High Noon (IC)

[angrydurf]

Phalanx peered intently at the balloon trying to expand his senses into the microscopic range but couldn't manage to do so and maintain focus so distant nor through the material of the balloon. He thought to Psyche, 'Sorry I can't manage to get a read on anything that small this far off' in reply to her request as he quickly picked up James and looked around for anything else out of place.

As he took hold of James he redoubled his efforts, 'Wait I have something.' he thought to Psyche and began to try and send the images her direction over their link.

[Cyroa]

James grabbed Phalanx's wrist and held on tight. He wasn't sure exactly what he could do to help, besides be dropped into the burning light and not be bothered much. "'Seph, see if you can focus your scanners and get a read on that thing. Feed any data you get right to Psyche." It was a long shot but he was willing to use every option they had. "So, what's next," asked in general. "Edge can you reinforce that thing if it isn't going to hold? Long enough for us to move it?"

[N/A]

Phalanx strained his eyes, focusing them down to the smallest detail, down so far he could see the odd hydrogen atom bouncing around the sea of helium that had sprung up into place around them in what was formerly the vacuum of space. He thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Sure enough, when he pulled back slightly, enough that a skin cell would've looked like a city, he saw them - mirrors. Tiny metal mirrors, far too small to be seen by the naked human eye. Billions of them at least, enough to form a cloud ten miles across. Edge's balloon had contained them for now, but the sun's rays continued to beat down upon that balloon, and enough of them were shining through for the mirrors to catch, and reflect them. At this rate, the beam might start up again before the orbit of the mirrors or the balloon took them out of the path of the sun!

[Avenger Assembled]

Edge was still adjusting to everything he'd done, half-listening to the conversation in his earpiece. "Uh, maybe? That's...that's a little out of my scope," he admitted to Hellion. "But I think I can fix it. it's just a matter of...making it again, I guess." He winced. "But if it does go, it'll still do some damage. I'm not faster than light like Phalanx or Psyche, I can't think faster than it can rip."

[alderwitch]

Psyche relaxed when she saw the images filter down the link. Something was making it, which meant that something could be undone. Taking the data from Phalanx's images and filtering those out to the group, she switched over to communication with all of her far flung team.

"Okay, here's what I think we can do. Edge, I'm going to help you safely break down all of those mirrors into harmless components, okay? But I'm going to need to lock in deeper to your brain so that you can use my knowledge with your powers. You think we can do it? You'll have to really trust me for it. On the off chance that doesn't work, they're picking up the light, which means, if we break that light up with something like some serious cloud cover or an eclipse, they'll be much less effective. Zephyr and Hellion, that's your job. Cloud cover's the easiest but get Dark Star or Archetech standing by. Meanwhile, Wander and Phalanx, lets get that balloon moving so that its out of the direct alignment with the sun, towards the ocean. How's that sound?"

[Cyroa]

James nodded. "Right. Weather, I'm on it." He half-closed his eyes as he concentrated. He dragged up every little thing he could remember about weather magic to find a way to make a sudden dark rain cloud. He weaved his hands and fingers in a complex serious of gestures, whispering spells he'd never actually used before. It was surprising easy all things considered. He really only needed the dark clouds but rain certainly couldn't hurt when it came to putting out fires and defracting light. Within moments, dark and ominous clouds began rolling in...

[N/A]

Zephyr's voice echoed incredulously over the psychic link. Make a cloud?! How in the farking hell and I supposed to make a cloud? Then she looked over at Hellion, watching him cast his spell, and looked up at the clouds as the rolled in over the city. ...OK. Looks like J's got that covered. Besides, I think I know a better way I can help out here... She took off running, appearing a moment later behind Psyche and Edge. She clapped one hand on each of their shoulders, closed her eyes, and pushed.

Psyche and Edge both felt a vague wave of nausea pass through them. Their ears popped and explosions went off behind their eyes. But a second later, the entire world seemed to move in slow-motion. The people around them looked like statues.

