ic Everybody's Fool

[horngeek]

Stronghold gave Foreshadow a thumbs-up, before putting her hands on the wheel.  "All right, here goes..."

 

There was a lot to look out for.  I mean, this was Wildcard, the name said it all.  Be prepared for anything.  The plane could turn into a giant robot or something, and then they'd all really be stuffed.  

 

Okay, probably not that.  Maybe.  

 

The Hawaiian superheroine gave the wheel a good yank, boosting her strength a bit with the Orange Ring in order to make sure that the wheel didn't stick.  

[Avenger Assembled]

Stronghold opened the hatch and extended her head into the plane, finding herself in what looked to be the rear of the plane's passenger compartment. Things were cramped in there - the stealth plane was bigger than the jet it had grappled, but the passenger compartment was notably smaller, with only four seats and a scattering of high-tech equipment. She could just make out the cockpit, which was empty, but she had a pretty good idea where Wildcard was. Because he was standing over the hatch, pointing a huge gun directly at her face! "Hey there, kid," he said cheerfully, casually resting the big brass cannon on his shoulder. "Lucky thing I came down here, huh? I dunno what you're doing out there, but you better come in. The boss man gave me this sonic gun for my birthday and it's really awesome, but I'm not gonna lie, I don't even know what all these buttons do. Be a shame if you got a high C right in that pretty face!"

[horngeek]

Stronghold froze. Dammit. She did not want to end up tied up in the cargo hold, that would be embarrassing. And possibly dangerous.

On the other hand, that was a big gun, and possibly something to be cautious about. Sorry, did she say possibly? She meant definitely.

She focused, creating a construct in her mind. Fine control, letters again, as she very, very gingerly started to pull herself up. Then, her ring flashed- only for a moment- as letters appeared in front of Foreshadow.

Wildcard's got a gun trained on me.

Well, hopefully that would work.

[Electra]

Paige listened to Frances with half her attention as she tried to mentally prod the guards back to awareness. Not a single one budged, which set off a big red flag. Josh wasn't even a psychic, even with a boost from his cousin he shouldn't have been able to encourage anything more than a catnap. And his eyes... She couldn't help but shiver, staring into those angry eyes, somehow familiar and wrong all at once in that furious young face. She raised a hand to Frances in a "just a moment" gesture that was more suited to polite dinner conversation than a life-or-death standoff, and concentrated. 

 

"Verdammt flatscan mercenary, I should leave him behind when the plane goes! Now, for my traitorous daughter and her cocaine-addled thug of a husband!"

 

Paige's eyes flew open wide, her face draining of color as she stared at Jump. "...Father?" she blurted, her voice half-gasp. 

Edited October 27, 2014 by Electra

[Brown Dynamite]

Foreshadow read the message and stared out at the sky for a moment.  Well at least the guards have it easier inside the transport plane.  But who's flying the plane then? Foreshadow turned his body around and began swinging back and forth.  Aiming to actually aim himself upwards to scale the plane so he could break in from the front window.  Hopefully with some manner of stealth, and no manner of falling.  Which lined up well with what Foreshadow seemed to consider a plan.

 

Counting to three Foreshadow began to time his breaths.  "Alright, judges have their eyes peeled with anticipation.  Music's coming to a close.  Let's aim for a ten point oh."  The mantra was whispered silently to himself as he adjusted his center of gravity with the momentum.  Keeping as tight a hold as he could muster on his multi function escrima sticks.

[Avenger Assembled]

Paige's horror and distress leaked across her psychic link to Richard like curdled milk. Without stopping to think about it, he zipped between his wife and Joshua Psion, the implications of her words only sinking home once he'd done so. "Wait...what?!" 

 

For his part, Professor Parker Psion crossed his arms and hmphed, a look of begrudging respect that Paige had seen precious few times in her childhood. "Hmm. Your gifts have matured, then. Perhaps there is hope for you yet." Behind him, Aura turned so fast she nearly fell over, her hands still plastered against the cockpit doors but her eyes wide with shock.

 

"Wait a minute," exclaimed Frances. "What the hell is she talking about, J-" She looked Joshua in the eye, really in the eye, and seemed to see it too - perhaps because Frances Psion had seen that look of annoyance plenty of times. She fell silent, eyes wide and face suddenly flashing with a child's mortal terror. 

