The Same Thing We Do Every Night ... [IC]

[Cyroa]

The machine was having no luck with forcing him to change but it was certainly taking its toll on Derrick's body. Barring a change to Dark Star (which would sort of defeat the purpose of staying as Derrick), he wasn't sure how much more his body could take before he passed out. He was battered and bruised, muscled pulled and strained. He wouldn't change, not matter what though. He rather die than let this villain use him for such destruction.

All the while, Avenger's twisted up and bizarre dreams played before him. It wouldn't be longer before the man inadvertantly gave Taylor's identity away, not to mention sink deeper into his own fears it seemed. "AVENGER! Remember who you are! You are a hero! You have saved countless lives! FIGHT!"

And then he saw the two figures on the security camera, right before everything went dark... His own little torture chamber still prevented his escape however, still waiting to suck the energy out of him but at least it seemed to have stopped with the torture part. He turned to the gowling madman and stood tall, if painfully. "I warned you. Surrender now and cease this madness. Phantom and the other other Knights are here to stop you and rescue Avenger and I. It's over." He hoped those words would reach through Avenger's haze but he couldn't risk saying much more.

[Electra]

Stesha coughed as the fumes began to fill the room, her eyes and ears still smarting from the rush of stimulation. "We've got to get out of here," she yelled to Taylor, even though her voice seemed distant and small after the roar of the nuclear reaction. She took a handful of seeds and tossed them towards the unconscious men. Wherever they landed, giant flowers sprung up, gulping down the unconscious forms until all that remained were the bloated flowers. "Can you get us to where they are?"

[angrydurf]

The power loss had sent the base into fair disarray but the security forces knew where the problem was and already Phantom and Fluer de Joie could hear the tromp of thier boots as they hurried toward the damaged reactor room.

***

"The fools won't last a minute against my crack security teams." Vaslev sneered at Dark Star, "They must have teleported in." He murmmered to himself as he bagan rerouting power form various systems.

In a few moments he was done and announced triumphantly, "HA HA they are just as trapped as you now my dear Dark Star, no power can bypass my Pan-Dimensional Interdiction Net."

The crazed villian stalked across the room to stand before the flaggin hero. "Perhaps one of hte pretty young ladies will be able to convince you the errors of your ways." He said with a sadistic sneer.

[alderwitch]

Phantom straightened and forced herself to shake off the strain of that little stunt. She solidified and reached out for Stesha's hand even as she felt the dimensional barriers grow tacky. "I can try.."

Phantoms gloved hand closed around Fluer's and she wrapped her cloak around them both as she reached for the cell holding the men prisoner...

[angrydurf]

Phantom and Fluer de Joie appeared in the center of a large command and control center. The high ceiling of the and sloped wall lent a grandiose and caverous air to the room. On wall was full of monitors and large screens with various read outs and displays as well as those playing back various scenes from Avengers tormented dreams.

Avenger himself was securly strapped into a large chair with electrodes leading from him to an advanced computer nearby. Off to one side stood a hulking device nearly twenty feet tall and more than half that in diameter the cylendrical chamber was empty at this point. On the other side of the vast room next to a highly advanced piece of technology that looked similar to an advanced telescope stood Derrick contained within a strange forsfiels whilst being bombarded with bizarre energies.

Working feverishly at a bank of comuputers was a well dressed man of easter european descent, his otherwise attractive features marred by a hideous burn of some kind on one side of his face. As the heroes suddenly arrived he whirled to face them. "You!" He screamed, "Inconcievable, nothing can penetrate my Pan-Dimensional Interdiction Net."

He took a step towards them while thimbing a switch on a large device on his wrist, "No matter," He spat at the intruding heroes, "I shall dispatch you myself and then your friend will have no choice but to power my Black Hole Projector." With that he raised a strange device and pointed it directly at Phantom.

[Avenger Assembled]

Thisisntrightthisisn'tright... Despite the cavalcade of confusion and fear boiling inside him, Jack rose with the other prisoners to take the traditional benediction of the Scarab. One by one the prisoners walked up to the stage, passing between the line of the Scarab's guards, where she drove her glowing tendrils into their flesh, transforming and warping them into massive scarab beetles that took their place on the stage with her. Jack's feet moved in a metronome's rhythm as he made his way up onto the stage, watching as the friendly young man with the dreads who'd shared the cell opposite him was transformed into a hideous beast. He'd never bothered to learn his name.

