ic And Two More Shall Take Its Place

[Avenger Assembled]

The scene inside the building was grim. It looked as though the occupants, super-powered and non-super-powered alike, had been attacked by some sort of wild animal. There were claw marks on the walls, on the floors, and even in the flesh of the dead - deep triple cuts that had sliced through even super-tough flesh like hot knives through butter. The blood, and the gore, was everywhere - it really was appalling. 

 

Suddenly, as Cho stood there, energy crackling and emotions churning, the nearby security monitors that the unfortunate Lola had been watching flashed to terrible life - revealing a scene from the very pits of Hell! A hideous clawed mutant, its body covered in matted hair and gore, was tearing its way through the WYRM residents and staff with terrible speed, slicing and murdering its way through a group that after all had consisted of several young teenagers. All in all it was a horrible scene, albeit one completely captured on camera. 

 

Including, they all saw, the man who looked to be the mastermind behind everything. Jonathan Grant, the controversial but instantly recognizable head of Grant Pharmaceuticals, famously attacked and nearly killed by the heroine Wander during the Day of Wrath two years earlier, was standing in the lobby, nodding with approval as a henchman with a radio transmitter controlled the brutal rampage of the merciless killer. When the massacre was done, Grant and his cronies seemed to vanish out the backdoor, just seconds before the heroes came in the front. 

[Brown Dynamite]

Glamazon didn't really know much about Jonathan Grant.  She knew about what happened on the Day of Wrath, through some cursory research of news articles.  In an attempt to understand why her first meeting with Cerys and Tona was so awkward. It also didn't hurt that Wander's name was thrown into conversation on campus surrounding, or that it occurred so near her transfer to the school.  

 

The only other thing she knew about Jonathan Grant.  He was Doctor Cassandra's Steel's employer.  The man whose scientists acquired a kaiju for studying.  Despite what a mess that turned out to be, no one had a bad word to say about Mr. Grant.  It made the scene in front of them confusing.

 

"Why would Johnathan Grant partake in such actions?  Does he not seek to better the world through the sciences?"  The Glamazon openly asked.  Pointing at the cameras on display, hoping to get Cho's attention.  It was an especially obvious ploy.  But, the question was also worth asking by her measure.

[MisterShoebox]

Phantasmo, from where he was out of "Explosive Teen" range, noticed the monitors. He stopped rotating the coin across his fingers and looked confused.

 

The zombie called out to everyone in the room. "Um...quick question and query, duckies; if all of us just got here with the notable exception of the explosive - hah, no pun intended - young woman over there, and if she's been in our sights all along..." He rubbed his chin and did his version of a blink; the yellow lights in his sockets dimmed slightly before brightening again. The garrulous ghoul continued. "...Then who turned the monitors on to reveal the grim scene of gore and guttings being carried out by Mr. Grant's  great green ghoulie, who is then shown gallivanting off?" He used alliteration when he was troubled. 

 

And this....this was very troubling indeed. Not for the first time, the zombie desperately wished he could still inhale - he wanted nothing more than a cigarette right now. 

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica didn’t believe it for a second. Like the obviously undead man had said. It was too easy. She could name five villains off the top of her head that could have tampered with the footage in some way, and then made it play at this very second. It was likely they were being watched, as well. Though…a sensor wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. These things should be said. “Footage can be faked. There’s likely a dozen illusionists of varying power sources in this city as well. The footage was likely either tripped by a sensor of some kind…or we’re being watched.†There were over a dozen things she wanted to do right this second, but Rampart’s unstableness trumped them all. She had said her piece. It was up to the young woman’s friends to calm her down so that Terrifica could work.

[RobRX]

"What? WHAT?!" She shouted, angered and frankly completely confused at just what was going on. It made absolutely no damned sense that Jonathan Grant would be there and doing that and be there in person. However, on the other hand, Cho had previous encounters with the Glant Conglomerate so it strangely made it's own sense, in a certain twisted way, that she'd encounter some link that goes up to Glant Conglomerate. It was simply bound to happen given her previous exposure to them.

