Not My Best Side (IC)

[Raveled]

Starlight had been expecting this sort of reaction and was prepared for it. She reached out physically at well as mystically, the warmth of the White Light enveloping the woman's mind. "Be calm," she said softly, even as her own eyes glowed the same mystic power. "Go to your child, and calm his mind."

[Supercape]

GM

The young mother's muscles sagged, and her facial expression was wiped to one of serenity. Her eyes looked calmly at Starlight.

"I am...calm, so very, very, peaceful..." she whispered, her voice soft but clear.

"I have to take my baby away from you, because you are a monster..." she said, quite clearly and without rush, and smiling gently at Starlight.

Slowly she walked over to the young toddler, and put him in her arms. As she did, a wave of contorted emotions and expressions hit both mother and baby, mirroring each other. The baby became calm just like mother, and then the mother looked at Starlight.

"You are funny monster, I will play with toys now because they are fun to play with" said the young woman, her smile still completely calm and serene.

She gently placed the young child down, and soon both of them were putting together a train set.

"Choo Choo, train go Choo Choo!" said the mother, in a soft, calm, childish voice, as she pushed a model train around the railway track.

[Raveled]

Starlight closed her bottle-green eyes and cursed in alien tongues. She'd hoped it would be as simple as matching her strength against that of the psychic intrusion, but it seems that she had simply set up two independent influences within the minds of the afflicted. She hadn't wanted to resort to this, but she had no choice; the only solution the heroine could think of was the apply the power of the Light more directly. She opened her eyes and took a step towards the child.

And paused. For all of it, she still didn't know that this child was the cause of the whole mess. Starlight wasn't about to subject this child to such a great force without being sure it was needed. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again they were burning bright, featureless white with the ancient energy inside of her.

[Supercape]

GM

The young child's brain was alive with psychic energy - a primitive kind, no doubt, but potent enough to have caused the contagious havoc around the building. And the origin of the psychic force was indeed from the child...

...but wait.

Something...a trace, a whisper, a zephyr or psychic force, lingered. The child had latent psychic abilities, but it was almost unheard of for psychic mutations and powers to manifest so early - Starlight could detect something in the child that had awakened the latent abilities and forced them, rudely, to manifest.

Something in the blood? something eaten? drunk? the vaguest whisper of the psychic force etched in the blood stream of the child - the stomach...

This is the police! we have you surrounded! surrender now, Grue, leave the child and woman alone!

The megaphone voice carried straight into the child's appartment through the shattered glass windows. Outside, Starlight could see police vans with flashing sirens pull up, and snipers start to take position over the road...

[Raveled]

Starlight's sharp green eyes narrowed, taking in the police snipers, the cordon, and the very open window that gave everyone an excellent view of the happenings. She considered closing the window, putting the crib against the opening, or even moving the whole tableau into an inner room; both mother and child were under the effect of her earlier calming influence, after all. But no, she had to end this situation now, before it got anymore out of control than it was.

Starlight closed her eyes and spread her arms out to either side. The power of the light gathered in her and spread out through the room like a mist, making the mother and her child appear indistinct for a minute. "Know the touch of the Light," the heroine intoned, "and know liberation in your mind and soul!"

[Supercape]

GM

The mother of the child stood up, still calmed from Starlight's soothing influence, but nevertheless filled with caution as she backed away from her own child.

"What's become of him!" she whispered. "My little Billy!" she sad, a flatness to her face indicating the surpressed terror and sadness that would have overcome her if not for the power of Starlight.

"Anybody he touches...they become like him!" she said, turning to Starlight.

"Have you done this? You alien brutes have no shame!"

Step away from the woman with your hands up! came the scream from the megaphone outside. The police had taken up positions...

[Raveled]

The situation was dissolving quickly, but Starlight was actually relaxing. She could feel the strange pressure within her fading and she knew, somehow, that her shapechanging abilities had been restored to her. Still, it was time to make an exit.

