Viral Celebrity [IC]

[trollthumper]

"Don't really have much better than foot traffic," Temperance said. "Might give you some time while I hail a cab. Unless you've got some way to take along passengers."

After confirming that Citizen couldn't exactly run a taxi service, Temperance ended up finding her own ride to the corner of Merrill and Laurent. She exited onto the corner, looking on the boarded-up Rialto with a surgeon's eye. The boards were still intact, with no real sign of having been pried up or split open. The marquee was still hanging in shambles, all the letters detailing the day's features long since snatched up by vandals who wanted a conversation piece hanging in their bedroom. But... she could feel something thrumming within. It was little more than a whisper - the hum of static, almost. But there was something going on within that theater. And she was going to find out what.

[Avenger Assembled]

"This place is messed-up," said Citizen as he floated down from the sky next to her, his hair completely unruffled by the faint wind that had kicked up. "I scouted the perimeter, and it's...weird. There's something electronic going in there, but I don't know what it is. I thought about trying to 'port in there, but I don't want to just jump into a strange situation. I don't know why there's so much open space in this city anyway, things would be so much less weird if you just had people living in all your buildings...anyway, you're the expert here," he added, "I can fly through most anything as long as I don't try going beyond the first layer without my emitter. Should we try to sneak in, or just kick in the door and see what happens?" Sharl was willing to take advice about things, especially things he didn't understand, and magic was definitely that. "I could try and get my team," he hazarded, "but it's late and they're pretty far away. I'm already pushing curfew as it is."

[trollthumper]

"I would say try and sneak in," Temperance said, "normally. But this spirit has a media obsession. Odds are she's got some sort of network up keeping watch on us." She pointed to a convenience store across the street, and the security camera that oversaw the sidewalk in front of it. "So I would argue we push forward, and shove aside anything in our way."

The door splintered quickly under a barrage of hail stones, leading to what had been the lobby once upon a time. Now, however, it was something entirely different. Televisions were everywhere, each one tuned to a different channels. A good hundred faces, ranging from the heights of face to the depths of obscurity. None of them were turned on Temperance and Citizen - yet - but Citizen could sense the various broadcasts being directed from their sources to a "knot" in the depths of the theater.

"...well. This is certainly a thing."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm going in," said Citizen decisively. "I'm a machine intelligence; I can fight it on its own turf and drive it out here so you can deal with it. I'm a whole lot tougher inside a system than out, anyway. You saw how she nearly fried my projector. If it kicks me out, we can still fight it out here." With a nod and a Centurion wink, Citizen turned and dived straight into the sea of faces above, merging with the program inside and casting about his gaze for the technological phantom that had caused so many problems. Outside, Temperance could see him for a moment on the various screens, flitting around like a technological ghost himself. "You want a fight!" he called to the sea of electronic movement all around him, audible inside the system and out. "Let's fight!"

[trollthumper]

Temperance watched as Citizen dove into the sea of televisions. Inside was a labyrinth, a maze of broken mirrors, each cracked pane and shattered frame holding the image of a different person. Here a model owning the runway, there a young boy singing into a webcam and dreaming. Already Citizen could tell that he was in something different. For a bank made up of such simple projection devices, it felt... deeper. Like wandering into the deep end of the pool when trying to go into the shallow part. And around him, the current began to pulse, as if the sea was rising to swallow him.

"And here I thought Optica could handle her contract."

The voice came from everywhere - up, down, and inside. The chambers of the maze began to swirl around him, and through the storm of glass and faces, Citizen could see a woman sitting on a throne of glass and chrome. Her hair was golden, her body was perfect, and her clothes likely cost someone their soul. But her face was blank, nothing but pure mirror wrapped around the front.

"I've... corrected her." She rose from her throne, and with a wave of her hand, it vanished into the ground. "You... are interesting. Like our lifeblood, but you're aware. I'd call you one of us, but you don't have that... sheen. But you're fascinating all the same." She opened her arms, as if to gesture the maze of faces around her. "I am the Marchesa of Crafted Renown. And what can I make you today?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl was, rarely, left speechless by the bizarre figure the Marchess cut. No wonder he hated magic so much! "...listen, lady, I don't want anything from you," said Citizen, facing down this magical (pfft) monstrosity with as much courage as he could muster. "You need to stop letting your people come into Earth and play with people's lives. People deserve to be able to go about their lives in peace, fail or succeed, and not just become the playthings of forces they don't understand and beings from another plane of existence," he said with great determination, his courage mounting as he remembered the place he was from in all-too-intimate detail. "You don't want this to turn into a whole thing. may spend a lot of time in computers and technology, but I _am_ computers and technology. Go back where you came from and leave Earth alone."