On stage, surrounded by scarabs and guards, Jack alone paused in the mechanical line of prisoners. There he met Melinda Ainsley's eyes square on, speaking again in that alien voice. "You're not the Scarab." She smiled beneficently at him and floated down to Earth to meet him, her eyes glowing red.

"I'm the voice of the people, Jack," she teased him lightly. "I am the monster who slays other monsters. I turn what's dark in men into good by showing them what's worse." Her teeth narrowed alarmingly. "You can't say you disagree, can you?"

In his ears, Jack heard the heartbeats of everyone in the room; men and monsters and Scarab alike. It took him a moment to realize that the only one he couldn't hear was his own. When he spoke, it was with his own voice. "You don't help them. You hurt them behind the guise of love. You feed them false gods and want them to love you for it."

"They do love me for it, Jack." She smiled again, her serpent's tongue extending. "Do you love me, Jack?"

"I..." She was so beautiful. She was so right. Jack looked down at his hands again and saw the slow, deliberate slickness there, the red liquid clinging to his fingers. "My hands are covered in blood!" he exclaimed, only after a few moments realizing he'd spoken aloud.

"They are," she agreed. "But I can clease you of that." Her tentacles waved in the air, making a low sussurating sound. "Come and join me in the black hole, Jack. Come be a man."

Jack looked down at his hands again, then looked up at the Scarab. When he spoke, it was with absolute, ironclad conviction. "I. Am. No. Man." With a roar, he spun and grabbed the flag of the Empire, sweeping it low across the armed guards of the Scarab, knocking them down onto the massive insects that had once been his fellow prisoners, pinning them down as he leapt into the air and hurled the pole directly at Melinda!

[angrydurf]

Whilst the Drama of Avengers inner-turmoil played out on the screen behind him Dr. Vaslev Tcheny fired his energetics modulator at Phantom the arcing ball of electricity hit her dead center the energy courseing into her body and disrupting her synapses.

"Fools, you have no hope of victory. Surrender now and pray I am merciful to your insolence." He howled madly.

[Electra]

Stesha's attention was immediately drawn to Derrick, trapped in that strange and awful cage, she was quickly diverted by the villain who'd obviously seen them coming. As he drew his gun and shot at Taylor, Stesha dove behind a stack of crates. It was flimsy cover at best, but she wasn't armored or insubstantial, and getting shot would be very bad. She threw a seed at him, just as she had with the guards, but though the vines started out in the right direction, the villain nipped out of their clutches without a problem. Stesha gulped. This could be a big problem.

[alderwitch]

The shock of the electricity coursing through her body drew a startled cry from Phantom's throat even as it caused the bolt of black eldritch power to go drastically wide. Her muscles spasmed, but with grim determination, she shook off the effect. "Do you really think those toys can stop something like me?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I am nothing like you!" Screaming with rage, Jack smashed the flagpole against Melinda's face. He and the Scarab were locked in mortal combat now, the guards around them having backed away when their bullets proved useless against him. Of course they were. Bullets don't hurt me. "You're nothing but a monster! A petty, useless thing who cares only about power and lust!"

"Am I, Jack?" She laughed malignantly, her tentacles rippling through the air as she lashed at him. "Taylor, Stesha, Elena...Do I need to say all their names? How many women are you going to hurt, Jack? How many lives are you going to ruin?" Her lip curled malignantly, her fangs monstrously bared. "You don't really think you'll be able to stop yourself when the time comes. How long is it going to be before you kill again, Jack?" Her fangs spread monstrously wide, toothed tentacles from her back opening up on either side of her.

Jack felt waves of guilt crash through him, his face warping with shock and grief as memories came flooding back. He was so very close to breaking..."Maybe that will happen," he admitted, his face set with a look of cold, murderous fury. "Maybe one day I will be a monster." He raised the flagpole in his hands high. "But until then, I'm not a monster." He was dressed in black now, a white mask falling over his face like a knight's full plate helmet. "I don't take lives. I save them. I'm a superhero. And my name is...AVENGER!" And with that, he vaulted into the air and thrust the flagpole in his hands through the Scarab's heart. With a sudden shriek, she imploded in a shower of ash and blood, the explosion blasting Jack to the ground again as the room around him screamed and writhed in agony.

