Mind Games (IC)

[Gizmo]

Outwardly hesitating, the young man's mind raced. If 'Trevor Hunter' was the secret identity on this world, and his counterpart was as insufferably smug as he suspected... Revelation struck, and he softly whispered, "Hunter's Moon." At the voice command, the sides of his mask split apart with a pressurized hiss, allowing him to set his fedora aside and remove the semi-rigid disguise with both hands, taking a deep breath as he did so. Setting it down atop the hat, he stepped forward and placed a hand lightly on Erin's cheek, murmuring, "Wild horses." Leaning forward, he kissed her deeply, the gesture underwritten with notes of shared danger and accepted fears. Looking into her brown eyes for a long, silent moment, he finally broke away, once again donning his mask. "If I'm not back in a couple of hours, keep moving; I'll find you." With that, he slipped off into the night.

[Avenger Assembled]

Daww! thought Mark, watching the lovers embrace. Those two are so cute together! He was distracted by Daisy, tugging at his sleeve, and looked away as he continued laying brickwork up behind what looked like bulletproof glass in the painted over windows. "What do you need?" He asked her, giving her a level look. She looked so much like his Daisy, but she also looked so sad, and scared, neither of which were expressions he'd ever thought to see on the girl he knew.

"You have a way back, right?" she asked frantically, her big eyes very wide. "A way back to where you're from? Because unless you're planning to take on the whole Syndicate, you can't stay here! You know what they do to kids who run off or are expelled, much less ones who attack their teachers and don't get away with it! That's what...what happened to me," she said, looking away from him suddenly. "After they ppp...unished me, I was going to be taken away, but then Hex said he could help me out if I could...help him out."

"I'm sorry," said Mark, feeling an obvious surge of guilt at her words. "It'll be all right. We'll get out of here, and we'll take you with us. No one should have to live in this horrible place, no matter what they've done, or what's happened to them. We can get you counseling, get you a place to live...it'll be great. All will be well."

--

Outside, the Fens were...well, pretty awful! The worst neighborhood in Trevor's Freedom City was surprisingly quiet here, and for good reason: the buildings all around him looked long abandoned. There were signs of old violence in places, marks of bullet holes and power blasts, but it was a ghost town now. He did find one old homeless man with a heavy beard who, when approached by the Blank, was willing to spill his guts about everything. "I don't know!" he shouted. "The district's crawling with who knows what! And they could be anywhere! There are sewers down below, but they're full of...well, you know! Look, I'm loyal! I've always been loyal! I just lost my card because I couldn't afford Lady Sin's pills anymore, please..."

[Electra]

Erin watched Trevor go until he disappeared entirely, and a few moments after that. "Good luck," she murmured, then took a deep breath and turned around. "All right, we can try getting some information on our own while we're waiting. Mark, you've got a beacon in that costume, I bet. Can you make a radio that operates on the same frequency, then destroy the beacon? We don't want them to have any idea where we are, if they can track it. Let's see if we can hear what they're saying." She inspected his work, then leapt up to the overhead loft and peered out of the last open window. "This isn't a great place to defend, we'll hope Trevor finds us something better."

She came back to the edge of the ledge. "You, Daisy," she said. "Tell us anything you know about Young Freedom... or whatever they are here."

[Darksider42]

"He'll find something soon. He is Midnight after all." Rift said, keeping his ears peeled for any sign of pursuit or someone more than willing to kill them. He did admit, he found this Daisy sadder and at least much less insufferable. But what if that was a sign she was using her powers on them? He had to keep a close eye on her, just to make sure she wouldn't back stab them when the time comes.

"Anything you know about this worlds version of Young Freedom will probably be helpful." He said as he hovered above the small ensemble of Teens.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Well, uh..." Daisy stuttered briefly before fixing her eyes on the other three. "If you didn't have _her_, I'd think this was just a big con game to test my loyalty!" she said, cocking her head back at Wander, who she was obviously still very frightened of. "But if you've got her here...well, okay...uh, Pathos is a psychic. She does loyalty tests, things like that, and she likes to...play with people. She made Singularity, or helped finish the job, anyway. Assault is her pet, he's big and dumb and strong, and does whatever she wants, especially hurt people. Komodo used to be on the team, but he got turned into a monster and they kicked him off...uh, Thrash, that's you," she said, looking at Warren, "he's a big bully who plays loud music and hurts people if they don't like it. Blank is very quiet, I don't see him much. And Hex..." She looked away and said in a scared voice, looking at Edge. "I'm sorry, but you already know about Hex. And what he did." She hugged herself around the midsection. "Likes to do. I'm sorry, I'm not being very helpful," she said apologetically. "Please don't be angry! I didn't really know them except as enemies, and afterwards Hex doesn't let me talk if I'm not spoken to first! What do you want to know?"