[trollthumper]

The Marchesa studied Citizen - at least, as far as he could tell with that mirrored visage looking down on him. "'Where I came from,'" she said, turning the words over on her tongue. "This is where I come from." She gestured to the labyrinth around her. "The warp and weft of human devotion. The new altar of the electronic aether. Once I was a mote, walking these paths... until I realized what the images on the wall meant. Icons of a new age. I learned their names, and what made them holy. You say I offer these people things they cannot understand. They understand fame. That is all I offer them... and all that comes with it."

In the lobby, Temperance listened as the Marchesa broadcast her half of the conversation through the TV banks. And soon, a hundred eyes were locked on her in turn. "I see you brought a friend," said the Marchesa through the speaker banks. "Does she have anything to contribute?"

"I don't care what you're offering these people," she said. "You have overstepped your station. You offer mortals bargains without mentioning the consequences. And when your agents come to collect, you allow them no reprieve. You'll desist now, or face sanction." God, I hope that sounded good.

Within the datastream, the maze of images fell away, leaving just Citizen and the Marchesa. The Marchesa rose from her throne as lightning crackled around her. "Strong words," she said. "But I've become used to a certain standard of living. So I'll make this offer."

Inside the lobby, the televisions began to bulge and distort around Temperance. Three tiny creatures made of scraps and sparks - gremlins, she thought - hit the floor and crowded around her.

"Leave me to my business... and I'll let you leave."

[Avenger Assembled]

Citizen and the spirit noble traded punches, neither of them holding back as it soon became clear just how evenly matched they were. As electrical discharges sizzled off his armored skin, Sharl punched his way 'upstream' towards the Marchesa, eyes glowing behind his mirrorshades with righteous fury. "Listen, lady, you may be some hot stuff inside your crazy alternate dimension! But this is a real computer! In the real world! And there are heroes here to stop you and keep you from exploiting anyone else. That means that science wins!" When he was within punching distance, he did just that, landing a devastating blow that sent the Marchesa smashing backwards against the wall of her stronghold so hard that the structure itself began to shatter and quake. "And magic loses!" A devastating beam of pure blazing heat erupted from the paragon's eyes and struck the spirit noble in the chest, and as it did so the whole room shattered into spinning fragments of energy.

He turned with a triumphant shout and erupted from the computer screen as the spirit world behind him imploded, throwing a right cross at the gremlin attacking Temperance. "Who's next!?!" he demanded.

[trollthumper]

The light cut through the Marchesa like a flamethrower through ice. She tugged at the hole in her immaculate form, as if trying to will it back together. All around Citizen, the screens began to shatter, a hundred faces of the famous and would-be famous breaking apart into motes of glass. Somewhere, from deep behind that mirrored face, the Marchesa began to scream - and as she did, it slowly went from scream to static as all was washed away in blinding light.

Temperance, meanwhile, drew out the water again and lashed out towards one of the gremlins. The water whip wrapped around his legs and torso, getting into some of the more exposed mechanisms. With a snap of her fingers, it turned to ice, and the mechanical monster fell to the ground, trapped in a frosty prison. She took a second to admire her work - which was enough time for the thing's partner to clock her in the back of the head. As she stumbled and tried to regain her footing, another dove at her, just missing her and crashing into the long-abandoned concession stand. She tried to regain her thoughts, and as she did, Citizen came barreling out of the nearest bank of TVs.

"Guessing that's the Marchesa taken care of. Now what do you say we take care of these metal monkeys?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Between Temperance and Citizen, the remaining gremlins didn't stand a chance, and it wasn't long before the two heroes found themselves standing in a room blessedly free of supernatural technological creatures. "Nice," said Sharl with a nod. He'd worked up a sweat against the Marchesa, and taken some bruises along the way, but he was remarkably intact given the crazy magic creature he'd just blown up. "I took care of what's her face inside the computer. Even if she had backups stored somewhere, I think she'll probably find some place less threatening to deal with. I'm Citizen, by the way," he said with a smile for the really quite cute Temperence. (Or so he figured behind the mask) Nice to see a girl I don't have classes with. "I like your style."