 

Thoughtspeed could feel his 'control' (or perhaps assistance was a more accurate term) start to lose it's grip as her anger built up at the scene. "Maybe you can control it, but I can't! N-not anymore! I tried but I was just holding it back! Maybe I shouldn't be holding it back!" Raising her head, she looked at Thoughtspeed, eyes jet black and veins on the face, features distorted. Briefly, the inside of her head was illuminated, showing the outline of her skull. "N-no, no, no don't want to, no! I've never been like this." Briefly, it seemed that she was back to being fully 'herself'. She had never even once ever given to any dark inner urge or some 'evil side'. That had never existed inside Cho and it was no reason for something like that to begin existing. Trying to calm down, she turned to Thaelia. "Y-you're right, it make no sense! It's..a trap, right? A plot?"

 

The lightshow of out-of-control powers began receding. "Right, okay j-just a moment, I can...I can do this." Cho said she was going to be okay, but was that even remotely a possibility or was she just trying to convince the others and herself?

Edited March 18, 2015 by RobRX

[KnightDisciple]

Thoughtspeed backed up, giving Cho a bit of space as she started to first lose, and then gain, control. His face remained locked into an expression of sympathy.

 

--Not me, we, Cho. We would control it. I think you can do it on your own, though; I'm just offering you a hand up.--

 

Meanwhile the collected heroes who weren't Cho got a slightly more stinging message.

 

--Could the lot of you maybe take all the speculation about who slaughtered everyone here a couple feet away until I help my friend get her powers under control?--

 

But then Cho started to really get a grip on things, and he gave her a smile. When next she heard his voice, it was with her ears not her mind.

 

"That's it. You're right, you can do this. I know you can. These powers are yours. You control them, they don't control you. It's hard some days, but that's how this works."

[RobRX]

"Almost...got...it...nnnggg..." Slowly, Cho rose back on her feet as the black and red crackle almost completely faded away into nothing. Slowly but surely, everything about her returned to almost normal as the disturbing vortex of entropy and horrific details faded away.

 

Costume half-melted into a blackened mess, Cho stumbled, taking a few steps forward toward Thoughtspeed. Upon closer inspection, the thing had probably melted on her skin, horrifically enough. Fortunately most likely Cho could heal from an injury such as this, even if currently it looked quite horrible and painful. A side effect of the costume's creation being directly tied to her powers, no doubt. "Why did you help me?" The girl finally asked Thoughtspeed. "N-nevermind. T-thanks."

[KnightDisciple]

Thoughtspeed gave her a smile and a shrug at the question.

 

"Because it's the right thing to do."

 

With a quick twitch of his head in a particular way, his helmet re-deploys and he's zipping around the room, stopping at various points, clearly trying to see what bits of evidence or the like he can pick up.

 

Cho will hear his voice in her mind, perhaps sounding a bit more high-pitched, as if talking on fast-forward.

 

--And because I wanted to. We've rarely seen eye-to-eye, Cho. Probably won't ever change. But we've both been through some ****. I'm not saying we'll ever be besties, though, hey, world's a strange and exciting place. But if nothing else I'd like to try and at least be friends. And friends help friends get through **** like this. Also, uh, please don't tell my mom I used those words. She'd give me an earful.--

 

Cho can, somehow, hear the reproachful smile on his face, despite the featureless helmet.

[RobRX]

"Nnnng...all right, if you say so." Cho said, sounding exceedingly tired and worn out by everything that had just hapenned. As soon as Thoughtspeed left, in a blur, she collapsed against a wall, obviously still in pain from the near-total meltdown of her powers which perhaps almost costed her own life. 'Don't mind me just...just need to recharge my batteries for a bit. You tell me if you find anything, okay?'

[EternalPhoenix]

Seeing Rampart beginning to relax, Terrifica got directly to work. Kindly give me a minute, young man. I have work to do. Her longcoat went back around her shoulders, and she started roaming the building with her investigative toolset out. As it turned out, she didn’t need anything but the most basic of probes. Human flesh reacts in a certain way when prodded and inspected. None of the body parts scattered throughout the building were real. Horror movie props. Not the best, but not the worst, either. The blood was real enough, but whether it was human or not was another matter entirely. Then there was that photo of the werehouse in Greenbank. And that no personal possessions were in evidence anywhere her eyes roved. The receptionist was real enough, but everything else? Illusion. Fakery. She smiled. She did so love a good mystery, and learning a massacre was just a elaborately staged murder brought a sense of palpable relief. She put her toolset away on her belt, and strode back into the lobby.

