White Saturday (IC)

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel frowned as he glanced at Fusion.

"What's your part in this little operation? Need to make sure we don't "cross wires" or anything."

If and when she started down the hall, he followed.

"That said, I might be able to get him to a point where he's not a threat, even without hitting him in the face with concentrated sound. I can play havoc with something that's living flesh and blood."

He seemed almost offended at all the robots he was having to fight. He gave another worried glance to Fusion.

"Are you sure you're alright over there, Fusion?"

[Electra]

Fleur caught up to the group in the hallway, still hanging on to the potted plant she was using to network with. "Well, that's two more robots down!" she said cheerfully, then turned to Gabriel. "Are you okay?" As they walked, she checked over his poor head where the robot attacked him. Maybe it was the attention-getting white costume, but the poor man seemed startlingly injury-prone. She wondered if there were any self-defense classes for heroes out there in Freedom City. It might not hurt to suggest one to him. "Where's Otaku?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm fine," Fusion insisted. "I've fought Otaku before, just as Fleur de Joie has, I can help everyone keep an eye out for his tricks. He's a devious little bastard, especially now that we've cornered him like the rat he is. It'll be..." Suddenly, the wall of monitors along one side of the room flickered to life, not with Otaku's face or that of any secret robots he'd been holding out, but a series of rapid-fire flickering images synched with bouncily cheerful Japanese animation. Within seconds, it had resolved itself into another broadcast of Joan's much-hated self-titled show, this one already in progress.

"Oooh, she's got me so tight!" a teenager in a sailor suit whimpered in unison across two dozen screens, the scantily-clad teen grappled by a version of Fusion who was obviously nearly nude underneath her scanty black costume. "Oooh, what are you going to do, Fusion-san?"

"Ahahahah!" laughed the tentacled heroine in reply, "you had your fun with the law, so now the law will have its fun with you!"

"...no." Fusion's voice was cold and angry as she studied the increasingly pornographic hentai images play out, furious as a giant squid in grapple with a sperm whale. "No, he's trying to distract us. Distract me. I won't have that." Her hands balled into fists, she said, "We need to stop him before he hurts any more hostages, or before he gets another transmitter built. Let's go."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel glanced at Fleur.

"I'll be fine, though if you have another one of those wonder-seeds I could choke down, I suppose it wouldn't hurt. The so-called "doctor" is likely in one of the main broadcast rooms. Not sure exactly where that would be in here, though."

He gave a longer look to Fusion.

'She's not fine. She can't be. Not after how worried that friend of hers was over the phone.'

"Let me try to rattle his cage. Lead the way further in, ladies. I'll be following."

As Fleur and Fusion head further into the building, Gabriel will follow them on foot. He seems...not distracted, but focused. Soon, it is clear why, as his voice is heard throughout the building. He's not shouting, yet it's like it's ringing out from every corner.

"Solo Takashi! Your time is coming! Judgment is upon you! Your iniquity will not stand unchallenged! We are here as agents of justice! Of righteousness! Your foul ideas, petty words, and twisted inventions shall not hinder us, and they shall not harm the innocent! Tremble, Takashi! For we shall become the wrath of the Lord this day!"

His face is grim as he fall silent for the moment.

[Gizmo]

Midnight resisted the urge to grumbled something incomprehensible under his breath at Gabriel's resounding monologue; clearly the two had ideas about intimidation as diametrically opposed as their respective black and white costumes. Too many words. Instead he slipped in silently next to Fusion. "Emotionally compromised. Understandable," he quietly told the tentacled heroine flatly, his inflectionless tone surprisingly lacking judgment or reproach. "Need to know you can stay in control." More loudly, he addressed the entire group brusquely, "Follow." The black clad vigilante exited the studio and took off down the hallway at a dead run.

[Avenger Assembled]

The assembled heroes kicked open the door, finding themselves inside the control room of the TV station. Otaku had removed most of the crew, fortunately, but there were several young women there, maybe interns, bound and gagged in a corner, while Otaku himself rose to his feet as they entered. Takashi was dressed in a bizarre mashup of fantasy and high science, his usual gleaming technologically-tuned bodysuit augmented with a bizarre skull helmet and giant hammer that wouldn't have looked out of place in a Japanese video game. "So, you have dared to face me at last!" He shouted, swinging the hammer as his blasters began to glow. "I'll show you who's powerful! You weak pathetic fools! I've come for your souls!"