Edge was silent for a moment before he suddenly made a gesture at himself, replacing his red and black costume with glorious blue and gold in his own familiar colors! A few moments later, he did the same for the others, those that wanted it, giving them back copies of their own costumes. "We won't wear their colors anymore, Daisy. That's over with."

[Electra]

"What about me?" Erin demanded from her seat in the rafters. "Aren't I on the team? And why does everyone keep talking about me like I'm some kind of bogeyman, anyway? Why do they keep the other version of me locked up in that box?" She had a strong suspicion she wasn't going to like what she heard, but it was better than not knowing and just letting her mind fill in different scenarios, each worse than the last.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I don't know," said Daisy, shaking her head. "I heard you were some kind of crazy monster the Syndicate found on a dead world, that they beat you into submission and used Pathos to keep you in line." She looked a little scared to even being talking to Erin, looking at the others in disbelief before replying, "She's not...she's not like you. She doesn't talk, or make a lot of noise, at least when she's not screaming, she..." She looked away and added, "I saw video of her used on a rebel base in the sewers once. Cutting off heads, stabbing through faces, and the names she was screaming..."

[Gizmo]

"Puts me in an awkward position," Midnight grated out flatly, his voice inhumanly devoid of emotion. "Have a quota of traitors, rebels, troublemakers. Not picky how I fill it." Stained black with midnight mist, his lean form loomed over the homeless man, an implacable spectre, stillness threatening to explode into swift and deadly action. Leaning forward, he lowered his volume to barely more than a whisper. "This is the part where you start listing names and places."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I don't know any places or names! I just heard there's still a rebel base down in the sewers, even after the Syndicate ate the ones who were down there before! Somewhere under the Fens, where it's too crazy to look with all the mutants down there! Please don't eat me!" The man shouted, his voice very loud in the night air. "I'm all skin and bones! Nothing but a washed-up old captain who's LEARNED HIS LESSON! I'm on your side forever, I swear!"

[Gizmo]

Leaving the pathetic shell of a man to writhe in his own wretchedness, Midnight slipped once more into the shadows, moving slowly and carefully despite the apparently deserted cityscape. Eventually, he reappeared in the displaced teens' temporary base without warning, despite the barricades which had been set up in his absence. "Back," he announced unceremoniously, casting an appraising eye over their altered costumes. Abandoning the pretense of being their doubles might not have been the wisest move, but he wasn't really in a position to judge. "Got a lead. Do we trust her?" The black clad young man tipped his head meaningfully toward Daisy, not bothering with polite niceties.

[Electra]

Erin jumped when Trevor reappeared, but she was very glad to see him. She'd been more than a little sorry she'd asked Daisy for more details about her double. Even the very abbreviated details made her want to vomit. This wasn't the Erin White native to this universe, who was probably as nasty as everyone else. This Erin was her, but one who didn't make it to safety. One who'd jumped out of the frying pan and into an infinitely hotter fire...

She jumped down from the loft and went to Trevor. "I trust her as far as I can throw her, which is far enough for now." She filled him in on what Daisy had revealed about their doubles. "What did you find out?"

[Gizmo]

And with that rousing vote of confidence... Trevor immediately picked up on Erin's increased agitation and narrowed his lens covered eyes at their local guide. "There's a group of rebels in the sewers," he stated without preamble. "Not exactly thriving, but they've survived at least one recent purge and are keeping hidden, so they have some resources. Good a place as any to start."

[Darksider42]

Rift was glad that he was no longer clad in his counterparts uniform. He could never pull off White and bloody in his own opinion. Daisy recounting Erin in this world quickly overshadowed any feeling of comfort he was starting to feel. Though it did make him wonder more about the origins of Wander...

"Well I doubt she has much reason to lie to us, especially if she is living in these sorts of conditions." He did wonder for a moment about the implications of this Daisy and their own. He didn't know enough about the two of them but there was a chance...No, that would be unlikely. It would be for the best to keep an eye on her still. "Well, we don't have much to go on beyond them. If they are at least remotely friendly and don't try to take us down, we might as well take our chances with them."

[Avenger Assembled]

"The sewers." Mark made a gesture at the floor and it rolled backwards like peeling up a carpet, black dots shooting from his fingers as the floor moved aside to make way for the foundation, then the earth beneath, before finally the open space of a sewer gaped beneath the floor. "I am through playing with these monsters," he said with some heat. "Now come on," he said, firing his grapple gun down and scooping up Daisy with him. "We need to move before the local Doc Metropolis shows up."

[Electra]

"I'll go first," Erin volunteered. "Mark, can you make up some kind of flashlight or lantern? Trevor can see down there, but we all need to." Ignoring the darkness and the smell, Erin dropped down into the tunnel, hunching over so she didn't bang her head on the top wall of the pipe. In the darkness, she closed her eyes and concentrated on listening for the slightest noise that might signal they weren't alone. "I think it's safe for now," she called up to the others. "Jump down and I'll catch you."