“I have good news and bad news.†She spoke loud enough to grab everyone’s attention. “The bad news is that this young woman-“ She indicated the young receptionist. “-is quite dead. A sharp weapon was used to penetrated her heart, and she bled out in seconds.†She held up a hand to forstall anything anyone might say. “While that is terrible, there is also the good news. The various bits and pieces of people scattered around are fake. Plastic, actually. Like you’d find on the set of a well funded horror movie. The blood is real enough, but whether or not it belongs to humans rather than say, pigs, requires a longer test than we have time for at the moment.†She paused for a moment. “Honestly, it looks more like everyone simply moved out and then the place was decorated for a particularly gruesome Halloween party. Aside from this poor girl, at any rate.†She knelt down and gently closed the girl’s eyes, whispering a prayer in Mandarin. She rose and walked to the exit. “There’s a warehouse in Greenbank. I recognized it from a photo in one of the rooms. I plan to go there next. Would any of you like to come along? There isn’t much left we can do here, aside from paying respects.†She made no move to actually leave. She simply looked at the group expectantly.

[MisterShoebox]

Phantasmo, for his part, had also been surveying the crime scene. He turned when he heard Terrifica call out for company. "Sure thing, duckie - I'd be happy to tag along." He 'ported to her side and conjured up a small coin which he began to rotate. "Anyone else? You, Thoughtspeed? Rampart? Other lads who's names I haven't quite discerned yet? C'mon, Don't be shy."

 

 

He coughed and looked a bit awkwardly at Cho. "Ummm...I mean this with the utmost respect and tact, dearie, but mayhap you should stay here? You did nearly...well...explode, you know. Or cause all of US to explode." He frowned. "Exploding's not fun, duckie. I've done it before...took me three whole days to put myself back together." Normally, he'd be more tactful...but he was still a bit troubled. 

[RobRX]

"Wait what? Wh-whoa hold on, that's all fake? Really?" For a moment, Cho's anger fired up once again and she came close to undoing Thoughtspeed's work, which is to say undoing the help at keeping her anger and powers in check. She had been played. Manipulated. And that pissed her off. Of course, in her mind that paled by a significant margin compared to the fact she hadn't looked at the remains more closely to assert wether or not they were indeed real. Then again, the odor of the blood (which was spilled all over) had revolted her so much she hadn't bothered and assumed the flesh was real.

 

"What a load of crap. And what the hell is going on?!" Cho looked at Phantasmo. "Sorry, that's not gonna happen. N-not...not because I want to yell at you and tell you 'you don't tell me what to do'...but...um...well...b-but because they were my team, even if it wasn't always working out so well. They're my responsability." The teenager grunted, pushing herself away from the wall. Slowly, she walked toward the door, arms wrapped around herself and her scorched skin semi-fused to her melted costume.

[Brown Dynamite]

"Know that the Daughter of the Seas shall not hesitate to disable thee if the need shall arise."  Glamazon called out to Cho.  Smiling after claiming she'd knock her friend around if need be without hesitation.  She thought she was being comforting.  Turning afterwards to Phantasmo.  "A thousand pardons to the lemure.  I am princess Thaelia of Atlantis, the Glamazon.  Now we are well met."

 

Thaelia had absolutely no future in forensic investigations.  Unless there was magic involved.  Which really did not seem to be the case.  Talking corpse in the room aside.  The princess closed her eyes and contemplated the options Terrifica laid out.  Seeing as Cho was walking out it seemed obvious what choice the larger teen had picked.  "Paying respects for the dead can wait until her death is avenged.  It would be dishonourable otherwise"

 

The Atlantean wasn't sure if Thoughtspeed was still listening in his mental relay as it were.  But, she sent out bait into the water.  We may wish to inquire as to why someone would wish death upon this woman and not the others.  When Cho is not grieving.

[Avenger Assembled]

The warehouse was on fire. Of course it was. 

 

By the time the heroes made their way to Greenbank, even with the help of Thoughtspeed's super-speed, it looked like they'd gotten there entirely too last. The Greenbank warehouse whose picture Terrifica had found was engulfed in roaring flames that erupted merrily from every tattered window and open door, the sirens telling them that emergency services were already on their way. It looked like they had come entirely too late, standing together by the old railroad track, and that this was yet another false lead in what was already shaping up to be one of the worst days of Rampart's young life. 

 

At least until, all at once, they were all abruptly cast into darkness.