 

"Is it so strange? He was a traitor four, five times over, not only to the sacred cause of the new humanity but his own flesh and blood. Even you, my dear Paige, you never thought to inform on us to the authorities, or to the wretched Atoms."

[Electra]

"That just makes him braver than I was," Paige countered coldly, marshaling her scattered thoughts and throwing up every mental defense she could muster. "What did you do to him?" she demanded. "Is he still alive in there somewhere? I know you killed my brothers and sister, are you going after your own grandchildren now?" 

 

On a tight mental link to Richard, she sent ~Take him down whenever you get the opportunity. His focus isn't on you now, but he might try and take hold of you because it will hurt me.~ 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Welp," said Wildcard, shrugging as Stronghold neither came inside or responded. And then he pulled the trigger! A devastating blast of pure sound erupted from the muzzle of his big cannon that smashed Stronghold right in the face; blasting her backwards against the hatch so hard she felt ribs crack! And the blast went on and on, a soul-trembling eruption that penetrated her forcefield, her skin, and her very flesh until all the world was an all-encompassing eruption of sonic fury! Full of sub-sonics and ultrasonics as it was, the blast didn't deafen her, and so even as the world darkened around the edges she distinctly heard Wildcard declare, "Holy crap, THAT was the stun setting?" 

 

-

 

"Cowardice always was your weakness," sneered her father in agreement, no longer even bothering to disguise the arrogance and cold fury that penetrated to his very core. "Come, Ember," he said peremptorily. "It's time for the Psion Family to leave this place." 

 

"What family!?" Ember detonated, her hands on the seat as she rose to her feet - hands no longer wearing power nullifying manacles! "All of us, all these years, Just...just an old man and his whores!" Her eyes, and nothing else, burst into flames as she spoke, vaulting out of the seat and hovering in the air in the now-very crowded plane "TO HELL WITH YOU!"

 

"Goddamit!" yelled Coda. "You said she wouldn't be on fire!" And with that he leveled his blaster and opened fire on the renegade Psion! The sonic blasts smashed Ember against the ceiling, activating the fire suppression system and making masks drop everywhere while alarms began to frantically blare! 

[Brown Dynamite]

Foreshadow made his way forward across the stealth plane tip toeing along.  Crouching down he adjusted his grapnel launcher returning it to its escrima stick configuration.  Foreshadow didn't think twice about his plan of action leaning forward on the topmost part of the front windshield.  Raising both staves above his head the young man would slam down towards the glass.

 

And that was when things got crazy.  The glass immediately cracked, but it wasn't until Foreshadow rolled forward, slamming his back into the windshield, that it fully gave way.  However, the wind draft and his comparative lack of mass compared to the plane meant that he had to take on the full brunt of the momentum.  Crashing into the pilot's chair his body would crumple over the seat before being jettisoned towards a nearby wall.

 

Arching his back in pain Foreshadow remained vigilant.  Not even allowing a groan to escape his lips.  Hoping the sound of his body being thrown about hadn't taken away the element of surprise, he readied himself to creep further inside the aircraft.   Aiming to catch their foe off guard assuming Stronghold continued to keep him distracted.

Edited October 30, 2014 by HG Morrison

[Avenger Assembled]

Fast-Forward charged his erstwhile father-in-law, slipping past his wife with practiced speed towards the monster who had nearly taken her soul - and had tried to kill them both! In an episode of Supercrime!, he'd have easily laid the villain out with one punch across the jaw, but unfortunately real life wasn't like that. "Time to send you back to Hell, old man!" he snarled, a taunt that came straight from the heart but didn't seem to impress the elder statesman hiding in the younger man's body.

 

"Oh, please," Psion sneered, and he vanished before Richard's oncoming punch - reappearing just behind the speedster with a look of cold mockery on his face. "Look at you, boy, still a rage-filled child, just like your mother. Now-" and then he made eye contact with Fast-Forward and Richard felt the awesome power of that unleashed mind crashing down on his own small, pitiful brain no that's his thoughts in my head that's HIS thoughts. 

 

STRIKE YOUR WIFE! 

 

The words came with such awesome power that Richard actually turned, his entire body locked tight, - but screaming with a sudden fury, he punched the roof of the plane. The pain broke the bond, freeing his mind from psychic control. 

 

Meanwhile, in all the melee, Coda had vanished from view. Invisible and soundless, he was lost to the heroes until the sound of a sharp, sudden report came from where Ember was still struggling to get up off the floor, her flames burning with a fiery blue light that had already lit the carpet on fire where she'd landed. 

