ic Everybody's Fool

[Electra]

~Richard, get in touch with whoever is in the Atom ship down there, let them know what's going on. Make sure they know that Jump is their only target, and they goddamn well better be aiming to capture.~ 

 

"Where the hell are you planning on going, Frances?" Paige demanded of her niece, after a moment of locking eyes with her husband. "You know you can't go home, not anymore. You've got no contacts that don't come through him, and you know whose side they're going to take if you try and tap them for help. You've got no money, you'll be a wanted fugitive, and he just told you how much he values your life. Father was never one to leave loose ends untied if he thought they might cause problems later. It took me a decade after I ran just to feel safe at night again. And when I ran, I was homeless. I lived in a shopping mall. I had nothing."

 

She took a step towards Ember, trusting the cuffs and the paralysis to hold Aura for the moment. "He'll come after you. You, and Gwendolyn too, just because she wanted out. Josh is worse than dead if we don't help him. And what about the little ones? You think he's got his eye on Gimel for his next new body when Josh's wears out? This is family, Frances, just like you were talking about. If you want to help them, you've got to play ball with the heroes. They'll help us stop him, help us get Josh back. If you stay, you get to be a part of that, even if it means you have to spend some time in jail. If you run now, well, I can't really stop you, can I? But you're running out on your family."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Screw this noise, I'm outta here!" declared Wildcard. "I hope you like this next number, it has a KICK to it!" He did a backflip over Stronghold's attack and snapped his leg out in a perfect sidekick, catching the orange ringbearer directly over the temple. "Lights out, honey-...hey, ow!" he declared as his foot bounced off her force field and left the teenager completely unhurt. "Oh come on!" he called out to the unfair world all around! 

[Brown Dynamite]

The moment Wildcard bounced off Foreshadow had already begun sprinting forward to catch him from behind.    "How's this for punchline?"   The first blow was a welcoming shot.  An escrima stick to the lower back that was only delivered with precision and no force.  Enticing the crazed jokester to turn around swinging the giant 'bass canon'.  Only no one would be there, as Foreshadow quickly bent backwards showing the full reach of his flexibility to easily avoid the attack.

 

Foreshadow's second through fourth blows were quick as lightning.  Striking Wildcard directly in the liver repeatedly.  As he bent forward clutching his side, the acrobatic hero actually kicked the villain's leg out from under him.  Bringing him to knees.  Again Wildcard tried swinging, and again no one was home as Foreshadow flipped over him before Wildcard could look back up.  

 

*THUD*

 

The escrima stick was sent downwards in a flash of motion.  The fifth and final strike catching Wildcard right in the temple, his body crumpling over like a sack of potatoes.  Without missing a beat Foreshadow turned towards Stronghold and began speaking.  "Alright, we're going to have to be quick.  Sounds like Ember's feeling tempermental.  Don't know why, but it's her breakout attempt and all so sanity probably went out the window.  I'm going to detach the planes from one another.  If you could please check what's going on out there."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Unless we find him and end him, right now!"  Ember fired back, her fiery aura dialing down a fraction to a cooler, merciless red. "God, he must have been planning this for years! All the times I told him he had to kick Josh's ass for running out on the family and he told me to mind my own place...he was just waiting till Josh was old enough he wouldn't get carded anymore! I don't care if I get a backlash from it, I will burn him down to his bones for what he did to us!" 

 

"But Josh is still in there!" Aura was still stone, albeit visibly 'thawing', but an illusory version of the Eurasian telepath had joined the conversation, standing alongside her frozen self. "If you kill the body, you kill Josh too!" 

 

It took a palpable effort by Richard to slip past the others and head inside the cockpit to find the radio, as he very much did not want to leave his wife's side in the middle of this confrontation with her family. But he did so anyway, unlocking the cockpit door and briefly introducing himself to the startled pilots before taking up a seat at the aviation radio. "Atomcraft, Atomcraft, this is Skyair 314, Fast-Forward speaking. Your target is Jump Psion, repeat, Jump Psion - his body is being puppeteered by Professor Psion. Capture him, do not kill him..." 