[Avenger Assembled]

As the shadowy globe enveloped everyone, Rampart instantly recognized whose power this was - an instant before agonizing pain exploded through her midsection! She couldn't see anything in the darkness, but she had felt the hard, agonizingly painful punch at her back and the subsequent explosion of pain along the side of her stomach. In Cho's ear, Racer Khonchu's accented voice hissed, "This is for what you did to Cho, monsters! I'm taking all of you down - permanently!" When Cho reached down, she felt the razor-sharp claws that had gone through her back, through her side, and out the front of her stomach. The others heard the words and the blow, some could sense movement all around, but only Thoughtspeed could clearly sense the movement of the fast, shadowy figures inside the globe that were skittering towards the various heroes with terrible intent. 

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica could be accused of many things. Arrogance. Being a total jerk. Excessive smugness. Thinking way, waaay too hard about things. But even she knew the difference between the time for talking and the time for action. She took her staff off her belt and shook it open. She couldn’t quite see the person near her, even with her low light vision. That means this is a total darkness effect, and thus mostly likely the effect of superpowers. There was, however, a person near enough to strike. Close quarters, not sure if friend or foe. The taser. She flipped the staff around and jabbed the person with the shocking prongs on the end. Hopefully, the boy can sense minds as well as talk to them. Or we’re in real trouble. “Thoughtspeed, if you could kindly play bird dog? I don’t have the patience for this nonsense.” A calculated risk, of course. Something in her just couldn’t let children be harmed if she could do something about it. Even if that something was temping their adversaries to harm her instead.

[Avenger Assembled]

Another Racer came out of the shadows and went for Rampart with the same ferocious intent - this one fortunately missing despite the grievous wound Cho had sustained, blades slashing past her face without actually penetrating the eyeballs they'd come so close to swiping. Or had she simply been trying to terrify the other girl? It was hard to say; the usually gentle shadow controller having transformed into a furious killing machine nearly overnight - and where the hell had she gotten the ability to summon more of herself?. She had a lot to say, though, her voice grinding out burning hate and dripping spite,  a shocking obscenity for one usually so reserved. "I'll cut the real Cho out of you if I have to! I don't care about the war - you stole my best friend!" 

[KnightDisciple]

Suddenly, Terrifica, Glamazon, Phantasmo, and Rampart felt something at the back of their minds that they somehow knew linked them to Thoughtspeed and their fellow heroes. It was like being on a conference call while having a phone vibrate the back of your head. No pain, not necessarily uncomfortable, but not normal, either. They heard/felt/sensed Thoughtspeed's words. 

--Please just think your words from now on. Do not worry this doesn't let me read thoughts that you don't actively send over the link. 

Do not refer to me as a "dog" again, Terrifica, metaphor or no. I will begin assisting with navigation in a moment. First I need to redirect enemy forces from Rampart.--

In a blur of motion he was next to the Racer that had wounded Cho, his hands filled with simple gladii of blazing green energy. Without a spoken word, he wove a complicated attack pattern that feinter and probed and struck a couple dozen times in an eyeblink, landing several solid blows. For all his displeasure none of them would be enough to draw much blood or worse; unlike Racer he sought to stop and disable not maim and kill. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Much to Thoughtspeed's surprise, Racer's head came clean off! Her shadowy body fell to smoky pieces within seconds, vanishing entirely even from his psionic senses after that. The other Racers didn't seem too put off by their counterpart's destruction, though, letting him conclude he hadn't accidentally killed anyone today - they seemed intent on doing worse than that, though, one giving up an attack on Cho to swipe at him with claws that missed only thanks to his own fantastic speed. "You!" the Racer attacking him exclaimed. "They know about you! And your tainted line! Suppressive person! Sell-out! Agent of the Conspiracy!" 

[RobRX]

"Whoa Racer h-hold...I-I-whoa!" Cho tried to speak up, trying to calm down Racer Konchu, but kept being interrupted as everything hapenned around her. "J-Just...j-just...s-speak! Let me speak! Look, it's me! There is no evil clone going on here, no mind control device, no robot, not alien shapeshifter or any of that crazy stuff I hear people talk about! I have no idea what's really going on with the team, but I think someone's been lied to here. Either you or me or hell maybe both! O-okay look..." Cho extended her arms then raised them up in the air and walked toward Racer Konchu. "I-I'm all open, hands in the air. If I lower them or if you see any glow, just sink those claws in me. I know you can cut through me like butter with those claws. L-look, it's me."

