ic [ArchEvil] Revelations [IC]

[N/A]

While Fraser and White exchanged the opposite of pleasantries, the late 20s / early 30s Latina in the understated-but-expensive skirt-suit had her arms crossed in front of her chest. Elena Guerrero's right elbow rested upon her left hand, while the thumb and first two fingers of her right hand pinched the bridge of her nose. Her eyes remained closed. At first, her expression conveyed simple exasperation, but a couple of minutes came and went without any change in her posture or stance beyond her barely perceptible breathing. Contemplation waged a slow war of attrition with annoyance over her face, and won out in the end.

Her eyes snapped open along with White's baton. She reached out and rested her palm on Fraser's shoulder. [bg=#BF0000]"John, stop. This is Erin White, one of Duncan's star pupils. Viktor hired her right out of school. And she's telling the truth, about everything. Although she is naive to think that the multiversal avatar of Entropy itself will remain 'dead' indefinitely."[/bg] Elena extended a hand to Erin. [bg=#BF0000]"Forgive me. Elena Guerrero. For better or for worse, you've already met my associate, John Fraser. Duncan and Viktor have both spoken very highly of you. I don't know if Alex has mentioned me to you or not. I've been tutoring her for the last two years. John and I are both long-time colleagues of The Doktor, and we have matters both urgent and unpleasant to discuss with him. But he isn't here right now. He isn't anywhere in the neighborhood."[/bg]

[Electra]

Erin blinked in surprise, but automatically shifted her stance to shake Elena's hand. "You're the Scarab?" It didn't take a psychic to see that Elena didn't look quite like Erin's mental image of the famous psychic hero, but the young powerhouse was obviously impressed. "Alex talks about you a lot."

She looked over toward the kitchen wall, gestured in that direction. "There's a secret door in that wall. When I showed him the armor, he acted like he was passing out, his eyes rolled back and he started to fall. He recovered then, but he was all... lizardy," she said awkwardly. "Scales, kind of gill-things, giant black eyes. Maybe more fishy, but anyway, he was really upset. He said it was from an experiment that went wrong, that when he got upset, he shapeshifted. He said he didn't want you to see him like that, so would I distract you while he was trying to get himself back together. He went behind that wall and I went to get the door. But I didn't expect him to leave. Why would he leave?"

[Ecalsneerg]

John scratched at his stubble thoughtfully. "Hrrrrm... well, I can't much speak for Elena here, but I doubt I'd react highly well to him suddenly being a big scaly fish." He sighed deeply. "Oh god, do I hate the weird stuff. I never thought I'd want to just have brawny thugs shooting me again."

He clapped his hands together. "We need to find him. And find out what the hell is going on. Kiddo, fill me in quickly on what you can do. Elena, reckon you can scan for him quickly? I'm going to have to go grab my suit and weapons, and then a few documents. I like Archeville, so I don't want to assume the worst, but he's probably on the list of people who could outmaneuver me without using superpowers, and that's not something I'm walking into."

[N/A]

Elena dragged the front door closed behind her and bolted it. Then she quickly stepped into the kitchen area Erin had indicated and knelt down before Omega's breastplate. Elena closed her eyes, resting one hand against the floor while the other hand pressed two fingers against her forehead. She opened her mind to the psychic resonance embedded in the walls around her, letting her perceptions slip free from the grasp of Time.

She watched Erin battle the Lord of The Terminus, and prevail. She watched her friend Viktor transform into a hideous abomination, the likes of which had not walked the surface of the Earth since before recorded history. And as she watched, she touched the minds of Erin and John, showing them the parade of horrors unfolding before her. She stood as if in a trance, her eyes open but unfocused, and stepped in front of the wine refrigerators. She held her open hand out in front of her, and the doors swung open. Her fingers waved slightly toward the hidden console, and the buttons sank one by one, as if pressed by invisible fingers. The subterranean complex opened its maw for the assembled heroes. Elena levitated a few inches above the ground and floated down the stairwell, her attention still focused on the psionic echoes of Archeville's sudden evacuation.