 

He tried again, and again, as Ember spoke again. "Don't you see, dammit, it could have been you! Or me! This could have happened to any one of us!" It was hard to tell how much she believed her next words. "Josh wouldn't want to live like that. Better to end it fast - and end HIM for good." She looked at Paige. "It was bad for you then, but look at you now! And that was when he was alive!"

 

~They're not picking up, honey,~ said Richard tersely over his mental link with Paige. ~Not even sure if they have normal radios in those damned things...and I barely made it up here from ground-level. I can _try_ the magic two-step over there...~

 

-

 

On the upper tier, Stronghold suddenly heard a cry of sudden pain in her mind, the unmistakable voice of Chase Atom - and then silence. 

[Electra]

"We don't know how Father did what he did," Paige pointed out at the top of her lungs. At the back of the plane they were out of range of the hole's suction, but it was still making a godawful amount of noise.  "Or how he managed to suppress Josh's mind and jump in. But I suspect that if he did it once, he probably had a backup plan going as well. Maybe it was posthypnotic suggestion, maybe it's just what happens when you train someone's mind since birth, but if he did it to Josh, he can probably do it to someone else as well. Maybe any of you, maybe even from a distance. Josh was the body he wanted, maybe because he was least loyal, but probably because he's male and Father's always been a sexist bigot. While he's got Josh, he won't take any of you unless he thinks he's going to die. If you go after him guns blazing, all bets are off." Paige shrugged one shoulder. "Plus he's got that teleporting thing, no reason you're going to get within half a mile of him between that and his telepathy. You can't do this on your own!" 

 

~I don't know why the Atoms constantly have to make everything so damn difficult,~ she groused in her head to Richard, even as she carried on her conversation aloud. ~Let me see if I can get in touch without them completely freaking out and shooting the plane. Speaking of which, are we all about to die with the plane in the shape it's in? I'm feeling kind of lightheaded, and we may need to deploy oxygen masks if we can't lose some altitude.~ 

 

 "One second, girls, gotta make a call," she told her nieces, then closed her eyes to concentrate, searching for minds in the newly-decloaked ship. 

[horngeek]

Stronghold winced at the psychic cry of pain, before looking up at Foreshadow.  "I don't think anything good's going on out there.  I... I got a heads-up from the Atoms, that they thought someone was going to tip off Ember.  And Chase Atom just... um... well, psychic equivalent of crying out in pain, and he's not saying anything.  So, don't think it's good, no."

 

She floated her way out of the open hatch, making sure to keep close to the planes, before looking for an open door to get into the plane by- and taking note of the Atom-plane now here.  What to do, what to do... check on Ember first.  The plane hadn't blown up yet, so maybe someone was keeping her from doing so somehow.  Maybe she couldn't do much to help, but she could at... least try and see what she could do.  

 

Ah.  Door.  She made her way in, wincing.  "Um, hi, I-"

 

She stopped.  

 

...wait.  Hologram and Fast-Forward.  A.k.a. Mr. and Mrs. Cline, aka the parents of Will.  

 

And the last time she'd met them, she'd gotten brained by a flying axe.  They looked like they were... talking down Ember.  Huh.  She... didn't know that was possible, but okay.  And... wait.  Mrs. Cline was telepathic too, wasn't she?  "Um... I think Chase Atom might be in trouble below us.  He was in telepathic contact with me, and I just got a... well, kinda yell of pain before it cut off.  I was just, uh, checking to see if I could help here with..."  Okay, that was a free Ember Psion, no harm in being polite- "Miss Psion before I went to see if he needed help, but, uh..."

[Avenger Assembled]

Inside the cockpit, Foreshadow was confronted by a variety of sights - most of them not very reassuring. The controls were easy enough to understand. It looked as though Wildcard had hand-written some notes to himself and stuck them on various unlabeled panels to indicate how to steer the plane, how to operate what he had labeled as "the clawwwww!" complete with hand-sketched green aliens, and all the rest. But various display warnings were frantically flashing as he took his seat - the plane beneath them had taken damage from an onboard explosion (the beeping graphic actually said EMBER PSION) and was losing air - they needed to drop down below 12,000 feet and fast! Worse, though, was the Atomcraft that had just dropped a cloaking device and was powering towards them at full speed. 

