Mind Games: Remix (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

"Singularity!" Hex spat, meeting her eyes fearlessly. "You know what'll happen when we give you back to Pathos, don't you? Stop right now, and I'll make sure you don't suffer any before then!" When that didn't seem to work, Hex seemed to shrug, even as black hands reached up from the tarmac to seize Singularity by the ankles. "It's your choice how you want to see your sister again!" he taunted.

[Gizmo]

"Hex, do us all a favour and be silent,"  The Blank growled, setting down on the road in front of Singularity. As he did, the area all around them seemed to brighten, then loose detail, as his white out took hold. Outwardly betraying no hesitation, he pulled a long, thin cylinder from his jacket and, using his metahuman senses despite the field of blank void, leveled the barrel at the thrashing young woman and thumbed the firing stud, sending a lance of high frequency noise in her direction. When she shook off the screech, he grimaced under his mask. "Sorry, kid,"  he muttered softly before turning the dial on the sonic cannon up to its highest setting and fired again.

[Lone Star]

The Prince felt the blind out effect. Hate it when he does that... He was unable to see Singularity, but he would have a surprise waiting for her. He raised his arms and uttered a short spell, praising the Outer Gods, and he felt his sanity slip for a moment. Then it was back, and his hands were brimming with their dark power. He would wait for The Blank's effect to die down, then let Singularity have it. He almost felt sorry for her, but his years of conditioning numbed his emotions. He only hoped he would be the one to take her down.

[Electra]

It was impossible to ignore the voice of the bad luck man, Singularity had been too thoroughly drilled for that. Her eyes widened when he mentioned Pathos, that threat enough to make the grasping asphalt hands she kicked aside seem like nothing. "No," she said, shaking her head violently from side to side. "No, please..." She knew Pathos, knew Pathos' name, except for when Pathos was in her head and made her forget. Nothing, not the fighting, not the box, not anything was as bad as Pathos when she was playing around. The punishment for leaving the box would be horrible, and for running away, and stealing food, and attacking the bad luck man.

She whimpered when the world started to fade at the edges and go white, another memory that had burned its way into her unreliable brain. Everything disappeared, the foes surrounding her, the sky above, even the ground beneath her feet and her own shoes were very fuzzy. "No, please, no, please," she murmured, repeating the useless mantra again and again until the man with no face started making the loud noises again. The first one hurt, but she shook her head and covered her ears, cowering in the white void, and it went away. Before she could hope for anything, though, it came back worse than before, a deafening cacophony that sounded like the moaning of a thousand zombies bearing down on her. She screamed and ran, going only a few steps before she launched herself into the air, with no idea where she was going or what was there, only desperate to get away.

[Avenger Assembled]

Hex cursed explosively, lashing out into the whiteness unsuccessfully. "Goddammit, Blank, she's getting away! Turn that crap off!" He stormed out of the field himself, cape snapping behind him in the breeze, as he looked for where she'd landed. "There, that skyscraper!" he exclaimed, pointing to the hole in the glass windows several stories up, all the way across the bay. "She must have landed inside. Thrashmaster Z and Yellowmacarena, take to the air and make sure she doesn't jump out again. Carry us. When we get there, the Blank and I are going inside. Remember, the higher the body count, the harder she'll be, so we do this smooth."

[Gizmo]

As colour and detail began seeping back into the area around him, The Blank sniffed haughtily "I blinded and deafened her, Hex. One would think one of you could have made sure she stayed in one place."The white clad young man took an odd satisfaction in the difficulty Singularity was giving them, if only because it made the malicious probability controller look foolish. "Well, after you, oh fearless leader,"  he continued, tone dripping with insincerity.

[Darksider42]

"Aaand done." Thrash muttered as he smashed through a window at Claremont and started speeding towards the sounds of his teams voices. Deleting what had transpired exactly from the schools security systems was practically child's play for the Maniacal Metalhead. Fletcher would have done a better job at security unlike this pansy version of the Academy. But that didn't matter, they now had their pet project to get back.

He did start scowling when he heard The Blanks statement, even this far away his hearing was still good. "So, let me get this straight." Thrash said, projecting his voice to the group as he kept moving. "Instead of waiting for me to finish up so I can put her to sleep or control her brain through sonic projections, you instead run ahead and disable the key vector for that plan to work." And just like that, he was in front of the Blank, clapping his hands slowly all the while looking at him with one of the most deadpan expressions he could manage. "Bravo your whiteness, your genius knows no bounds."