[Electra]

After working with Alex and Eve, Erin was no stranger to getting information poured into her head from time to time, and the Scarab was definitely an expert. She cocked her head to one side and tried to process the information as it came in. Apparently the thing Doktor Archeville had transformed into was not some random mutant creature, but a specific very bad, very old thing. Of course it was. Erin resisted the urge to sigh as the possibility of a quiet evening spiraled away, and wondered if this was the way life always was for grown-up heroes.

As the Scarab headed for the secret lair, Wander picked up the chestplate (it wasn't something to leave lying around) and followed. On the way, she filled the old man in. "I mostly just hit things really hard," she told him. "I'm pretty fast, and I can jump a long way but not fly. If things get really complicated I can call my friends, but a lot of them aren't in town right now."

[N/A]

Elena hovered motionless in the air for a few moments after her visions receded and the sights and sounds of the present came rushing back into focus. Her woolen jacket slid off of her shoulders, and her leather heeled boots unzipped themselves and fell from her feet. At her mental command, the morphic molecules of her blouse melted and expanded, flowing like oil across her flesh. The molecules hardened into overlapping plates, clicking together until they covered Elena from the neck down in the familiar iconography of The Scarab.

[bg=#BF0000]"Yes, please, bring that thing with you."[/bg] The Scarab pressed a finger against one of her stylized scarab-shaped epaulets, and it sank a half-centimeter into its housing. The fabric of space a couple of meters behind her tore open into the shape of a giant ankh. It appeared as though The Sun itself lay on the other side of the portal, a portal tall enough to accomodate the passage of one twice the size of any of the assembled heroes. Golden lightning leaked out around the edges.

[bg=#BF0000]"I'll be right behind you."[/bg]

[N/A]

The Scarab inclined her head slightly and pressed her fingers against her temples. She reached out with her mind to the very edges of the Solar System, unleashing a wave of psychic energy like a net. That net would snare the minds of every living, active superhero she had ever worked with, every superhero she had ever met. The Freedom League, the Interceptors, the Midnighters, the Claremont Academy, everyone.

[bg=#BF0000]This is The Scarab. We are facing an exctinction-level scenario. Viktor Archeville has been compromised by what appears to be a combination of Lemurian sorcery and Terminus energy. Repeat: This is an extinction-level event. Doktor Archeville has been compromised by The Terminus, and his whereabouts are currently unknown. This is not a drill or a training exercise. This is officially as bad as it gets, People.

I will be bringing down The Lair's teleporters shortly, spinning up the self-destruct mechanisms, and evacuating the complex. I suggest that everyone else who gave Archeville access to their base do the same. That includes Freedom Hall and The Lighthouse. Don't pull the trigger, but chamber the cartridge.[/bg]

[N/A]

The Scarab had some private messages for certain individual parties as well.

[bg=#BF0000]Duncan, evacuate your campus and take your kids somewhere safe.

Jack, Taylor, take your son and get out of this dimension. Derrick, Stesha, do likewise. Viktor's interest in your children has officially become "unhealthy."

Sofia, evacuate Pyramid Plaza. Now. Call in a bomb threat. Start a fire. Do whatever you have to do to empty those buildings. The towers are designed to withstand an earthquake, and outer walls of The Lair are shielded with the right materials. Even if I have to detonate the tactical nukes "downstairs," the Plaza should remain standing, and radiation-free. But this is not something we should take any chances on.[/bg]

[Ecalsneerg]

Arrowhawk nodded briefly to Elena, and strode into the portal, not limping quite as pronouncedly as he had been before. "I'm going to be back soon," he promised.

And then he was in the Lair, not even stopping to keep track of his surroundings as he fiddled with the damn teleporters, somehow forcing open one of the arcane pieces of over-elaborate damned technology. And stepped out into one of his rented rooms, barely pausing to grab a huge sports bag, and punch his way clear through a chunk of drywall which was just a shade newer and less dirty looking. And dove back into the portal into the Scarab's Lair, clutching both the folder and the bag.