[Gizmo]

Midnight was the first to act, striding into the room with disconcerting nonchalance even as Otaku powered up his weapons. "Pathetic," he stated in a toneless voice like gravel rubbing against itself, chilling in its impersonal detachment. Despite his low volume, the words cut through the air, forcing the others in the room to pause and listen. In that moment, the black clad vigilante leveled a smooth, oval shaped device at the young villain, his hand gripping a matte black cylinder while a flat portion above his knuckle glowed with increasing brilliant blue light. All at once, a blinding beam of crackling electricity streaked forward to crash against Otaku's armour, splashing against the exposed elements of his technologically enhanced bodysuit and sending off sparks and its systems violently shut down one by one.

[Avenger Assembled]

Otaku gave an "Awp!" as Midnight's powerful jolt fried the systems in his mechsuit. "You...you wei-faced jerk! I'll show you the true power of power!" And with that, he gathered his fists and made a series of elaborate martial arts gestures in the air with his 'mystic' hammer. "Gomulka! Burn in the fires of Yami Hell!" And with that he seemed to throw a ball of white-hot flame at Midnight, a shimmering blast of pure mystical burning and death that...missed the dark avenger entirely and buried itself in the far wall, leaving a smoking crater behind. "Aiee!" he exclaimed in reply, anger on his face. "I'll show you all!"

[KnightDisciple]

Before they entered the short hallway leading into the room where Doctor Otaku was holed up, Gabriel had stopped speaking. He seemed to close his eyes, concentrate for a moment, then give a nod.

When Midnight entered first, he watched the results of the other hero's work carefully. Quickly stepping up beside him, coat billowing in a non-existent breeze, he raised his right hand to point at the desperate villain, even as he took in the state of the hostages in the room with a frown.

"You have too many toys."

Suddenly, a burst of sound lanced out from his hand. It targeted not the supervillain himself, but the remaining armor on his body. It worked to shake apart the very bonds holding it together, making it easy for his fellows to disable totally.

Without missing a beat, his left had rose even as his right hand fell to his side. His index finger jabbed accusingly at the whining man-child.

"Solo Takashi: Repent!"

No other words were said, but no other words were needed. Some otherworldly force was in the words that Gabriel projected; some force giving them supernatural weight, bearing in on Takashi like some inevitable Judgment. One that had found him so very, very Guilty.

[Electra]

While Midnight and Gabriel attacked Doc Otaku directly, Fleur's concern was caught up in the civilians he'd imprisoned and tied up. Luck was smiling on her today, because there was a potted palm in the corner of the office, not far at all from the girls. Stesha set down the violet and stepped through it, coming out of the palm tree next to the closest hostage. "All of you hold hands, quickly!" she commanded. At this point, they seemed unwilling to resist an order from anyone who might get them out of here, and with a bit of struggling, they complied. In that instant, Fleur teleported the whole group right out of the building, right off Earth Prime and to somewhere much safer! It took her out of the fight, but it also removed all the hostages from the equation.

[Avenger Assembled]

Fusion stepped forward and punched Otaku in the armor, instantly pulverizing the magitek and sending broken fragments flying everywhere. "This is it, Solo." she spat, murder in her white-covered eyes. "You think the US government is going to let you get away with this? They'll lock you up with the other perverts and creeps in Blackstone and I'll be there, laughing!"

Disarmed and actually in his skivvies thanks to the total destruction of both his sets of armor, Otaku laughed. "Ahahaha! You think any jail can hold me? I'm the smartest man in the world, Fusion! And I'll make sure to tell everyone how you and your friends had to get me naked to beat me! Maybe next time I bring some robots for all of you, especially your sexy green friend." He winked suggestively.