 

"MISSED ME, FLATSCAN!"

 

-

 

"Oh man, what a day..." Wildcard reached down and offered a hand to Stronghold, ultimately grabbing her by the scruff of the neck and pulling her entirely into the stealthplane, his cannon now slung across his back. "Flying the Maestroplane is fun and all, but man, you should have heard those Psion kids glaring at each other on the way out here, and that creep Coda just sharpening his damn knives all the time!" He yawned as he looked down at Stronghold. "Trust me, kid, you're better off up here. Now, you gonna surrender, or do I need to do the old double-tap?" 

[Brown Dynamite]

Foreshadow snuck up behind Wildcard listening to the update Wildcard was giving him of the situation.   Foreshadow engaged into a soft whisper from behind Wildcat.  "Please, tell me it's not really called the Maestroplane."  His voice enough to jerk the older gentleman into spinning around where he would be treated to a punch square on the nose.

 

Or at least it would have been right on the button.  If Wildcat didn't seemingly slip while still holding Stronghold, his forehead reducing the impact in a stroke of luck.  "Though creep?  Really isn't that a bit of the whole pot kettle situation Wildcat?"  Foreshadow was annoyed at this point.  He thought Ember was telling the truth when she claimed to have nothing to do with the break in.  But having just overheard the Psion's involvement in the whole affair, he could only jump to the conclusion that this was a classic family breakout.

[Brown Dynamite]

Foreshadow redrew his escrima sticks and smacked them together. "This is is probably gonna hurt you more than it hurts me."  Leaping up to the air Foreshadow would extend his arms outwards.  Catching himself with grooves on the sides of the corridor.  Thereby forming an impromptu horizontal ball, the hooded acrobat would began to twist in place before eventually launching himself over Wildcard.  Immediately rolling between the man's feet upon landing on the ground so as to return in front of him.

 

Foreshadow would follow this acrobatic display with a Kip up.  In which he performed what could only be described as a reverse superman (Centurion?) strike with his staves.  Striking Wildcard dead on with the brunt of his weapon.  But immediately positioning his escrima sticks so as to catch himself on the sides of the plane yet again.

 

As if he had a portable horizontal bar to avoid the assault as it came.  "How you holding up over there?"  The question was directed towards Stronghold.  Who frankly looked as if she had seen better days.

[horngeek]

Pain.  

 

Stronghold let out a noise somewhere between surprise and a whimper as she hit the wall, a crack from her chest at the sonic blast giving her... any number of not-good indicators.  

 

On the other hand, now she knew what it was like to crack and/or break a rib!  Not pleasant.

 

Okay.  Something rib, that needed looking at later.  Not now.  There was still still Wildcard.  Biiiig, attention-grabbing Wildcard- oh.  That wasn't good.  That's not good at all, because Wildcard was enough of a threat by himself.  

 

Haukea shook off most of the pain.  If she was right, they needed to deal with Wildcard quickly, because he was still a threat enough to need dealing with.  The Orange Ring shone as she formed and launched an orange punch of energy- and just before it hit, a shift and a flare of pain caused it to destabalise enough for Wildcard to dodge.  "Don't... worry... about... me."

[Electra]

Despite the cramped confines of the plane, despite Ember's flashy display of power and noise, Paige barely paid attention to what was happening around her. Her eyes were locked on her father's, her hands clenched into fists tight enough  for her nails to leave deep imprints in her palms. As she stared, blackness crept over the surface of her eyes, swirling in like stormclouds to obscure the warm brown with the shiny patina of an oil slick. "You're a monster," she told Parker, her voice gravelly and just a bit more resonant than usual, "but you haven't finished killing this one yet. He's still in there. We're going to get him out, even if we have to rip you to shreds doing it." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"How DARE you!" Wildcard threw a wild kick at Foreshadow, launched without any sort of finesse or evident training, that nonetheless nearly hit him right in the nose. "Ohhhh, I see how it is! Just an innocent prison break for somebody's little cousin and you so-called heroes come along and burgle my stealth jet when I'm just trying to watch the game! Well, we'll see whose goodies get ransacked, you no-good do-gooders," he sneered. It was hard to tell, between the bruises on his face and the way he was clutching his ribs, how much he meant his words - but he certainly seemed to be putting his heart and soul into them. "What did you do, fly here in your Foreshadowjet?" he taunted Foreshadow as he began to bring the big cannon over his shoulder to bear. "Well, I bet a lucky shot can take you down!" 