Welcome to my world. Zephyr laughed, then tapped a few buttons on her PDA. The holographic display disappeared from her visor, reappearing as a three-dimensional projection in front of the trio. It's touch-sensitive. Interface should be intuitive enough. Anything you need to look up, you have all the time in the world to do it.

[Electra]

"All right, we'll head for the water." Moving carefully, Erin pulled on the string till she was out from under the mass of the balloon, then hopped up on cars and fire escape landings till she hit rooftop level. The balloon rose as well, till the 600-foot mass of it was above the buildings and floating free. Moving at a slow jog-and-hop till she heard otherwise, Erin began pulling the bottom of the massive balloon towards the harbor, trying not to think about how impossible this all was.

[angrydurf]

Phalanx paused as the suggestion to get the balloon moving came across the coms. He cocked his head as he observed the surface for a moment none too sure that it would hold up if he pushed on it directly. As he saw it begin to shift with Wanders pulling from below he realized he would have to act. Taking a huge breath he backed away from the balloon and blew out toward the balloon trying to coax it into motion with his mighty breath.

[Avenger Assembled]

I...I understand so much! Mark's joy as the sheer wash of Psyche's intellect came boiling through his mind was infectious to behold, a life lived just this side of fuzziness suddenly sharpened to perfect clarity. With the additional push of Zephyr's power, he was living that life of brilliance at the speed of light. Until...Dad... Images flashed through Mark's mind, the grief and loss he'd been battling for so long now sharp and clear, every moment of betrayal, absence, and carelessness huge in his soul. But, at the very least...all those thoughts came in an instant. And then there was work to be done, because he was Mark Lucas, with the Centurion's name and the soul of a hero. He had work to do. He pushed his awareness away from the gulfs of grief and despair still in his mind and instead shoved it upwards, shoved it way up into the mirrors so far above, finding every inch, every fragment, and slowly, slowly pulling them apart with the sheer power of his mind. We can do it! he exulted in his own voice and Alex's. We can change the world!

[N/A]

Psyche linked her mind with Edge's, allowing him to see beyond sight as she does. Zephyr formed a triumvirate with them, bending time around them so they could experience an hour inside of a second as she can. The rush of knowledge and power almost overwhelmed him, but with Psyche's nurturing influence, he was able to focus.

As though she were holding an infant, Wander walked the narrow tightrope between gentle and firm as she leapt across the rooftops of Freedom City, pulling the incomprehensibly large balloon through the air behind her. 20,000 miles above her head, Phalanx exhaled the air he'd managed to trap in his mighty lungs before leaving Earth's atmosphere. The effect was something akin to whacking the top half of the balloon with a giant pillow - the impact was forceful, but soft, and spread out along the body of the balloon. He couldn't see how his fellow heroes fared, for Hellion's massive storm clouds still rolled and thundered over the entire city, casting it in shadow.

Wander had made it all the way to the edge of Riverside Park when she felt the balloon suddenly jerk in her grip. There was a cacophony of screeches and squeals in rapid succession as the balloon, which should not have existed at all, finally gave in to the laws of physics and rended itself to pieces. Most of the torn strips of mylar floated gently into the ocean or out into orbit, while others merely burned up in the atmosphere.

But as soon as the balloon shredded itself, the beam blasted down to Earth again, burning away Hellion's cloud-cover like a human hand brushes aside a spider's web. It was much narrower this time, less than a tenth of its former breadth. It rapidly shrank as it raced along the surface. The beach sands were fried into glass. The beam cleaved through the Sentry Statue at an angle, slicing the Centurion's head free from his shoulders and sending it tumbling down to the surf below. The ocean waves were instantly boiled into steam as the beam carved a narrowing trench into the bottom of the bay, but the waters rushed in to fill the tiny vacuum so quickly it was almost imperceptible. Edge exerted his will over the last of the mirrors, evaporating them into helium atoms, and the beam finally winked out of existence altogether, stopping just short of the Centery Bridge, which it surely would have cleaved in twain were it not for the combined efforts of Young Freedom.