Fusion responded with a curse and lashed out with her limbs, tentacles erupting explosively from her sides as wet, slippery muscle wrapped around Otaku's arms and legs. "You perverted little!-" She had him good, her grip like iron as she held the formerly armored genius up against a bank of computer monitors. Otaku, though, just managed to tap a button on the wall behind him, and suddenly all those screens were filled with images of Fusion: some were broadcasts of the hentai she so despised, others were worse, far, far worse: 'fan' sites from Japan and elsewhere, disgusting perversity Photoshopped and manipulated, drawn by hand and drawn by computer. Fusion writhing with passion, Fusion as a tentacled goddess of sex, a thousand different images of the heroine warped to pornography.

"You're very popular, my saucy little minx," he gloated. "When I get out again, maybe this time I'll sell my Fusion design to some very wealthy gentlemen I know in..." Suddenly, Otaku _screamed_, his eyes going wide from fear and pain, as the sound of a wet, muffled CRACK echoed through the room. It took only a moment to realize what had happened: Fusion had just crushed his left shin underfoot, his leg visibly bent in a forward position beneath her iron grip. Her teeth set with fury, Fusion pulled him close and drew back her fist, her other limbs tightening around him as Otaku's arms and legs began to bend...

[Electra]

Fleur made the round trip rapidly, dropping off the hostages and zooming back to the fight with the promise of being back in just a moment. She arrived just in time for most of Otaku's pungent little speech, and had to force herself not to be distracted by the repulsive shows on the walls. "Fusion, stop!" she called urgently. "You know he's lying, don't you? You don't really believe he's better than our scientists and technicians, do you? This is as much an ego trip for him as anything else. He's just one more slimy little thug, and he deserves to be in jail. He hasn't ruined you, don't let him."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel's eyes widened at the sheer fury Fusion displayed. The raw anger, the buried hurt...it was all there. His face became concerned as he slowly stepped forward, ending up opposite Fleur as he faced Fusion, his back to the helpless Otaku.

"Fusion. Look at me. You may think that you want to do this right now. You're angry. You're disgusted. Otaku's pushing all the right buttons to make you angrier. He's speaking empty words, trying to cause you pain. Don't let him, Fusion. Don't let him get this victory. You're better than this. You're a hero. And what you're doing right now? It's not what a hero does. As much as we may think it feels good to hurt him like this, it's not right. It's not what we're about."

He stepped closer, dropping his voice so only Fusion could hear it.

"You know, I was going to be coming here anyways, to stop this pathetic little man. But then, some guy called me. He was really, really worried about you. Said he wanted me to make sure you didn't do something you'll regret later. You're about to do something you'll regret; please, don't."

He hesitated, then switched over to his unique ventriloquism, where only Fusion herself could hear him. Even reading his lips would be essentially impossible.

>"Joan. Please. I know you have a family. I remember that fracas out at the base, out on Lonely Point. You have a little girl...Lois? Stop and think. Do you want her to think back on this day, and remember her mother as a woman who killed a helpless man, all because he was a pervert? Or do you want her to think of you as a hero? Please. Make the right decision."<

A pleading expression was shining through on what face could be seen by Joan through his mask. His hands were hanging at his sides, and he just stood there, a voice of reason calling out to be heard...

[Avenger Assembled]

Fusion's fist shook as she glared at Otaku's face, the smugness draining out of him as fast as the blood running down his leg. She hadn't just broken his leg, she'd crushed it, breaking skin and bone and flesh and leaving his foot dangling limply. From the way his color was changing, he was probably going into shock. But beyond him, though, those movies were playing and those images were dancing, those filthy, disgusting perversions of everything she'd worked for, everything she'd tried to stand for, everything she..."I could rip you in half like a wishbone," spat Fusion, her eyes full of hate. "But you'd enjoy it too damn much." She slugged him, hard enough to smash his head into the monitor behind him, and the unconscious mad scientist dropped without a sound.

She half-turned to the others, limbs still spread, crucified on a cross of adult manga and hentai websites. "Everything...just..." Don't let them see you cry. Don't let them see you cry. She swallowed the words, and the tears, and shot the unconscious Otaku a truly murderous look. "Let's get him the hell out of here."