[Gizmo]

Swinging down into the opening with his own grapple, Trevor landed with a small splash, rising from a crouch beside Erin. Looking between her outstretched arms and the device in his hand, he paused for a moment then retracted the cable with a small, vaguely apologetic shrug. Looking back and forth down the pipe, he consciously widened his mutated eyes behind his mask, letting them adjust to the gloom. The tunnel appear before him in stark reds and greys, Erin's body heat lighting her against the cold, damp backdrop. "Quickly," he agreed.

[Lone Star]

Blake floated down into the sewer. He was quite ready to leave. As he watched the others get in, he was hoping they would be able to leave this hellish nightmare soon. Blake breathed a sigh and went along with the rest of them. It would be best not to say anything, lest the whispers fill his head again.

[Darksider42]

Rift was not far behind Blake. The sounds bouncing off the walls of the tunnel gave him a good idea of where they were going. "So just out of curiosity, what happens if the rebels here don't believe that were are not this universe's version of us and try to kill us?" Rift was honestly hoping attack back was not the option.

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark swung in, a white-faced Daisy clinging to his arm, and coughed as he adjusted to the environment of the sewer. With a gesture, he sealed up the hole where they'd come from, momentarily leaving things in darkness. "Anyone got a light?" he joked, peering into the gloom. "As for the rebels," he said, "the way these things work, they're bound to find us if we're rattling around in their territory. If they don't know who we are, well...we'll have to explain it to them. I'm sure they'll believe us..." From behind his back, he produced big, thick torches, burning with a bright white flame that gave no smoke. "Classic stylings," he said distractedly.

[Electra]

As soon as Mark dropped in with the lights, Erin spotted the odd robotic thing suspended from the ceiling. In a move that was almost too fast to see, she reached out and swiped it, holding it close to her body to shelter the others in case it decided to explode. "Looks like a camera," she observed, peering into the glass globe. "I wonder who's driving it." She looked over to Trevor, who was the most knowledgeable about this sort of thing. "Think I should break it, to be on the safe side?"

[Gizmo]

"Wait, let me see," he cautioned, holding up a forestalling hand. Stepping closer, he gingerly examined the contained robot, his superhuman vision allowing him to easily pick out fine details. The design looked familiar, and further inspection confirmed his suspicions. "Talos." On their world, the ancient automaton was the sworn enemy of all humanity. Hopefully, that meant that on Anti-Earth... "Looks like the rebels found us."

[Darksider42]

Rift hovered over to Trevor, peering over him upside down as he got a better look at the mini-spider bot. "Hmmm...Well, if this is Talos's design, he clearly does still have the knack for it though it could have been build by different sources. Kinda looks mass produced, it lacks that sort of uniqueness that custom built stuff has. Might be Talos or a different producer all together or it could belong to this worlds version of the Freedom League." Rift thought about it more as he moved a little closer. "...I'd say we only have a few minutes before they show and either A take us prisoner, B Take us down or C, turn out to be the rebels, hear about what happened at that Claremont and assume we are not gonna harm them." He flipped over and was back to his usual stance. He moved closer still and and said so he was aloud and clear to the bot. "You guys on the other end got that right?"

[Avenger Assembled]

We got it, Warren. The robot suddenly said in a clicking, mechanical voice. Come to the fourth level of the sewers beneath the electrochemical pile, and we'll talk. With that, the robot went dead, and no power on Earth was enough to awaken it. Mark, standing awkwardly by Daisy, found his head immediately. "We've got to go," he said, hefting his torch. "It's the only way out, and we need to make friends if we're getting out of here. I saw a diagram, the tunnel down is that way." And with that, he was off, a very antsy Daisy following behind. "I don't like thiiiiiiiiis....."

[Electra]

Erin slid along the side of the tunnel to retake the front position in line, letting Mark carry the torch behind her. "It could be a trap," she theorized. "We don't know that just being bad in our universe makes someone good here. It could be that everybody is bad, just in different ways. I bet the Foundry wouldn't like it if some other evil group took over instead of them, right? They might form a rebellion with no interest in helping anyone." She automatically reached for her bat once again, only to encounter, once again, empty air. Whatever they were facing, she would face it with her bare fists.

[Gizmo]

Catching Erin's reflexive response, Midnight slid closer and murmured at a volume he knew her enhanced hearing could easily pick up, "Let me know if you want a weapon. Coat's full of them." He raised his voice to address the group as a whole. "Have to take the chance. At least they're no friends of the depraved lunatics after us now." He was inclined to think that the mirror logic would hold true for this version of Talos and his allies, however. It fit with the sort of twisted logic Rick Lucas, at least the version they were familiar with, had demonstrated in the past. Black is white, good is evil.