 

Normally, of course, the arrival of other superheroes was a good thing. But then again, Foreshadow _was_ psychic...

[Brown Dynamite]

Foreshadow's predecessor didn't exactly have a working relationship with the Atoms.  Let alone much of one with anyone else.  But, as far as he could recall there especially wasn't a frequent associated the Atoms.  It didn't hurt that David didn't let anyone know he was psychic.  But, from Erick's recollection the man really didn't want to get up in that tense family feud between the 'terrorists' and the 'first family of adventurers.'

 

None of the irony was lost on Foreshadow.  Whether it was the fact that he likely represented the Psion ideal.  Or the fact that he was about to get involved. All of it made for a bad day.  Personally, Erick didn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole either.  He didn't know much about either party on a personal level other than Ember was certifiable.  However, his personal misgivings aside not only did people still need help he assumed Chase Atom's little psychic cry of pain meant the man should possibly be added to the list.  Crap, let's hope he didn't have some sort of psychic anneuryms.

 

"At least it's never boring"  Foreshadow began looking around for anything that looked as if it could work as a Communications system.  If he could get contact with the prisoner's transport.  He could maybe talk to them about trying to lower the planes as one unit while still attached to the claw.  If Ember Psion in big flashing letters was any indication the transport plane should probably not be descending on its power yet.

[Electra]

Paige opened her eyes at Stronghold's words, but she didn't seem to notice the hero's arrival at all. "Bad news, guys, I found him. He's in the Atomcraft, he already took out Chase and is mind controlling Whatsername, Tessa, into doing something with the plane we're probably not going to enjoy. We've got to cut him off before he gets his hooks any deeper into her. I could use your help," she told Aura, studying the projection of her still-restrained psychic niece. "Stopping him is the only way to save Josh." 

 

Belatedly, Paige looked up and noticed the new arrival to their little powwow. "What the heck are you doing here?" she demanded of Stronghold. 

[horngeek]

Stronghold winced.  "Um.  Chase Atom.  I was having some fun flying around when he contacted me-"  Stronghold tapped the side of her head, indicating how- "and told me he suspected a break-out for, uh, miss Ember."

 

She looked around.  "It, uh... Foreshadow and I went up to the plane that latched on, and it was being flown by Wildcard.  He's down now, so I came down to see how I could help.  Especially with that psychic cry I got from Chase Atom.  I don't know exactly what's going on, but..."

 

Haukea's gaze turned to Paige.  "I'll help any way I can."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'll...I'll do it," declared Aura, or at least the projected version of her. "I can find Tesla's mind while you channel your power through me - Argent and I-" Pain flashed in the identical twin's eyes before she pressed on, shouting like Paige over the sound of the screaming plane for a moment before reverting to mental communication. *we used to it all the time!* she managed bravely, though through the mental link Hologram could feel the grief in the younger woman's mind. Even knowing Argent was alive and well hadn't changed where she was; evidently Aura had been more willing to let go than her twin. *You'd better take my hand...*

 

-

 

"I have you on my speakers, Foreshadow," came the voice of the prison plane's pilot - Captain Lamar, it was. "And we can begin a descent on your signal, but we have taken heavy structural damage and we can't-holy mother of God!" Suddenly the Atomcraft was roaring towards them at breakneck speed, and only a wild twist on the stick saved them from a near-miss collision. There was a distinct rumbling from below, and then "Dammit! We took too much damage here, Foreshadow, I don't even know if she'll fly on her own!" 

 

-

 

"You gonna party, or what?" shouted Ember, her voice a challenge as she stepped out of the plane and into the air! Stronghold could feel the heat even through her force field as Ember took to the sky, her body producing enough heat to let her fly on the air currents below. Visible through the dirty windows of the plane, it looked like the wildly spinning Atomcraft was coming around for another pass. 

 

For his part, Fast-Forward had stayed busy with the oxygen equipment - making sure that all the civilians were on the plane's oxygen equipment, and that portables were in place on the still-stony Aura and Hologram as well. Without a system of his own, he zipped away back to the cockpit and tried to slow his breathing. 