The Grue drew herself up and pointed at the mother shielding her child. "Beware your son," she intoned in her best monster voice. "His fate is not yet done." With that she sprinted out of the apartment, moving as fast as her feet could carry her. If she could get back to her own unit, she should be able to become Starlight for true, and deal with the last, lingering effects of this hostile psychic intrusion.

[Supercape]

GM

"Halt! Hand's up!" shouted the lead SWAT officer.

Starlight had only taken a couple of dozen steps outside the apartment and turned a corner before running into a 4 man SWAT team, all armed to the teeth with automatic weapons, body armour, and bristling with the tools of the trade: what must be stun grenades, goggles, mirrors, the works...

"Stay where you are, Grue!" said the commander, his weapon trained on Starlight. "At least, that's what I'm guessing you are...man, you are ugly..." he said, shaking his head.

"I don't know what you are, who you are, or what you are doing here, but you are number 1 suspect!" he barked "I got fires, property damage, assault and battery, and damn we even have reports of a missing person...what have you done with her?" he asked.

"What have you done with Elizabeth Moya???"

[Raveled]

Starlight took in the hallways crowded with armed men in the blink of an eye. The situation was almost humorous, looked at from a certain angel; she could produce Elizabeth Moya at the drop of a hat -- or Mayor O'Conner, or Lady Liberty, or just about anyone else on Earth if she wanted to. All it would take would be revealing her secret to the world.

Space. She needed space. The heroine gestured and a wall of solid light appeared between her and the SWEAT team, blocking them off better than a brick wall. Without a moment's hesitation she bolted for the emergency stairwell at the end of the hall. With luck, there would only be one team in the building.

[Supercape]

GM

One nervous SWAT officer - whose training, no doubt, didn't cover alien abduction - fired a spray of bullets as Starlight formed the wall. They zinged this way and that, and cracked but did not puncture the solid light.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" yelled the commander, concerned the bullets would pose more danger to the officers than Starlight, as they richocheted off the light.

In any case, between the bullets and the shining light, a distraction had been made and Starlight could make her getaway with ease. The stairwell was empty as she burst into it.

"Command Command! We have target in sight but escaped! *crackle* looks Alien to me, possible Grue!"

Starlight could just make out the last radio communication as she darted away.

"Looks like an alien abduction of Elizabeth Moya!!!"

[Raveled]

Starlight climbed the bare concrete steps, mind moving as she planned her next step. She needed her Grue self to disappear, Elizabeth Moya to reappear, and ideally for Starlight to be seen defeating the Grue. Being in three place at once was a little beyond her powers, but with luck she wouldn't have to be...

The stairwell went all the way to the roof and Starlight paused in front of the door. She morphed into Liz Moya, losing a food in height and redistributing her mass around her frame. She added bags under her eyes that the 'default' Liz didn't have, some bruises on her arms, and after a moment's thought her nose nose snapped to the side and flattened out, like it was broken. She held one hand out over the empty air in the center of the stairwell and summoned a series of intolerably bright flashes of light. With that done, she pushed open the door to the roof and stumbled out onto the gravel. The heroine wrapped her arms around herself and glanced around in feigned confusion, doing her best to look like a sick, injured alien abductee.

[Supercape]

GM

"Halt! Hands up!" shouted the megaphone.

Outside was what looked like a small army of police officers, and even some AEGIS agents in MAX armour arriving. It looked like it was pretty fortunate that Starlight had managed to regain her human appearance.

"Hold your fire" heard Starlight "It's the woman...Elizabeth Moya!"

A few minutes later...

As police and AEGIS agents started searching the building (to no avail, of course), two detectives started debriefing Ms. Moya in a mobile operations truck. Tea was offered, as was a blanket. A paramedic scuttled around her, checking for signs of injury and applying first aid as required.

"So, Ms. Moya, how are ya?" said Detective Charlie Burns, who half sat on the table, his tie half undone and, to be frank, looking tired and burnt out. He was probably in his fifties, with a paunch but a powerful build.