[Gizmo]

It was impossible to tell with the pristine white mask covering his face, but Thrash got the distinct impression that The Blank was smirking as him as he paused his unhurried saunter toward the building Hex has indicated to tuck the sonic cannon back into his jacket. "You're right, of course. What an absolute shame that is. What could I have been thinking?"  Making a show of fussily straightening the cuffs of his jacket, the well dressed young man flicked his wrists casually, causing a pair of gleaming stiletto blades to pop out from each sleeve. "This is the part where you get out of my way, incidentally," he added airily, not making any overt move against Thrash as he finished seeing to his attire.

[Lone Star]

The Prince in Yellow looked back at Thrash. He didn't like his roommate, but it wasn't at the level of hatred he had for The Blank. Thrash was always practicing his guitar while he was studying dark arcane secrets! However, he could stand his roommate enough not to send horrible nightmare monsters in his mind to haunt his every waking moment. He clipped ahead of The Blank, preparing concussive spells. His yellow robes flowed behind him as he levitated a few inches off of the ground. "Better get moving, The Blank. I might actually take her down. Wouldn't want to bruise your precious ego."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Look, people, telling each other off is all very satisfying," said Hex, adding mentally And you can be sure I'll blame ALL of you in my report, "But that doesn't actually get us Singularity back, does it?" He took out his teleporter and fiddled with it. "Forget strategy; it's beyond...most of you, anyway. I'm going to put us on the roof and we're going to go inside, grab Singularity, and jet back to our own dimension. I have my own ideas about how to do THAT," he added, pressing a few more buttons before they all disappeared in a flash of Imperial power!

[Electra]

Down below, on the fifteenth floor, Singularity had been busy. Crashing through the window had caused a lot of consternation among the office workers there, apparently even in Freedom City they didn't see a lot of teenage girls in pajamas flying into buildings. The office worker people had all run away after what she'd done to the security guards and a couple of guys who had tried to tackle her, so this floor was pretty empty for now. Singularity didn't know what to do now. If she stayed, they might catch her. If she ran, they might catch her. She'd lost her food when the bad luck man built the cage around her, so she didn't have any supplies, either. And she didn't have any place to go. Even though she had been happy for a few minutes, this was still hell, and no place was going to be safe. But she wasn't going back in the box.

Using some modicum of tactical thought, she picked up the mess on the floor and propped the bodies up at desks to look like they were working, then hid herself back in a maze of old filing cabinets. It was a big building and a big city, maybe they wouldn't find her and she would be okay.

[Darksider42]

"Fine." Thrash said just as he started to fly above the group all the while trying to hide the typical "Oh c**p" look on his face. "Just get this sh-" He was cut off as everyone was telephoned to the new location "-under control before we are found out." He paused as he looked around and sighed.

"Well, lets get this over and done with." People back home owe me a lot of money. He muttered as he unslung his battered guitar and powered it up.

[Gizmo]

Taking stock of the rooftop, The Blank retracted his stiletto blade back into his sleeves with a suppressed click. "I'm forced into the unenviable position of agreeing with both Hex and Thrash,"  he sighed with a much put upon shrug. "Time is of the essence and we only waste it attempting teamwork. So..." The others realized too late that the criminal gadgeteer was already activating his white out effect as his pristine outfit faded from sight."Shall we race?"  By the time colour and detail returned to the city skyline around them, The Blank was gone.

[Lone Star]

The Prince blinked and rubbed his eyes. Hated when he did that. The Prince gritted his teeth in anger and surged forward, his yellow robes billowing behind him. Despite the fact that he in no way liked The Blank, he did find a good way to get everyone to get to Singularity faster. Competition as a motivation. It was clever, and he knew The Blank was clever. Now imagine if the Prince beat him- taking that smug arrogance away from him. No- this is what he wants. Keep calm, eyes ahead. Don't let him get under your skin.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hmmph." Hex slid down himself, not bothering to conceal himself as he slid into the broken office floor. Stupid cattle, he thought contemptously as he gazed at Singularity's battered victims. Maybe if the sissies who ran this place bothered to put the fear of supers in these zips, they'd have been smart enough to get out of Singularity's way. Never make a good freeman out of someone who should be a slave. He walked into the room, not bothering to conceal himself. It wasn't _just_ arrogance that let him be so obvious, though certainly his own faith in his superiority was absolute. But if Singularity was hiding from him, the Blank would be able to catch her. "Singularity!" he called. "You're beginning to make me angry! You don't want me to tell your friend Pathos, do you? She'll be angry too!"