[angrydurf]

As the balloon finally gave way Phalanx dropped out of the sky at max speed hoping they had gotten it clear of any civilians. Rejoining the others after the beam thankfully was stopped by Edge and Psyche's combined efforts he breathed a sigh of relief and looked to his companions, "So do we know what that was?"

[alderwitch]

Merging was easier than unwrapping her mind from Edge's. Carefully, Psyche focused on pushing Edge's senses back down to his normal perceptions artificially, making certain that he was well within his normal bounds before severing the different connections one at a time. Thanks to Zoe, she had all the time in the world to close down the connections. When she'd ghosted through and made certain that none of her psyche was left with tendrils in Edge's mind, she retreated back to her own skull and weaved a little bit, her fingertips going to her temples as she slid her own barriers back into place.

"Micro mirrors. We'll know more when we get a chance to analyze the data, and we'll track them down before they finalize whatever it is that they're testing. Good job, everyone. Very well done." Psyche spoke up, "Let's regroup here and call it in to the Freedom League. I'm sure that they'll be sending Doc Metropolis in anyways but its always best to hand the scene off."

[Cyroa]

James looked around as the beam ended and the micro mirrors were gone. "Ok...that was definitely a tad toasty. Fun too. If this is bound to happen again, let's hope we get a good plan B ready in time. Besides bringing marshmallows. Someone making a laser outta the sun's rays can't have been easy." He wandered over to stand with the others. "I'll have 'Seph forward any data she picked up to the mansion base. Hopefully it'll get us a good lead on who to go visit because of this." He was perfectly happy to leave the cleanup to someone else. It wasn't like he still didn't have more to do.

[N/A]

Edge paid a heavy price for his heroics. Everyone's attention was so focused on the reconstituted beam, and minimizing the damage it inflicted, that no one happened to be looking at Edge when his world exploded. As the tatters of the colossal balloon made of Edge's own wishes and dreams rent asunder and burned up in the atmosphere, he was launched several feet up into the air. Beams of pure, blinding white light burst forth from every orifice in his body, every pore in his skin, from his eyes and ears and mouth. It burned him from the inside out.

Psyche was still in the process of untangling her mental link with Edge, so while she didn't feel his pain directly, the scream from his soul echoed across her mind. In her entire life, she had never seen such suffering. In his entire life, Edge had never felt such agony. He'd never even conceived of it.

[N/A]

Zephyr had only ever seen a man explode into pure light, so hot and bright, once in her life, and every second of those memories came rushing back in an instant. She didn't see Edge anymore. She only saw him. Tears streamed freely down her cheeks as her own mental screams of anguish and determination echoed across her own mind, and those of Psyche and Phalanx. NOOOO!!! NOT AGAIN!!! Fully lost in her own world, she lunged at Edge with hate-filled eyes, her fists beating into his flesh a million times inside a fraction of a second. Zephyr ran past him, grabbing Psyche and pulling her along as she fled, yet it looked (and to Edge, felt as if she was also still standing before Edge, pummeling him mercilessly, screaming in incoherent rage. Zephyr clutched Psyche's waist and held her close as she ran out across the beach, over the surface of the water, deep into the bay, while Centurion's giant stone head fell through the air.

[Electra]

From the rooftops on the edge of the beach, Erin watched as the rapid-action drama unfolded. "Ah, dammit... Phalanx, go get her, bring them back!" Leaping down to the beach, she ran over to where Edge was floating, even as the echo of Zephyr dissipated. She wasn't sure if it was safe to touch Edge the way he was, but Zephyr hadn't seemed to do any damage, and he looked likely to fall if someone didn't stop him. She stood next to him, ready to catch him the moment the weird light looked ready to release him. "Edge, Mark, can you hear me?" she asked uncertainly.

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark dropped into Erin's arms, collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut. "Owwwww. That hurt a lot. I fink I broke reality and so it punched me really hard everywhere." He winced. "Ow, I burned inside my lip! Ow!" He managed to stop himself from continuing a never-ending cycle of ows as he looked up at Wander. He muttered, "I could see everything. And so I felt it all. That really hurt," he added again. "Hey, where'd everybody go?"