 

Not much place for speed here...

[Brown Dynamite]

"Good thing we're not flying alone then Captain.  We'll do this as one.  You count us off and I'll maneuver when you do."  He looked out the broken window at the odd sight of the Atomcraft being flown horribly likely coming round again.  Okay.  That just brings up a host of questions.

 

The Maestroplane was roomy.  But, not so comfortable so as to be an ideal prisoner transport.  It may have been a bit early to plan for the eventuality of trying to move the prisoners and guards from the other plane on to this one.  Yet, it also seemed like a foregone conclusion at this point.  It's a good thing Stronghold seemed to be able to create constructs with her ring.

 

Constructs such as some sort of sky bridge to walk across for those on board.  "Tell me when you're ready to descend.  Keep an eye on the Atoms.  Something's going on there."  

[Electra]

~Thank you, Aura. Just follow my lead.~ Paige adjusted her own oxygen mask, then reached out and lifted Aura's limp and paralyzed hand. She squeezed it once, reassuringly, then gathered up her own mental energy along with her niece's and flung them both into the void. Black tendrils of energy began to seep from her body, flowing out of her closed eyes like tears, dripping in rivulets off her fingers and through the floor of the plane. In seconds they were outside, pierced by the subzero winds, in another instant back inside another plane, this one much warmer and less perforated than the one they'd just left.

 

The black energy slid over Tesla Atom's boots, ran up her body like water flowing backwards, and disappeared into her ears. ~You've done your best to destroy two families, Father,~  Paige sent in a firm, even tone. ~You'll have none of us anymore. Get out!~ With all of her strength, and all of Aura's strength, she gave a massive shove, pushing Parker Psion back into the stolen body of his grandson. 

 

In a softer voice, she added, ~It's all right, Tessa, you're free. You have to put the plane back on the ground and get help for your brother.~ 

[Avenger Assembled]

The Atomcraft skidded wildly in the air for a moment, then was suddenly headed downwards - and fast! It wasn't an out of control descent yet, but it looked like Tesla was trying to set herself down almost immediately. Behind the wheel of the capture plane overhead, Foreshadow was faced with a tough choice of his own, the prison plane belowdecks almost certainly wasn't going to hold together till they made it to the airport. He had to get these planes on the ground, ASAP, trusting that the clamps down below would hold up his own plane's weight once they were on the ground. He could try for a smooth landing in one of those farmer's fields below, following in Tesla's footsteps, or shoot for one of the many straight stretches of highway he could see below. The former would get them out of the sky the fastest, but would certainly be more demanding on him as a pilot. In the sky, Stronghold and Ember Psion kept pace with the flying planes; though after a moment the latter began a direct pursuit of the descending Atoms.

[Brown Dynamite]

Foreshadow wasn't seeking to reinvent the wheel. The highway was mighty inviting.  And would also be the easier of the two to get local assistance to arrive in.  But, every second airborne was another second they were at risk.  The farm land had expediency if not the more dangerous option. Of course Foreshadow was just confident enough to think the risk factor a nonfactor.  "Alright boys.  We're going down hard and fast.  Prepare for an emergency landing."

 

Maneuvering towards a corn field, Foreshadow flew with the intention of making a hard landing.  It was hard to say how reliable the other plane's landing gear was at the moment.  But, with the Atomcraft being flown very oddly last he checked.  And the highways being further away.  Diving down at a high velocity just felt right.

[Electra]

Paige bit back a curse as Jump's possessed body disappeared again, teleporting god-only-knew where. At least the planes were starting to descend, and in a reasonably controlled manner given the circumstances. After a quick brush of Tesla's mind, just to be sure she was in a fit state to be flying, Paige gathered up her niece's energy once more and launched herself back across the void and into the plane that held their real bodies. Paige's real body was suffering more than a little at the moment; the emergency oxygen provided by the mask was nearly exhausted by now, her hands and face felt more than a little frostnipped, and her ears were ready to explode from the rapid descent. Checking to make sure her seatbelt was secure, she began broadcasting to everyone on both planes and in the adjacent airspace. 