A moment passed, and then another. Jack was sitting on the stage now, surrounded by death and carnage, his mask gone and his hands covered in the blood of the Scarab. "Of course it ends this way," he said aloud, looking down at his hands. "Everyone's dead. But I'm still here." Blood dripped down off his hands. "And it's all my fault."

"

[angrydurf]

"Very well." The madman shouted, "We will do this the hard way then." And with that he pointed his weapon directly at the box Fluer was hiding behind, vaporizing it in a single blast of sickly green energy.

He swung the weapon back at Phantom, "If you surrender now it will go better for you."

[Cyroa]

Derrick watched, unable to do much besides resist from wilting from pain. His spirits were lifted when the two women arrived. But there was quite literally nothing he could do to help them. Unfortunately, on screen, Avenger was getting dangerously close to saying too much in his dreams. "FLEUR, PHANTOM! YOU MUST GET AVENGER OUT OF THAT CHAIR!" That pretty much took the majority of energy he had left, causing him to wobble, and lean against the side of his little prison just to stay upright.

[Electra]

Stesha cowered for a moment as the box she was hiding behind simply disappeared, with only a smudge of ash marking that it had ever been there at all. The urge to run away was terrible and strong, just touch one of her flowers and end the nightmare, but she wouldn't leave Derrick, or Taylor, or even Jack in the hands of a madman. She looked over again at the men. Derrick was trapped in a cage behind a forcefield, there was no way to get to him right now. But Jack was just... just sitting there, seemingly in the grip of the bloody dream that was playing across the screens. She could get to him. Steeling herself, she darted across the room to the chair where Jack sat and began working on the straps holding him down.

As she worked, she talked into his ear. "Jack, listen, it's me, it's Stesha. Taylor needs you, Jack. You have to wake up and help her. All that stuff in your brain is just a lie. Taylor needs your help. She needs you to wake up." Honestly, she had no idea whether Jack even cared enough for Taylor for that to matter, but it was the only emotional card she had to play. Taking a risk, she pulled the helmet of electrodes off his head. "Wake up!"

[alderwitch]

Phantom fired a blast that scored the wall behind the man with a gun before she coolly considered his threat. She walked towards him slowly, the great cloak billowing behind her. "You're bluffing. If you were going to shoot to kill, you would have had your weapon set when we arrived. You could have blown my heart out with that first shot. You didn't. You, sir, are a madman but you're no killer."

She took another step closer and raised hands that crackled, "This is too close. Too personal. Too messy."

[angrydurf]

With a mad glint in his eyes the man raised his weapon one more. "Don't test me girl." He growled as he unleashed a powerfull torrent of high frequency sound directly at Taylor. The energy crashed into her forcefield with amazing power, it was certainly no disintegration beam but he wasn't playing any games either.

[Electra]

Stesha whimpered as the bolt of energy knocked Taylor backwards and Jack slumped forward in his seat. The vines didn't work, Taylor's magic didn't work, nothing worked! She rummaged in her pocket and grabbed another seed. "Please, please, please, please, please," she murmured, throwing the seed with all her strength. It had never worked before, but maybe this time... As it flew, the seed blossomed into a gigantic yellow flower with about twenty stamens. It was a lot bigger than any of the stunning flowers she'd made before! Stesha watched from behind slitted fingers. The yellow flower soared across the room and clobbered the villain right in his scarred face, releasing pollen everywhere.

[angrydurf]

The crazed scientist raised Phantoms battered body with geasture as beams shot forth from his weapon hefting the weakly strugling Heroine.

He flung her at Steshas feet with a wicked smile not noticeing the flower slowly growing behind him.

"Now you see my MIGHT! MY BRILLIANCE!" He raved, "Give in now or suffer the fate of your friends what hope do you have against the power at my command little girl?" He asked menacingly.

At Fluers feet Phantoms crumpled form slowly struggled to snap out of it drops of her blood slowly dripping onto the grilled faceplat of avengers mask.

"ALL WILL BOW DOWN BEFORE MY ...." his statement was cut off as the plant behind him released a cloud of pollen that slid seamlessly past his defenses and he trailed off with a large yawn as he struggled feebly to remain awake.