She then looked Racer in the eyes, or at least her organic suit's eyes, at any rate. "If you have on you, then use it. You'll see it's the real me, no? I gave it to you; a small Daka crystal in a sealed container. Take it out, pop out the cap and put it in my hand. You know it's my weakness."

Edited April 26, 2015 by RobRX

[Avenger Assembled]

The 'Racers' all faded from view in puffs of black smoke, as did the black globe surrounding everyone's field of vision. The only Racer left, evidently the real one, was left standing directly behind Cho - it was the same one that had cut her open so deeply. She was holding the daka crystal, and with a shrill cry, she turned and hurled it out and away down the railroad track, her face strangled with fury and grief. She shouted "<I feel like I'm going crazy! The world is falling to pieces!>" in Japanese before switching back to her accented English. "What are you?!" she demanded of Cho, drawing claws that dripped blood out of her friend's wound. "What are any of you!?" she demanded of the others as she backed away, her eyes visible and wide like a cornered, trapped animal. "None of this makes any sense!"  Outlined by the fire, her body covered in a shadowy form with blood dripping from long, razor-sharp claws at her hands, she looked like a vision from Hell itself. 

[RobRX]

"H-hey!" Cho shouted as the crystal went flying and rolling away. "I know that's something that can kill me but these things are rare! I-It's me, okay? It's really me." She said, voice cracking, making somewhat exasperated gestures and face completely wracked by an aguished expression. The whole scene certainy looked rather unsettling and gruesome, with Racer's black insectoid-demonic shape, bloodstained claws and Cho's morphic molecule suit half-melted unto her burned frame, a side effect of the molecular power metldown from earlier.

"I keep telling you, it's me. Look I don't know what's going on here,not for sure, but I swear it's really me." She took a few step forward, toward Racer. The teenager then turned to Thoughtspeed: "Can you get the crystal back, please? We'll be fine here, just give her a moment."

Edited April 27, 2015 by RobRX

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia stretched her hands out and cracked her knuckles.  Having not gotten the chance to punch anything she felt her contribution minimal at best.  As much as she loved violence, which was to say a lot, she appreciated not having to swing her fist if the situation no longer called for it.  And for a girl who could see the truth behind illusions and darkness itself.  Seeing that things were well in hand was a far easier task.

Her eyes turned towards the warehouse that was ablaze upon their arrival.  As great as it was to see Cho's friend was alright.  Even if by Glamazon's estimation she looked like a creature that would have been decapitated by heroes in her childhood bedtime stories.  There was still one very important question she needed the answer to.  

"A thousand pardons.  The Daughter of the Seas wishes not to interrupt your reunion.  However, I must ask.  Is there anyone else here?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"No, they're all gone," said Racer with a shake of her head, her shadowy form slowly congealing back into a more humanoid-looking shape. "I don't know where, they said they'd tell us when we got on the plane. They had somebody come in and teleport them out to an airport in another city, I didn't know who it was, some kind of psychic who was reading everyone's mind. I sent one of my duplicates through and I snuck back to the DeWitt. I set the warehouse on fire thinking it would get people here sooner, and when I saw it was you and...them," Racer still did not look comfortable around the other heroes; despite the grievous injury she'd dealt Cho, she seemed to be trying to keep her friend between them and the others. "I hid so I could stop you. I wanted...to punish you for stealing Cho from us." 

Edited April 28, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[Brown Dynamite]

Airport in another city.  The princess guessed they weren't going to get to the bottom of things then.  Two of them could cover prodigious distance in short time.  But, that wouldn't do much once a plane was already in the air in an unknown city.  Her lack of investigative knack wrote that off as a dead end already.

"Stealing?"  Thaelia guffawed.  At the paper thing reasoning for justifying starting a massive fire.  "She is no more our possession than she is yours.  If I may inquire, what possibly were you aiming to stop us from?  Bringing to justice a murderer?"

It was another moment of stating the first thing that came to mind for the Glamazon.  Just as she seemed to have relatively calmed.  The Atlantean's eyes didn't budge from Racer.  Friend of Cho or not, she had seriously injured the person she was claiming to be acting for without so much as an apology.