"When They Hear Oom Pah Pah!" (IC)

[Dr Archeville]

Gossamer could feel the mechanized mercenary glaring at her from under his helmet, but her words (or the force behind them) obviously had an impact. "Fine, not that it'll change a thing anyway. Slowly turn down the power on the third panel from the left, and when it hits 20 you can take the headband off. Then you can take the IV out, and he'll come to after a few moments."

When Gossamer got closer to the Doktor, she could hear what he was saying. It wasn't inane babble, it was a chemical formula, a polymer of some type.

[Heritage]

"Fine, not that it'll change a thing anyway. Slowly turn down the power on the third panel from the left, and when it hits 20 you can take the headband off. Then you can take the IV out, and he'll come to after a few moments."

Estelle carefully slipped a thin tendril free from the death grip she had the miscreant in, and followed his instructions, her wary blue eyes frequently darting back to her captive. Once it was accomplished, she leaned in and whispered into the unconscious man's ear.

"Doktor, can you hear me? Move your left pinkie finger if you can hear the sound of my voice."

Gossamer nervously watched for the sign, still not letting the armored goon out of her sight for very long.

He has to be all right, he has to be; we cannot lose this man of genius to common thieves!

[Dr Archeville]

"-OC-C₆H₄-COO-CH₂-CH₂-" he droned.

Gossamer saw his left pinkie being to wiggle.

"-O... oh... ohhhh.... mein schmerzender Kopf..." he said, groggily.

... the **** happened?

I do not... we were... drugged? A... truth serum? No, more than that...

"D-Doctor de Havilland? Is dat you?" He tried moving to look around, but he was still partially strapped down, "vhere are ve?"

[Heritage]

"D-Doctor de Havilland? Is dat you?" He tried moving to look around, but he was still partially strapped down, "vhere are ve?"

It was a huge relief to see that Viktor was apparently intact, though of course only time would tell if his recovery would be complete.

"We're in a makeshift lair where someone tried to steal your mind, though things are more or less under control. Do you always mumble about polymers when your knocked unconscious? It's actually rather endearing."

She started to loosen the straps holding Dr. Archeville while bringing her captive within the German scientist's line of sight.

"Does this fellow look familiar to you? Apparently this was all part of a violent yet childish plot to disgrace you."

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville was still quite groggy. "Polymers? I..."

****! They tried to steal my mind!

They did steal parts of it! The trance they put us in had you babbling all sorts of technologies, which they recorded and- oh, no!

Terror filled the Doktor's eyes, though Gossamer wa not sure if it was due to the look of the armored man or something she had said. "Doctor de Havilland, qvickly, you must sever deir communications links! All of dem!," he begged/ordered as he frantically undid the straps that kept him bound to the chair.

The mechanized mercenary began laughing again.

"Dey did steal part of mein mind, Doctor, plans und schematics for all manner of advanced technologies, und dey are beaming it to who knows vhat Black Market und Criminal Undervorld servers even now! Vhen you brought me out of de trance I vas reciting a formula for a plastic dat can varp light und radio vaves vhen it is electrically charged -- an invisibility cloak!"

[Heritage]

"Doctor de Havilland, qvickly, you must sever deir communications links! All of dem!"

Up until now, even with all the fighting and property damage the whole crazy evening had still felt a bit like a joke to Estelle, no doubt because she was a neophyte to Archeville's world, and superheroics in general. But the terror in his voice shattered that illusion, and she finally realized all this was deadly serious asd she began tearing all the connecting cables apart

"Dey did steal part of mein mind, Doctor, plans und schematics for all manner of advanced technologies, und dey are beaming it to who knows vhat Black Market und Criminal Undervorld servers even now! Vhen you brought me out of de trance I vas reciting a formula for a plastic dat can varp light und radio vaves vhen it is electrically charged -- an invisibility cloak!"

"No...no!"

How could she be so ignorant? By her failure, Gossamer had allowed this to happen; somehow she could have prevented this, if she hadn't been so slow or treated it like a ludicrous game. Who knows what damage she'd released by letting the secrets out of this mad genius' mind, like some idiotic Pandora opening her box?