[Brown Dynamite]

Foreshadowjet.  Foreshadowmobile.  This is David's fault somehow.  Or the Raven's.  Foreshadow nonchalantly tapped his feet on the ground before whistling in appreciation at the wayward kick.  It was close, too close for comfort.  "Nah, I just ran along the top of your plane, broke your window, and jumped inside."

 

As he spoke foreshadow began to connect both half of the escrima sticks together.  Pushing a button on the side to extend them to their full length and twirling the staff around his body.  Continuing the conversation in his casual demeanor.  "Careful with your toys.  Someone's liable to break them if you don't keep a close eye on them.  Then again how good are your eyes?"

 

As soon as the question escaped his lips, Foreshadow jolted the staff forward.  Slipping underneath Wildcard's leg and pulling back in a fluid motion to sweep the criminal right off his feet.  Moving with a quickness Foreshow would send the tip of his Bo Staff towards Wildcard's head while prone on the ground.  Unfortunately Wildcard saw the attack coming.  Years of crazed experience or perhaps a whole lot of luck allowed him to move his head to the side before the staff made contact.  Instead hitting the ground harmlessly. 

 

"Well wasn't that lucky?"

[horngeek]

"Lucky... my ass..."

 

Stronghold winced.  Good.  He was on the ground, she could hit him with some sort of bind.  

 

As she concentrated, she winced a little at the pain.  It was still making stuff... a bit fuzzy.  Hard to conentrate.  She didn't like her chances of getting back down into the plane once this was over.  

 

And to think this all started with her just having a fun flight.  At least she hadn't been laid out with an axe this time.  The armor had done some good work, there.  

 

However, the pain caused the orange straitjacket she conjured to miss Wildcard, appearing in the air about two meters to the left of the criminal before she dismissed it.  "Argh... sorry..."

[Avenger Assembled]

Aura turned from her position by the door, her mind evidently made up. "Where's my sister!" she demanded. "You said she'd be on this plane! You said she was getting her mind twisted like Paige!" She put her hand to her temple and concentrated, glaring at Josh Psion intently - and then gasped, staggering backwards until her back hit the cockpit door as blood began pouring from her nose. "Augh! What did you-" 

 

"You think I didn't learn the lesson of the last generation?" demanded Professor Psion. "I have made sure that each and every one of you have mental blocks against raising your powers against me! Even in this body!" His jaw was set, his eyes flashing. "When this is done, these lessons can be unlearned and you can return to being loyal soldiers in the war to come. The family will come first! The family will survive!" 

[Avenger Assembled]

When the Professor turned back, Fast-Forward was frantically tracing glowing sigils in the air, a desperate arcane throw that turned into a malignant glow! Staring in surprise at the shape, Psion felt his limbs begin to stiffen - looking down at his body, he saw his hard-won flesh suddenly transforming into cold grey stone! "What?I This can't be happening! How can you-" But his jaw was already stiffening and his body growing immobile, even as he heard Aura's abortive cry behind him. 

 

"Because I'm the fastest man alive, dumbass!" yelled Fast-Forward as the cursed light of Algol shone over Jump and Aura alike, transforming the both of them into solid stone statues. "That's not gonna hold a telepath long, honey!" he called to Paige. "Take him out fast and hard!" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Knock me on my ass, will you? said Wildcard as he quickly hauled himself to his feet. "Well, we'll see whose ass in trouble here, you buttheads!" he added with a laugh, recovering his good humor as he aimed his gigantic cannon at the teenager with the power ring.

"I'll blast you right in that ass!" declared Wildcard, firing another screaming burst of sound directly at Stronghold! But this time the gun jerked wild and hit the metal above her head as it pulled up and to the right, digging a visible groove in the metal of the plane (and making both structures shake ominously) but without actually hitting either of the two heroes. "Whoops!" he added, looking startled at his own miss for a moment before he said with a tentative smile, "Wellll...call it a draw?" 

[Brown Dynamite]

Foreshadow separated both halves of his escrima sticks into two separate pieces once more.  "Truce?  Well seeing as you just threatened to blast us in the, how did you so elegantly put this, in the ass?  I think we'll pass."  With that Foreshadow tossed both Escrima sticks into the air over Wildcard.  Using the opportunity to roll underneath the villain while his eyes were distracted.  