[Electra]

Stesha's first impulse was to take care of her friend, but that wouldn't help much if he just shot them both as soon as he woke up. Raising a hand, she extended her fingers and then clenched them into a fist, concentrating entirely on the plant she'd created on the other side of the room. New vines sprung up from it, around the wilting flower, and snaked out over the villain's shoulders. They wrapped around the gun and yanked it away with one hard tug, then withdrew, shoving the gun into the maw of the flower. Back on the other side of the room, one of the vines poking out of Stesha's pockets opened a new blossom and spit the gun into her hands.

She raised the gun, hands shaking, and pointed it at the bad guy. "Don't move, or I swear to God I'll shoot you with every setting," she told him, her voice quavering just a little.

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack's eyes snapped open soundlessly, and he jerked upright before consciousness returned. There was, as ever, no rush of air into his lungs or beating of his heart. There was only the taste of Taylor's blood in his mouth, and the memories of a dead world in his mind. Gone. It's all gone. That world, that life was dead. He took in the scene slowly; the man held at gunpoint by the familiar woman in green, the blasted Taylor..."Phantom!" Avenger's voice came naturally as he reached his feet, his mind already turning. If this is the man who did that to me, I'm going to break him in two.

[alderwitch]

Being right was a rather fleeting victory as the sonic blast caught her and knocked her back. The static and sudden vertigo disoriented her. Eardrums weren't built to withstand a sonic blast at that close a range. Phantom had just enough presence of mind to go limp as she was hurled through the air.

Instead of the metal floor, however, she found herself thumping into and over a slightly more giving surface. Only slightly as Avenger in costume wasn't exactly soft.

Sound popped into sudden and sharp focus with one gravelly and very familiar voice.

Phantom's eyes slid closed in the first emotions she allowed herself since arriving at the base. A moment of stark relief was all she could indulge in.

"I'm alright," Phantom rasped as she pushed herself up. She would be, at least. Her eardrums were already mending and she was reasonabally certain that the double vision would soon right itself out.

[Electra]

When the villain didn't say anything, Stesha took a few steps forward, holding the gun level on him. "I want you to turn off that forcefield, and whatever is holding Dark Star in that cage," she ordered. "Then I want you to step away from the controls. I don't know how to use this gun, but that's not going to stop me from using it on you. I don't think either of us want that."

[angrydurf]

The villian shook off the last of the pollens effects and as his mind cleared he realised just how much trouble he was in. This most certainly was not part of his plan but never let it be said Dr. Vaslev Tcheny couldn't think on his feet, "Well I'll have to use the controls if I'm to free your friend he replied. If the device is not shut down in the propper order it can be quite dangerous." He did however keep his hands free from the devices at his belt as he nodded towards the bank of control panels.

[Avenger Assembled]

"No more. No more." Jack tore off his mask and advanced on the scientist, his eyes flat and cold. "You bastard. You BASTARD." He grabbed the man by the throat, hard enough that the sound of breaking skin was clearly audible to the two women, and slammed him backwards into the panel behind him. A look of dead fury in his eyes, he squeezed harder."No more lies. No more violations. You open that door right now or I swear by God that I will tear your head from your shoulders."

[alderwitch]

While Jack was more than capable of terrifying his enemies and backing those threats up with a promise of physical violence, Phantom was all too aware at this point that with the mask off those threats became very, very real. With the image of his teeth sinking into Zealot's throat still fresh in her mind, Phantom raised a placating hand at Stesha before she approached Jack.

"Don't do this, Jack," It was Taylor's voice from underneath the shadows of her cowl. "You're better than this. You're stronger than this. Jack, you're going to kill him."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I imagine so, yes." White-faced, Jack pinned the man one-handed against the wall, his undead strength easily physically dominating the fragile human being, the sound of flesh giving way still audible beneath his fingers. "Do you have any idea how easy it would be, Taylor? Do you think I don't know what it's like to see it happen?" He was losing that undead coldness now, rage and pain and a hundred other emotions seeping into his voice. "He put me in Hell. In hell for a year and a half! He made me watch everything I love die all over again!" He turned and looked at Taylor, agony in his voice, his iron grip not breaking. "How long? How long was it?!"