[Electra]

Singularity melted back into the shadows when Hex appeared, trying to wish herself invisible. If she hurt him, she would be punished, her well-trained subconscious reminded her again and again. Pain and fear, pain and punishment and the box... but that was what he was promising her anyway, she realized suddenly. She could do whatever she wanted, because every outcome was equally bad. And at least this way maybe she could fight her way out, at least for a little while... Silent as a shadow and fast as a cheetah leaping out of ambush, she launched herself from her hiding place and towards the bad luck man. She would take his head, take his head just like a zombie, because zombies and bad luck men didn't get up again if you did that.

Unfortunately, her antagonist was ready for her, if not quite totally prepared. Even as she leapt at him, a surge of inky black dots poured from his hands, covering her the way she'd seen them cover over zombies in other fights. When that happened, the zombies melted away, like they weren't even there. Now, though, they ran like black mercury over her skin and slid away, leaving her untouched. The bad luck man barely had time to look surprised. "No!" Singularity screamed in his face. "I WON'T GO BACK!" She punched him as hard as she could, and even with his bad luck deflecting her fist like a physical force, she still managed to sock him square in the jaw.

[Gizmo]

As Hex staggered back from Singularity's assault, he felt a prick on his back, followed by a slow, slick sliding sensation between his ribs. Looking down, he saw the tip of a long, thin blade poking out through the diamond emblazoned on his chest."You heard the lady, 'old chum'." Appearing behind him as if from nowhere, The Blank smoothly retracted the blade back through flesh, costume and cape, the quick flick sending a spray of blood splattering across his white pant leg in a delightful pattern. Adjusting his tie fussily, he left a red smudge on the knot with his thumb as he watched the probability controller sway for a moment before collapsing to his knees and keeling over to the office floor. "'No' means 'no'."  The blood stained assassin glanced over at Singularity as he casually backed away. "Don't read too much into it. I was always going to kill him sooner or later anyway." Detail in the room began to blur and brighten as he neared the hole in the window, tossing the frenzied girl a sardonic salute just before things faded completely out of sight. "Still. Seems everything is coming up... White."

[Darksider42]

Well, I knew you were an idiot. Thrash thought as he surrounded himself in sound and listened to The Blanks little "Conversion" with YT's personal superweapon. He hovered a story above the window with carnage and their fallen leader in there. But you set new heights for stupidity you faceless moron. The loss of a easily manipulated controller of reality was a massive blow towards Trash's own plans.

He quickly tuned his guitar as he already started formulating a string of notes in his mind. Judging from her actions, Singularity had regained some of her hearing. If not, well The Blank would do in bringing her down, Or get killed in the process, either way Its win-win for me! Unless he fights back..Well, Speed is on my side. With that line of reasoning out of the way, he started sending out discordant notes out around him. Each one invading it ears and minds of all that stood close.

[Lone Star]

The Prince decided not to enter the fray, but he flew around the building to see his roommate, Thrash. "What do you say, man? Should we team up against The Blank? He's gone crazy. Crazier than usual." He readied a bolt of mystic flame.

[Avenger Assembled]

Hex put on a convincing show of sprattling and dying, even voiding himself and twitching as he hit the floor. But though the Blank had taken quite a few more lives with his bare hands (and blades, and bullets when he was practicing at range) than Hex had, the truth was Hex had _seen_ more people die. He liked to watch, and he made a good show of it as he hit the floor. It didn't take him long to figure out the Blank's game: the perverted lust the faceless assassin had so barely concealed around Singularity had evidently come boiling out at just the wrong moment for everyone. He ignored Thrash and the Prince in Yellow; if they were smart, they'd follow the top dog, and if they weren't smart, they didn't belong on his team. The trick was making sure you wound up the top dog. He knew he was dead if he got another good hit. But even now, he couldn't bring himself to fear that. Dying is for people without a card. Dying...I like that!

"Hey, Blanket! Your weapon's too short for full penetration! Sound familiar? Ahahahaha!" And then suddenly black and whirling dots were lashing out right through the whiteout effect, enfolding Trevor and Erin, and...then vanishing up to the ceiling without actually doing anything. ...ah, nuts. Welp, been a good run. Guess Dad was right about seeing me in Hell! Someone was advancing on him in the white, and advancing fast, so he spoke quickly to get his last insult out. "Hah-hah, coitus interruptus! What can I say, your girlfriend really brings it out in-" And then all was still, and he's never even seen who'd done it.

And then there was the sound like the great and terrible ticking of a clock, and the white, and all their other powers faded as suddenly Hex's no-longer bleeding body , Singularity, the Blank, the Prince in Yellow, and Thrash were sucked upwards into the whirling black portal of a temporal vortex, the energies inexorably drawing them all through the gateway, the familiar shape of the Syndicate's Academy beckoning above their heads! But they were passing someone else along the way...