 

~The Atomcraft is secure. Professor Psion has escaped for now, but we'll track him down. Everyone who can, assume the brace position for landing.~ She pushed the image over the link of a little man belted into an airplane seat, hands braced on the headrest of the seat in front of him, forehead resting just below his crossed wrists. Tightening the band of her mental transmission as she leaned forward and took her own advice, she sent just to Richard, ~I love you.~ 

[Avenger Assembled]

~I love you too, baby.~

 

And then there was the shock of impact, first of the landing gear hitting the half-frozen earth, then the ominous crunch as the clamps holding the prison transport tightened around the aluminium of the small jet. But Foreshadow's guess paid off; both craft held as they churned up soil and brown grass, skidding madly along until the final impact just short of the local county road. Peering up from the pilot seat of the larger craft, Foreshadow could see the Atomcraft had made its landing just across the way, scattering a small herd of dairy cattle as it landed just across the way. 

 

Peeling himself out of the seat where he'd buckled in an instant before the crash, Fast-Forward's feet hit the deck; and he reconned. He ran around the plane, the field, and over to the Atomcraft, before returning to Paige's side just as she was unbuckling herself. "Atom kids are OK; even Chase is waking up. No sign of...your dad." He moved to checking on the now-awakening prison guards and other prisoners, glad to see everyone had come through the crash with no more than bumps and bruises. "It's Foreshadow up there," he commented to Hologram, "must have shown up after all." Her job done, the now-unstoned Aura was getting to her feet, looking around the cabin nervously. 

 

Outside, Stronghold and Ember Psion landed just a few feet apart from each other, facing each other warily near the fallen planes. 

[horngeek]

Stronghold paused for a while.  Okay.  Ember Psion staring her down.  That was a thing.  She really didn't have good luck with established... anythings, did she?  Got knocked out by a flying axe from a flunky of Medea, got... actually, the whole Collective thing worked out, got a friend from that.  

 

So.  What to say, what to say.  Preferably something that didn't end up with an angry possibly crazy (scratch that, just crazy) trying to burn her.  

 

"Um... listen, we should probably check the plane.  Some of your family's in there, some of them might be hurt, and if they are, they're going to need help.  I'm not interested in fighting or anything, not now."

[Electra]

Paige rose to her feet with some help from her husband, one hand pressed to her forehead. "I'm definitely getting too old for this," she told Richard ruefully. "Who'd have thought you and I would end up not only heroes, but middle-aged heroes?" She looked around the cabin, then extended a hand to Aura. "Come on," she encouraged, "it'll be all right. You helped save the day, remember? I'll talk to anybody who might want to make trouble, and we can find you a place to stay if you'd like. Gwen will be happy to see you again, she's missed you." 

[Brown Dynamite]

Foreshadow moved to lock the door to the cockpit of the Maestroplane.  If Wildcard regained consciousness he didn't want him getting any ideas.  If there was no issue, the acrobatic hero would make his exit with haste.  Which would take rather little time considering the window was shattered from when he jumped through it.

 

Regardless of any difficulty he had in moving about, Foreshadow would make sure to shout out before exiting into the tense atmosphere.  "This is your captain speaking.  Thank you for flying air Foreshadow.  Sorry about the landing, but it was either here or hoping for an empty highway"

 

He hoped Ember Psion's next staged escape attempt was a quiet one at least.  Still unsure as to why the Crime League went so far as to stage this airborne escape, at least the Psions made sense.  One big, happy, and crazy family.  One would think they'd at least calm down some with Professor Psion being dead.  But, maybe that made the potential separation all the harder. 

[Avenger Assembled]

"You go ahead and do that, then," shot back Ember, her eyes hard as she locked her gaze with Stronghold's. A curl of flame around a humanoid shape, she paced like a caged tiger between the Atomcraft and the crashed plane. When her grandfather didn't appear, she called out to the air, flames flashing from her nose and mouth in red and yellow curls. "Coward! You miserable, backstabbing, coward!" She added more words then, obscenities in English and Yiddish that scorched the very air. "Behold, the leader of the New Race!" she added in a taunt, gesturing to open air.