His partner, Detective Roy Winterstone, a man with slicked back blond hair, was taller and thinner, and chain smoked. He wore glasses and had a snake like appearance. His suit was crumpled but well tailored and his tie fully done up. He leant against the wall slightly and gazed at Ms. Moya with bright green, quizzical and intelligent eyes.

[Raveled]

Liz sipped the tea slowly, trying to take the measure of the two detectives. Detective Burns seemed half asleep, and anyway looked like someone who had been serving and protecting Freedom City for a long time. Such officers usually learned what kind of madness could be encountered in the city, and learned to accept some of the weirder explanations. Like 'aliens threw my car on top of the building,' or 'strange-looking guys in robes stole half my house,' or indeed 'a Grue invader kidnapped me for my mind and a superhero saved me.'

"I am fine," Liz said, keeping her voice steady. "I told you, the Grue appeared in my apartment and captured me. Starlight fought it and forced it to release me. She told me that the Grue was looking for a little boy who lives in the apartment building. Apparently he's a very powerful psychic and Grue do not like them -- or at least that is what she told me. I do not know anything about those aliens." She sighed and rubbed her eyes with one hand. "Can I go back home, now? I would very much like to take a name."

[Supercape]

GM

"I told you, the Grue appeared in my apartment and captured me. Starlight fought it and forced it to release me. She told me that the Grue was looking for a little boy who lives in the apartment building. Apparently he's a very powerful psychic and Grue do not like them -- or at least that is what she told me. I do not know anything about those aliens. Can I go back home, now? I would very much like to take a name."

Burns looked tired. He rolled up his sleeves, took a few notes, and poured himself a large mug of strong, cold coffee that he threw down his throat in one shot.

"Sure, Missy" he said, ticked a few boxes and signing off his sheet "Sounds like a real rough deal you had there. Those Grue, you know..." he lowered his voice to a whisper.

"...my partner here, he had a real bad expe..." he started, before Winterstone coughed loudly and gave Burns a glare.

"Ah yeah, anyways, we gots proper psychologists you know, for debriefing, you know, after trauma and stuff. You can speak to them if you want to. Here, here's there number" he said, sidetracking and scribbling a number on a piece of paper for Starlight.

"You sound like you need some rest" he added, with a helpful but weary smile "but give our boys in there a bit longer to trawl the place. Anyway, take a stretch of your legs if you need to. We are finished up here. "

[Raveled]

Liz took the card and made polite noises to the pair of officers. Yes, it had been a harrowing experience. No, she wasn't going to be leaving the country anytime soon. Yes, it had left her number with the desk sergeant. In a few minutes she was out in the sunshine and inhaled deeply.It had been a very long day, and it wasn't even lunchtime yet! She shook her head and flagged down a cab. On her way back to her apartment, she dialed a number that would've cost an astronomical amount if it showed up on her bill. It rang twice, then went to a machine with a hard click. Liz left a report on the morning's activities in her native tongue.

By the time she was finished the taxi was pulling up in front of her building. She paid the driver and made her up to her unit, deftly avoiding her neighbors. The last thing she wanted to do today was spin out more lies. All she wanted was a hot shower -- and then to get onto the real business of the day.

[Supercape]

GM

Detectives Burns and Winterstone sat in their van.

"Guess that wraps it up for tonight" said Burns. "That Grue, or whatever it was, got clean away. God knows what it wanted here, or with that Lady. Damned if we ever find the cockroach, but its wanted for alien abduction now. If it pops up again, we can throw that at it. No point putting out an APB, the thing is probably past Pluto now. But we have its description..."

He tidied up his papers and strolled out of the mobile base.

"SWAT nearly finished their debrief, time to pack up and go...you coming?" he asked his partner.

"In a minute" replied the wound up Winterstone.

When Burns was gone, he looked once again through the papers, studying them for several long minutes.

"This doesn't add up, Ms. Moya. Something's amiss...why you?"

He tapped the table a few more times before finally putting his Jacket on and putting the files away.

"I'll solve it one day..." he mumbled before stepping outside.

"See if I don't..."

~ Fin ~