Then promptly stripped off his shirt, pulling out plain black tracksuit bottoms and a black t-shirt, and rapidly began changing outfits in swift, practiced movements. Ignoring anyone who might enter the Lair, he without shame stripped off the jeans and replaced them with the more comfortable, practical trousers, strapping black armour plates to his legs immediately after, then larger, thicker plates to his torso and upper arms.

Red eyes glared from the shadows of his black cowl as he pulled out his folder, and began rethinking old tactical assessments and plans.

[Dr Archeville]

The ramp leading down from behind the wine fridges lead to a large wine cellar, filled with enough beer and wine for a Bavarian Bierhaus for a month, all tended by a panoply of small insectoid robots, all going about their business without pause. Past the spiral maze of bottles and casks, and sloping down more, was a set of double doors, beyond which Scarab knew was Archeville's personal laboratories and workshops. Her ESP had shown her he was not there, but had shown the assortment of robots within loading a few crates onto the teleportal pad, then everything went to sleep mode; robots returned to their recharge stations, and the teleportal powered down.

[N/A]

The Scarab turned over her shoulder to her fellow heroes before stepping through the gigantic ankh-shaped portal. [bg=#BF0000]"In the two-minute head-start we gave him, Viktor managed a mass exodus of nearly all the significant equipment stored here. If his dark side merely remained dormant instead of integrating with the rest of his personality, then that means it likely had contingencies in place already for the next time it would be able to assume control. My next stop is my command center, to see what sort of trouble Viktor's managed to cause in the time it would take most men to brush their teeth and shave. If either of you would like to accompany me, you're welcome to. Otherwise, input a destination on the console and a portal will open in one of the arches to that location, and I bid you good luck and godspeed in whatever aspect of the impending crisis you choose to pursue."

"And if you need a secure place to store that,"[/bg] she pointed to the chestplate, [bg=#BF0000]"then my holding cells are surrounded by walls thick enough to mask any energy signature it may be emitting, and are equipped with the same power-nullifying technology as Blackstone. And if nothing else, the entire place is wired to blow."[/bg]

[Electra]

"I... I'll come with you," Wander said uncertainly, hefting the chestplate. She didn't know where else to go or what else to do. Young Freedom wasn't exactly together anymore, at least not in the same way. Edge wasn't even in the country, and she couldn't just go to the school or Alex's place like she used to. "Maybe there'll be something I can do there?" She had to do something, the guilt for letting Dok get away was practically radiating off her, now that she'd figured out what was going on. She should've known better, but he'd really seemed upset, and like he needed help. Looking around once more, she followed Scarab through the portal.

[N/A]

On the other side of the portal, The Scarab flew through the artificially-weathered hieroglyphic-etched limestone facade that was her Lair. With another press of the button concealed in her epaulet, the ankh-shaped hole in space mended shut behind them. Their journey took them through several hallways and chambers, including a massive cylindrical shaft several stories high, with a pillar in the center but no visible means of elevation through the tiers of the Lair.

The room immediately preceeding the command center was a gallery brimming with relics and works of art from dozens of different cultures and time periods throughout the bulk of human civilization, an archaeologist's dream. [bg=#BF0000]"Mementos. Nostalgia is one of the common impulses I still let myself indulge from time to time. And if Viktor gets his hands on these pieces in his current state, well...that's when the nuke comes in."[/bg]

The command center itself was a dizzying array of computer consoles and screens, lining both the walls and a row of countertops. The Scarab fell into one of the several rolling chairs, lounging as she pressed a few buttons on the nearest console. A giant screen, nearly the size of an entire wall, flickered to life, as did a couple dozen smaller screens lining it in all directions. Several screens, in several different languages, displayed Viktor Archeville's ultimatum to the world.