The hairweilder slammed her prey up against the ceiling as she hissed at him through gritted teeth.

"Who did you sell it to? Who?!"

[Dr Archeville]

"Who didn't I sell 'em to?!" the mechanized mercenary spat. "The Crime League and the Psions both helped set this up! And the Foundry's gonna get a piece of the pie, too! Every ultra-tech supervillain on the planet's gonna benefit from Archeville's genius!" He turned slightly to look at Archeville, "That is what ya wanted, right, Doc? For everyone to benefit from your gifts?"

He turned back to Gossamer, "and the icing on the cake is, it's your fault because ya couldn't stop us! HA! So go ahead, send us to jail, lock us up -- I told you, we've already won!"

[Dr Archeville]

Oh, this is bad. This is extremely very not good.

On the upside, more of my devices will finally get constructed and tested!

Oh, you are as much to blame as the Power Corps! They could not have gotten so much from us if you had not been so willing to think up horrible weapons!

"Do not listen to him, Doctor," Archeville advised while removing the last of his bindings, "dis is not your fault! Danks to you, dey only got a fraction of vhat dey vere after!"

[Heritage]

He turned back to Gossamer, "and the icing on the cake is, it's your fault because ya couldn't stop us! HA! So go ahead, send us to jail, lock us up -- I told you, we've already won!"

The words stung her, and Estelle jammed her eyes shut as she struggled to contain both her fury and despair at her failure, the magnitude of which expanded with every sentence the vile man spat out.

I'm worthless; I should have called someone to help, anyone else...

"Do not listen to him, Doctor," Archeville advised while removing the last of his bindings, "dis is not your fault! Danks to you, dey only got a fraction of vhat dey vere after!"

But then the kind words of Viktor soothed her pain, and she realized the villain had lost and was merely doing his best to dishearten her, dragging some victory out of his defeat. She might not have succeeded as quickly as she'd have liked, but at least Dr. Archeville was safe.

"Oh shut up," she snapped at the criminal who still dangled in her grasp; she lightly bonked his head against the wall, careful not to do any actual damage. She then turned her focus back to her long-suffering date.

"How are, Viktor? Can you walk?"

[Dr Archeville]

"I can," Archeville said as he rose and retrieved his Electromagnetic Screwdriver from a nearby table.

"Vhich is more..." he continued as his fingers flew over the techno-wand's controls, and he walked around so he stood on the side of the grappled Power Corps member opposite Gossamer.

"...dan I can say..." A large and angrily sparking spike slid out from the tip of the techno-wand.

"... for him!"

In a surprisingly fast motion, Archeville pulled back and then rammed the sparking spike into the mechanized mercenary. She felt a shock go through the armor, and heard a yelp from inside, then the entire smoking suit went limp.

Kill kill kill kill-

Contain! Restrain!

"What the... what'd you do to me, you @#$%^ &*%$#-"

"I overloaded de mobility systems of your suit. You may as vell be vearing a refrigerator... an unplugged refrigerator, since I am going to deactivate your cooling systems next. I am going to do de same to your three associates, before dey regain consciousness und cause more trouble. I vill den call de police... but not before letting you stew in your un-air conditioned suits in dis July heat for a vhile."

"Ja, it is petty, but it is de first ding coming to mein scrambled mind..."

[Heritage]

"Ja, it is petty, but it is de first ding coming to mein scrambled mind..."

For one terrifying moment, Estelle thought the German scientist had actually stabbed his erstwhile captor, but his explanation soon allayed her fears and she found herlsef grinning at his impromptu justice.

"I'm just going to put him down...over...here."

The blonde heroine lowered him towards the floor...and then let him drop the last foot onto his behind. At long last, it appeared as if the insanity of the night had come to a close; using several tendrils, she began to dust debris off Herr Doktor as she chuckled ruefully.

"Well this was certainly a pleasant evening! We'll have to do it again sometime."