The space galleon hung in the air with two blue beams of light surrounding the earthquake damaged buildings. Flying abovethe ship's position Hephaestus spied what can only be described as space pirates. 

The buildings now apparently stable, the beams of light disappeared and the galleon turned flying towards the north of the north city. Hephaestus, activating his adaptive camouflage, followed with the fast Blue Bolt shadowing it at street level.

The rest of the heroes were still flying south, Blaise being carried by Magni, when they made out the galleon heading their way. Acting as the teams comm's, Nano-man and Hephaestus relayed their plans.

Deciding to continue following Blaise instructed Magni to throw him at the ship's apparently solid sails once it slowed to a stop.

It wasn't long before the pirate crew noticed the visible heroes and moved to aim the laser cannons at them.

Realising they needed to act quickly, Magni hurled the flightless marine at the sails.

The throw was good but Blaise didn't have time to land correctly. Slamming into the hard surface he took minor damage and thankfully his magnetised boots held him fast, even if he was dangling from them 50 feet above the deck.

Now that a fight had obviously started Hephaestus flew down to the deck, materialised, and threatened Captain Kraken himself. Meanwhile Minerva connected to the spaceships systems. Despite their alien design the A.I. to make some sense of them and continued to see what could be found.

Angered at the armoured heroes gall he ordered his crew to attack. Magni, Nano-man & Bloodthirst followed while Blue Bolt slammed into the ships hull in am attempt to pass through it.

Deftly disintegrating the captain's blaster Nano-man received a face full of black ink from between the tentacles on Kraken's face. This was de-constructed with equal ease. 

Facing off a group of pirates Magni ripped one of their cannons from its holdings. The alien technology provided no clue to where the trigger was so he called down his lightning upon them. Meanwhile Blaise dropped a smoke grenade, providing Hephaestus with cover and joined him on  the deck. The crew's blaster were completely useless against the power armour and he, the marine and the god left their numbers greatly diminished.

Fleeing along the ship, the captain avoided a lightning blast from Blue Bolt before Nano-man brought him to his knees with the pain of his nano-machines taking him apart cell by cell.

Standing again, he called for them to stop the attack showing them a control device in his raised hand. The device controlled the force field which surrounded the city. He turned it transparent showing them that they were all now in space. The Earth could be seen twinkling in the distance. Threatening to withdraw the field, to suffocate the populous, he demanded their surrender. In an unusual display of restraint Magni conceded but refused to kneel before the captain. Lt. Blaise decided it was time to negotiate and looked to cut a deal. Obviously not in the mood for diplomacy Captain Kraken pressed the button.

At that very instant a lightning bolt struck his hand. Similar bolts could be seen around the city. The force field failedto retract and the heroes descended on the pirate captain ar more crew appearedfrom below decks.

 Immediately after this the voice of Daedalus filled the air.

 "Gentlemen we have a problem... well we can't shut it down but you're in ...scrreeecchhhh!!"

Static cut the great scientists off. After a short pause his voice returned.

"We'll try to shut it down, try not to get killed" 

Without the luxury of analysing this announcement the heroes set about defeating the pirates. 

Taking advantage of their bunched up position Magni, returning to form, used his powerful lungs to blow them off the deck to fall to their deaths.

Nano-man immediately dived off the ship in an attempt to save the doomed crew. Condensing from his swarm form he placed himself between the ground and one pirate. The alien was saved but they were both covered in the splatted remains of the others. 

Daedalus voice filled the air again:"I've found the source of your entrapment; I just need to condense the fourth dimensional space map to give you the coordinates from your perspective."

With the captain defeated the heroes quickly took over the ship. Kraken was pinned to the mast and the crew trapped in the hold. By this time Minerva also had full understanding of the galleon's propulsion systems. 

Daedalus came back again.

"Okay, the anomaly is in Centurion Square. I'm sure between you, you should be able to disable what ever it is."

Minerva expertly moved the large craft sailing it towards the target identified by Daedalus.

Looking down on the square they could see a mass of scared people.Blue Bolt and Bloodthirst descended to look for the anomaly. The already frightened crowd fled at the sight of a electrical being and bat companion. Nano-man joined them while Hephaestus and Blaise started tointerrogate Captain Kraken. 

Scouring the square they final noticed a large discrepancy. The large statue of the Golden Age hero Centurion, which stands in the square, isusually holding a sword. The statue standing before them now was holding a hammer. 

Back on the ship Captain Kraken claimed to know nothing of the statue but described how he had deployed and control the force-field. Hephaestus found the control device ands set about repairing it. 

Approaching the monument they discovered it was surrounded by an invisible force field. Neither Bloodthirst nor Nano-man could penetrate it but Blue Bolt managed to pass through. Getting close to the statue they now saw had started to move.

Nano-man relayed this development to Hephaestus and Magni. Magni looked over the side of the ship. There in the hands of a colossal status was a hammer from his own family!

In fury, Magni jumped overboard as he demanded that Hephaestus fly the galleon into the statue.

The statue looked powerful but was slow. Swiping at the Blue Bolt it failed to land a blow. Defending himself with lightning attacks the colossal foe stumbled out of the force field. Noticing this Blue Bolt began drawing it out. The statue followed stepping and swiping outside the force field.

Taking the advantage, Nano-man sent his nano-machines onto the statue's exposed leg. The machines found it difficult to penetrate but they managed to open hair-line fractures.

Magni finally arrived, slamming into the same leg in a powerfulground-strike. The resulting mini-quake knocked Nano-man to the ground.Stepping forward the statue place it massive foot over the prone hero. Crushed underneath the foot retracted revealing a dying Nano-man.

Daedalus' voice appeared again. "Okay, this has gone far enough. Gentlemen you're in a simulation. We have lost control of the system.We've pulled the power but its still going. You need to destroy what ever is causing this."

Tossing away the fake control device Hephaestus took action. Directing Minerva to plot a crash course he retrieved the A.I. and abandoned ship.

Still angered Magni struck the statue again. Retaliating, the statue finally struck home with the hammer. A familiar sight was left on the ground...another dying hero.

The limp bodies of the two heroes were retrieved as the galleon accelerated towards the unsuspecting statue.

Waiting until the last minute, Lt. Blaise power-leapt from the ship on a crash-course. His boots absorbed the energy from the fall but he still took damage.

At the final second the statue saw the flying gallion descending from above at speed. Looking up the ship struck it in the centre of its chest.Unable to withstand the momentum, the stone being broke in two as the rest ofthe body crumbled into boulders. The ship's fuel tanks finally ruptured and ignited by its own engines. A enormous explosion engulfed the square and the whole scene went white.

The flash cleared and the heroes found themselves back in the plain metal room. Nano-man's machines had been working overtime and he was almost back to full health but Magni still looked bad. In the centre of the room lay a hammer about a foot long.

The lift door opened, Captain Thunder, Daedalus & Siren strode into the room.

Nano-man already healing Magni Siren could see her abilities were not required.

Captain Thunder was glad to see they were all okay and apologised for the malfunction.

Daedalus was intrigued to discover the hammer belonged to Magni.

Siren and Captain Thunder left Daedalus to deliver the assessment verdict.

He explained that there were certain reservations about some of the group and although he had convinced the Freedom League to allow the team to be affiliated it would not be made public.

Accompanying them to the exit, if only so the heroes knew they were no longer in a simulation, he took contact details.

Blaise handed over his phone number saying that Raven could call him anytime..... maybe she will.