[Electra]

Wander propped the chestplate against the wall and sheathed her bat as the Scarab took her seat, then stood with her feet apart and one hand clasping the opposite wrist behind her back as she watched the broadcast unfold. "Those are the Interceptors," she realized aloud as she watched, but remained silent through the rest of it, her heart full of dread. Had they really saved the world only to risk losing it again so soon? The Scarab wasn't a rookie or an alarmist. If she was willing to destroy her own base so Dr. Archeville wouldn't get it, things were very bad already. She replayed the scene at the house again in her head. How had she not seen what was happening? If it weren't for her gullible foolishness, maybe he wouldn't have gotten away, and none of this would be happening!

When the broadcast was over, she raised a hand to rub the bridge of her nose, then pulled out her phone. She was a little surprised to see that she had bars down here, but it was a high-tech superlair. She punched in the button to dial Trevor. "Are you seeing what's on TV?" she asked tersely. "Everything's all screwed up again."

[Gizmo]

"Must be Friday," a calm baritone replied over the phone. Trevor Hunter had made his way down the hidden staircase behind the ornate grandfather clock and into another underground lair as soon as the aging but still fully functional monitoring systems housed there had alerted him to the broadcast. It didn't take much to recognize the distinctive silhouettes standing behind the oddly piscine speaker, particularly given the statuesque nature of Erin's sometime-mentor, Fulcrum. Mind control radically altered the equation of any attempted conquest, he reflected. "Hnn. Robotic squid surfacing in the harbour," he reported, balancing the cellphone between his shoulder and cheek as he tapped precisely at the keyboard before him, viewing the scene from multiple angles. "Large force of fish creatures. Incursions by... Grue drones? Modified with multiple powers, worldwide, teleporting out of..." Scanning the panicked reports coming in from all corners of the globe, his eyes widened in the first physical sign of concern. "Where are you now?"

[Electra]

"I'm at the Scarab's Lair," Erin told him, still watching the screens playing around the room. "I went to Dr. Archeville's house with the chestpiece like we talked about, but things got really weird there and he turned into a monster somehow and tricked me into letting him get away when Scarab and Arrowhawk came to stop him..." She trailed off, sighed. "I really screwed it up," she admitted. "Now we have to stop him before he can destroy the world we just finished saving. Do you have anything built by ArcheTech in the house? If you do, you'd better shut it down, maybe break it."

[Gizmo]

The faint ghost of a smirk was too slight a gesture to carry over the phone, but Erin heard it anyway in the tone of Trevor's flat snort. "Most tech in here was installed before Archeville was born." The equipment in the Midnight Manor was considerably more advanced than what should have been available in the time of its original owner, but then Travis Hunter had spent a considerable amount of time working with Dr. Tomorrow. "Fooled you for a few minutes. Fooled everyone for much longer," he pointed out. His girlfriend's strong sense of personal responsibility was one of her most attractive features, but guilt would do them no good just then. It wasn't clear if Archeville had revealed his true nature or been overtaken by some outside force, but the coordination of the planet-wide assault suggested careful, long term planning. "What do you need from me?" Erin seemed to have been caught up in the center of events as they unfolded, and the young tactician deferred to her better view of the larger picture.

[Electra]

"I'm not sure yet," Erin admitted, looking at the screens that showed disaster after disaster cropping up. "It looks bad all over the city. I don't even know where Archeville is now, or how we could reach him, but there's going to be plenty to do. I just wanted to make sure you didn't get caught unaware. I know the Manor's a safe place and all, but still. Just a second."

She took the phone away from her ear and took a few steps towards the Scarab. It was hard to tell whether that notable was currently engaged in psychic activities a million miles away or not. Clearing her throat politely, Wander asked "I have Midnight on the line, is there anything we should be getting to first?"

[N/A]

The Scarab unceremoniously dropped a file folder on the counter in front of her. When it fell open, Erin could see a hand-drawn picture of the black armor which assembled around Archeville on the central monitor. What appeared to be a pile of photocopied death certificates poked out from underneath it. On the smaller screens, one new crisis after the next appeared, as Archeville's soldiers stormed one major city after another.