 

-

 

"The middle-aged is the best part," said Richard in a rare admission. "The hero stuff is just icing on the cake." He hugged his wife, glad they'd come through yet another wild day with their skins intact. Can't believe I fell out an airplane! He zipped around, checking on the injured people and helping guards and prisoners alike get unstrapped and out of the damaged plane. He left Ember for Hologram to deal with, knowing she was far better at talking down her unstable niece than himself. 

 

"Thanks, kid," he told Stronghold warmly, "you're all right."

 

And with that he zipped up the side of the plane to meet Foreshadow, blinking as he came up through a hole in the window. "Did you fly this thing with the window out? That's radical, man!" he said admiringly, figuring the man must have used some kind of Foreshadow Jetpack to get up there. "Nice. Fast-Forward," he said, offering a hand to shake.  

[Brown Dynamite]

"The hard part was throwing myself through the window in the first place."  At this the corner of Foreshadow's lips broke into a little smile before returning the handshake.  "Foreshadow.  Big fan by the way, the season premiere with the dinosaurs was classic."  As much as part of Foreshadow wanted to take another second to discuss Supercrime!  It was hard not to address the screaming woman in the air.

 

"So...I'm guessing the Psions who engineered this breakout have been dealt with.  Can't help feel as if I'm missing something based on that long string of obscenities Ember calls dialogue."  He really was a bit lost.  It seemed the situation was back to her not working in tandem with her rescuers.  Even if Foreshadow couldn't for the life of him figure out why there was such snap to her tone, aside from it being Ember being Ember.

Edited January 26, 2015 by HG Morrison

[Avenger Assembled]

Aura suddenly burst into tears, big, messy sobs like a child's. That was no surprise - Paige knew from personal experience how much Psion liked to keep his children children. Evidently he'd learned his lesson about leadership. She hugged Paige and buried her face in her shoulder, and through her tears said, "I just want to see Argent again! I miss her so much! I can't take being apart anymore!" 

 

- 

 

"Yeah...." For a moment, a short moment, Richard wasn't entirely sure how to describe this one. "Professor Psion's not dead," he finally said, sharing what seemed to be the most pertinent information. "The bastard stole Jump Psion's body and did God knows what with the kid's head. He came for Ember - but Aura and Ember both stayed when Hologram figured out what he did. He tried to tag the Atoms on his way out, but Aura and Hologram got in his head and got him out...hang on, did you really climb up the side of the plane?" he added. "Damn!" 

 

-

 

Outside, Tesla Atom had left the Atomcraft to confront Ember - the two women were glaring at each other, force fields lit, and tension growing. 

[Electra]

"Shh, it's all right," Paige soothed, patting Aura's back and shushing her like she would Holly. "She misses you too, I can take you to see her. You'll both be happier together, I'm sure. And I'll be able to introduce you to your other cousins, my two kids. They're sixteen and eight now, and they've never had a chance to meet the rest of the family. It'll be nice. I know things don't look good right now, but we can fix it, we always manage in the end. Come on now, let's get off the plane and back onto solid ground  awhile." 

 

Taking Aura's arm, Paige escorted her from the plane, making it clear without words that she was not going to tolerate any of the reviving guards causing them any trouble. She winced slightly at the sight that confronted them outside the plane. "Tesla! Francis! Both of you stand down right this instant!" she snapped. "We have a common enemy to be dealing with, and both of you are letting petty grudges stand in the way!" 

[Brown Dynamite]

"It seemed like the best way to sneak up on Wildcard."  Foreshadow responded matter of factly.  "Not dead.  Body jacking.  Out of any Atom or Psion's  head."  He openly reviewed the information given to him.  It was crazy, but the normal kind of crazy that one runs into when punching criminals in a costume.

 

Note to self, be doubly sure on keeping the whole precognitive thing a secret from Psion.  There was the question of Professor Psion's current whereabouts.  Psychic echo or whatever he was now.  He likely was still around.  Somewhere or in someone.  Though Ember's taunts made more sense now.  So that was something.

 

Ember.  He had his doubts on her willingness to be re-handcuffed after all was said and done.  But that was a later problem.  "So shall we go join Hologram and I guess Aura, or is the situation all but handled."