[Cyroa]

James 'ported over to Edge as he tried to imitate a light bulb. "Geez, man. The city has lights already!" He looked on a little concerned at his friend. "You ok?" He looked around. "Z did some kind of panic thing and tried whaling on you in a rush before sprinting. She grabbed Psyche and hauled her out that way," he said, pointing at Zoe's watery plume/trail. "Apparently, glowing like that set her off."

[alderwitch]

With her shields still down, Alex was psychically battered by Mark's agony and Zoe's anguish. For a moment, Alex couldn't breathe or ever think before her instincts kicked in and she reached for Mike for the anchor he presented.

'She's flashbacking. Help!' Alex directed Mike, knowing that his place in Zoe's memories as her protector would aid her more than Alex's more nuturing tact. Then she turned her attention to the tendrils that still tied her to Edge and hurridly closed down those connections.

[angrydurf]

Phalanxs eyes went wide as Edge lit up like some kind of laser light show gone horrible wrong. He took a step towards him as Zephyrs scream sliced into his mind, with Wander and Hellion there to take care of Edge he sped after the panicking speedster pushing himself as hard as he could to overtake her.

A huge plume of water marking his passage Phalanx surged after them. As he closed the gap he put on one final burst of speed and enveloped the pair in his arms tucking them close as he sent soothing thoughts over their link, 'It's ok Zoe, you can stop, I'm here, don't worry.' came his sure and steady thoughts, 'Are you ok?' He asked both of them.

[N/A]

Zephyr fought Phalanx at first, beating on him with her free hand while the other still clutched Psyche. After he took back to the air, both girls in-hand, she began to respond, to his touch, his mental voice, and even his smell. Once her fight-or-flight response was convinced of his true nature as her father, she stopped beating her fist against him and grabbed onto his costume, nearly ripping a handful of fabric away from his shirt as she buried her face into him. Her breathing was rushed almost to the point of hyperventilation. Her other hand still grasped Psyche so tightly her knuckles turned white. Psyche and Phalanx could both hear Zephyr's thoughts echoing in the spaces between their own.

NONONONONONONOTAGAINNOTAGAINMOMDADMOMDADNONONONO... The same images flashed in their heads over and over again - a vague humanoid shape inside a column of light, bright as the sun itself, and the shockwave bursting forth, ripping and searing everything around it to ash. Everything, and everyone. Including themselves.

Not for the first time, Phalanx and Psyche watched themselves die through their daughter's eyes.

Phalanx was able to rendezvous with the rest of his teammates, and deposit both girls back upon dry land, without further incident. Zephyr managed to get a grip on her wits by the time they landed. She wiped her eyes and dragged her feet walking back up to Edge and Wander. Her voice was practically a whisper, and her gaze focused on their feet. She couldn't bring herself to actually look any of them in the eye.

"Are you OK, Mark? Do you need me to run you to a hospital? I'm...I'm really sorry, Guys."

[Electra]

"You didn't hurt him," Erin said matter-of-factly, ignoring Zoe's chagrin. She understood the feeling entirely, but since she wouldn't have wanted to talk about it if it had been her, she extended the same courtesy to Zoe. "But he's got some burns, or something. It's like whatever was in that balloon tagged him on the way out. Can you help him, Alex?"

[alderwitch]

After adding her mental litany of soothing to Mike's, Alex kept a gentle and supportive hand on Zoe for a few minutes. She looked Mark over and then nodded quickly as she released her daughter. "Of course. Please hold still, Edge."

She reached out to touch gloved fingertips to his face, her eyes closing. With the lightest touch, she reached out to coax Mark's own body to repair the damages done. A soothing and cool balm spread over his aches and pains, leaving healed flesh in its wake, "There... Better?"

[angrydurf]

Phalanx stoically held and soothed Zoe, an emotional rock in the storm of her flashback. He turned and flew them back to shore arriving a few moments later and set the mostly recovered Zoe back on her feet as he awkwardly straightened his costume. He looked to Mark with concern as Alex moved to hurry his bodies healing. "You ok?" he asked his friend with real concern, "What happened?"