[Gizmo]

Arms crossed, Midnight watched Fusion's reaction to Otaku's taunting and the pleas of Fleur and Gabriel with a stony impassiveness, saying nothing. Admittedly, the black clad vigilante had little objection to the obnoxious roboticist arriving into police custody with a few broken bones, but any restraint the heroine showed would be meaningless if it stemmed from a place of peer pressure. Ultimately, Trevor Hunter believed in humanity's better nature, given the chance to decide for itself. Fusion did not disappoint. Without a word, Midnight moved to the bank of broadcast equipment and dislodged the power cable from the wall with his foot, turning the screen blank and the speakers silent, then turned to give the limp form a brief look to confirm that Otaku was in no immediate medical danger.

[KnightDisciple]

Midnight suddenly hears Gabriel's voice in his ear.

>"Thank you. I was about to ask about doing just that. Do you think you and I could work on making sure all the other potential broadcasting equipment is shut down?"<

Gabriel's posture has relaxed considerably now that the immediate danger has passed.

"You made the right decision. Thank you."

He tries to smile, but it mostly fails. He directs his ventriloquism to Fleur de Joie's ears next.

>"We need to get Fusion out of here; maybe she could help you with those hostages you rescued? Perhaps the two of you could work on getting everyone in the building to safety?"<

He then starts looking around the room, clearly trying to determine if there's any obvious equipment Otaku may have been using that's not deactivated yet.

[Electra]

Fleur tossed a seed from her pouch in the direction of the unconscious villain, which sprouted into a massive Venus Flytrap that gobbled Otaku down whole. Even though she'd never touched him directly, Stesha still wiped her hands on her pants. "He's in a dimension with no technology and no outside access right now. He'll be secure till we can get him locked up somewhere. But I left the hostages tied up," she admitted. "Fusion, could you come with me and help with them? They're going to be scared, and there's quite a few of them. Midnight and Gabriel can secure the building."

[Avenger Assembled]

Between all of them, the heroes got the job done. Midnight and Gabriel were able to get the broadcasting equipment shut down and to purge the files in the system, making sure that no records were left in these computers, at least, of Fusion's unfortunate experience in Japan. Trevor would probably hear about the collateral damage done to the street by the falling antenna the next time he talked to his grandfather and Mr. Summers, but neither man was liable to give him too much grief about a mission where he'd played a key role in defeating a bad guy as odious as Otaku. As for the adult heroes who'd been along for the ride, they didn't answer to anyone except maybe the court of public opinion, and such a public victory would only do them well there.

For Fusion's part, she was terse and uncommunicative with the other heroes for the rest of the mission. The majority of people in the broadcasting building had never actually seen Otaku and his robots, and she was easily able to help provide first aid to those who'd been injured when they fell asleep too fast or in the wrong part of the building. Of course, there wasn't much to do there, since Fleur actually had the power to heal those people.

For those who had seen Otaku, and those women who the robots had dragged off in what was surely a frightening experience, her appearance made things tougher. In a clear, solid voice, she explained to them what resources were available to them as victims of sexually-based supercrime, leaving them with numbers they could call, and encouraging them to testify against Otaku. "He intimidated enough women in Tokyo that he was able to get off lightly. This time, we'll be able to put him down and keep him there."

[Electra]

Stesha comforted the ex-hostages in her own way, with a gallon of hot tea and a few minutes of peace and quiet in her sanctuary before returning them to the secured broadcasting building and letting them contact their families. She saved a cup of tea in a ceramic travel mug for Fusion, passing it to her as they returned to Prime. "Why don't you get home to your family?" she suggested delicately. "I'm sure Midnight and Gabriel will make sure that any recorded footage is destroyed. If you like, I can get in touch with Doctor Archeville and his people and make sure."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I will," said Fusion, looking downcast but not defeated. She turned and stared up at the bulk of the equipment, her tentacles folded close around her midsection, as if she was hugging herself. "Since the accident mutilated me, I've spent every day of my life trying to be an example to women that they can still matter however they look, that they don't have to judge themselves or anyone else on the basis of their appearance." A thin smile appeared through her mask. "As bad as today was, at least I know some people don't. Thank you." And with that she flickered to invisibility, and swung away into the shining light of a Freedom City afternoon.