She slumped in her chair for a few moments, burying her face in her hand. [bg=#BF0000]"This is my fault."[/bg]

[N/A]

[bg=#BF0000]"I could have prevented this. Viktor was responding favorably to regular psychotherapy. I thought we had integrated his dark side back into his core personality, but it was just hiding. My research had uncovered his heritage, but I didn't tell him. So much of his identity is invested in his self-image as a man of logic and reason...I was afraid if he knew about his true lineage, about the magical influence, the strain would crack his mind in half again. But it was already fragmented. The cracks ran deeper than ever. I let myself be blinded by optimism. I failed him."[/bg]

[N/A]

Between her fingers, out of the corner of her eye, The Scarab glimpsed Archeville's titanic submarine fortress Fjolnirskraft on one of the smaller monitors, ploughing through the Centery Bridge. She rose solemnly from her seat, and gestured toward Omega's chestplate. It wiggled free from Erin's grasp and floated toward The Scarab, who punched a few keys on an adjacent console. Another ankh-shaped portal appeared beside her. A gust of wind blew forth from it, blowing her massive cape into the air behind her. One of the monitors flickered away from the BBC News, to a bird's-eye view of a bare cylindrical chamber, seemingly hewn from the same stone as the rest of The Scarab's Lair (minus the ultra-modern command center in which the assembled heroes currently stood). A similar portal glowed in the center of the chamber. The Scarab waved toward the portal, and the chestplate flew through it, appearing on the screen. She tapped another button on the console in front of her, and the portals both vanished.

[N/A]

[bg=#BF0000]"The Terminus relic should be safe there for the time being. It is now just one of several items which the monster that was once Viktor Archeville may attempt to retrieve and exploit, and the same countermeasure is in place for all of them."[/bg] She keyed in another set of commands to the mainframe.

[bg=#BF0000]"Activate self-destruct sequence. Silent countdown, ten-minute teleportal lockout."[/bg]

"Authorization code?"

[bg=#BF0000]"Authorization code 'Khepri Two Nine Zero Eight One Nine Nine Seven.'"[/bg]

"Authorization code confirmed and deleted. Voice analysis confirmed."

A pulse of light strobed over Elena's face. She rested her palm against a small pane of glass embedded in the counter. The crimson plates of her gauntlet melted into their component morphic-molecules, which retracted from her hand, sliding back up her wrist. Another pulse of light flashed from beneath the glass.

"Retinal scan confirmed. Fingerprint scan confirmed. Teleportal lockout will commence in ten minutes. All physical entrances are now sealed. Tactical nuclear warheads are now armed. The self-destruct trigger has been activated. There will be no further announcements."

[N/A]

The Scarab turned back toward Erin and waved her hand behind her at the wall of monitors, each one displaying a different news item related to Archeville's mad scramble for world conquest. [bg=#BF0000]"You have considerable power at your disposal, and you've accomplished far too much already to be taking orders from someone like me. Viktor's forces threaten the entire world. Pick a city out of a hat."[/bg]

The morphic-molecules of The Scarab's costume stretched to envelop her hand and head, covering her in crimson and gold plates from head to toe. From beneath the featureless helm, her voice sounded noticeably deeper. [bg=#BF0000]"Decide, make your way back to the teleportal junction room, input your destination of choice, and get out of here.[/bg]

Through the open doorway leading back to The Scarab's mementos, swarms of gleaming golden robots constructed to resemble scarab beetles skittered across the floor and walls. [bg=#BF0000]"You have ten minutes. After that, the security system will react to any presence as an intruder. The nukes will detonate, and fry everything in here to atoms."[/bg]

[bg=#BF0000]"As for me,"[/bg] she grumbled as she turned and took flight through the command center doors, [bg=#BF0000]"I'm going to find Viktor, and finish what I started."[/bg] In the blink of an eye, The Scarab vanished.

---

Continued in "ArchEvil: Gestalt Theory"