 

Using his precognitive awareness to catch both staves while moving to a kneeling position behind Wildcard.  Foreshadow then quickly stood up and smacked his escrima sticks towards the previously cackling Wildcard.  "Clapping" them together with Wildcard's head as an intervening barrier.  If not for the fact that quick bit of movement made his grip so as to reduce the impact, it would have been a significant hit.  As it were, the strikes still managed to hurt, but Wildcard was left more conscious than Foreshadow.

 

"Whoops."  Foreshadow quoted coyly.  Only his was more of a barbed taunt than regret over almost wrecking the plane.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Nice one, Uncle Dick!" declared Ember, floating in the air above the cabin and shouting over the sound of alarms and deployed masks. She was on fire now and burning a brilliant blue, so hot that she'd surely kill any of the now semi-conscious guards if she so much as touched them. But her eyes weren't on them; they were on the stoned grandfather possessing her cousin's body and on the invisible assassin who was after her. "Hey flatscan," she taunted suddenly. "Can you FLY?" And with that she turned and hurled a ball of fire directly at the floor beneath her feet! Fire flash-scorched through aluminum and plastic and suddenly there was a gaping crater in the side of the suddenly wildly jerking plane! 

 

Upstairs, a staggering Wildcard looked up in shock as alarms began blaring in his cockpit and the stealth plane vibrated violently, veering back and forth under their feet like a bucking bronco. "Oh maaaan they let the crazy one out!" 

 

A half-visible Coda didn't even have time to scream as he plunged down through the burning crater in the middle of the airplane and out of sight. "Happy landings!" Ember taunted, heedless of the flames that had begun to lick at the uniforms of her former guards. 

 

The plane jerked again, and suddenly the rocky form of Professor Psion tilted forward and bowled over Fast-Forward! Cursing, the speedster tried to extricate himself from being pinned beneath the stony form of his worst enemy - but instead the two of them slid backwards and plunged right through the burning hole after Coda!

 

<CRAP!> came Richard's alarmed, but not frightened, thoughts into Paige's mind as the wind took him and he began to fall. 

[horngeek]

Stronghold let out a grunt of pain as the plane began rocking.  That... couldn't be good on any number of levels.  She could figure what was going on in the plane, of course.  Ember'd gotten out of whatever restraints they had her in.  "We... don't... have... time for this!"

 

The Orange Ring gleamed again as she formed another construct- no subtlety this time.  She didn't have the time, or the spare focus to get an elaborate arrow up or anything like that, she just... needed to hit him with a rock.  Construct-rock.  

 

Whatever.  She launched the construct... just as another rocking of the plane shifted her again, causing yet another spike of pain and causing the construct to dissolve.  "Argh!"

[Electra]

"Frances Psion!" Paige snapped in an extremely mom voice, "You get your uncle back in this plane right now! That's not how you fight in a moving vehicle!" Turning, she grabbed hold of Aura before the paralyzed telepath could start sliding as well. Snagging a set of handcuffs from one of the still-sleeping security escort, she briskly cuffed the young woman to the nearest seat, arms behind her back. As she work, she cast about with her mind for her father's distinctive mental signature, wondering if he'd dare teleport back to the plane for a second go at his "rescue" mission. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Of course, Frances hadn't been raised nearly as well as Paige's actual kids.

 

"Screw you!" Frances yelled at Paige, but peering down through the hole psychically Hologram could see that her erstwhile niece was indeed making a beeline for her tumbling husband - who had separated himself from the stony form of her father but was tumbling almost out of control! Frances was even kind enough to dial back her flaming aura as she grabbed onto the speedster. Paige could feel Richard's fear settle down to anger, a feeling that was very common among the waking occupants of the plane! 

 

As she moved on to other matters, Paige could find no sign of her father wherever she scanned - given Josh's teleportation range, he might have fled the scene altogether. That seemed out-of-character for her father when family matters were at stake - but then this had been a day for learning her father was willing to do all sorts of things she'd never have believed possible. Just before she pulled back to concentrate her attention on handcuffing Aura into place, the girl's stony skin beginning to soften already, she distinctly caught sight of an uncannily familiar shape forming below - an Atomcraft dropping a cloaking device! 

 

"There, here he is!" Ember practically dropped Richard on the deck. "Sorry!" she added sulkily. "What are you...hey, let Aura go! We have to get out of here before the pigs wake up! Or before he comes back!"