watt landed near the huge wooden door. Even though he had been here many times before the place still sent a chill up his spine. To those not in the know Craigmillar Castle could be a spine-tingling place. A few seconds later he took to the skies again and entered the castle through one of it’s many windows. As soon as he entered flame torches lighted themselves, getting rid of what darkness there was. This continued to happen as Watt walked down the long corridors until he came to the study. This was by far the largest room in the castle, and to Watt it seemed as if there were over a million books in here. In reality there probably was. Magus was an avid reader. Watt looked around this room for a few minutes until he was sure everything was alright.
    Watt spent the next hour or so checking the other rooms of the castle. It was. It seemed that only the foolhardy would enter Craigmillar uninvited. When he knew everything was alright Watt left the castle through the window he had entered. As soon as he left all of the flame torches went out.
    He decided to take a different route back to London, going by the way of some of the other Scottish islands. Most of the inhabitants of these islands recognised Watt as he flew overhead. They had seen him and Magus fly together many times. Watt soon neared Gruinard Island. A slight smile appeared on his face as he remembered reading about eh millionaire who brought the island so he could set up home on it, and who later left because he did not like it. Watt could not understand what would make someone want to live on an island that used to be a chemical weapons testing site. Watt flew high above the ground and saw the lavish house that had been built on the island. It was the shame the house was abandoned, or even built on the island in the first place. It was the sort of house that Watt would like to have retired to, although retirement was the furthest thing on his mind at the moment. As Watt flew over the house he saw something that was odd. There was light coming from the house, a house that was meant to have been empty for the past three years. Watt decided to take a look and swooped down low over the house. Although there was light there seemed to be no sign of activity. Still, Watt decided not to take any chances and decided to look further. He walked over to one of the windows and peered in. What struck Watt as being odd was that none of the windows were boarded up, as the windows of an abandoned house normally were. Watt looked inside and saw the walls were lined with electronic equipment, none of which Watt recognised. Then, in the distance, Watt heard the sound of a ship. The ship was getting near the island. Watt walked away from the house and looked out to see and saw what appeared to be a cargo ship moving towards the island. Perhaps those on the ship could tell Watt what was going on. As he neared the ship he had a strange feeling, a feeling the something was wrong. The feeling got stronger and stronger as he close. Then, when he was only ten feet above the ship, a bolt of energy suddenly shot out of the ship’s cabin and struck Watt so hard the force sent him flying back all the way to Gruinard Island. He hit the ground with a resounding thud. A few minutes after he landed on the ground the cargo ship arrived on the island. It’s sole occupant then disembarked and walked over to where Watt lay. He was out cold.
    “The Captain has fallen. No one shall stand in the way of Supremus! No one!”
    An evil laugh filled the air all around.