Shard's will, his sense of self really is strong. As Psyche hammered into him with her mind, she could feel his sense of superiority, the way he instinctively felt in charge, the need he had to bend all matters to his will, all of it seeped into her mind as well.
Just as well she was thoroughly practiced in setting aside such urges.
***
She could feel the tension, the alarm, the controlled fear of her team. I'll be there soon. But how soon? She was fast, but maybe there was a way to be faster.
The portal that had appeared beneath her was strange. She hadn't sensed it coming at all, would have absolutely fallen in if not for Shin. It felt almost like the rest of the world to her. Almost identical, just the difference between black and white, up and down.
She'd never done it before, but something inside of her whispered a familiar promise You can do this too.
A key turned.
A lock opened.
She was gone.
She was there.
In her mind there was nothing but a feeling that this was... right. But to others' eyes, as her own portal opened beneath her, she dissolved, melting away into the same magenta energy that burst forth from her flesh, only to rebuild herself from that energy on the other side.
Her eyes dimmed with effort as she stretched her powers up, holding the roof and walls in place. Leaving her safe inside with Gallowglass and Isaiah - and somewhere, Salamander.
Rory stands up from his collision looking like a newborn giraffe, he puts his hand up and says, "I'm good," but no sooner than the words leave his lips, his knees buckle and he collapses on top of Shard.
Isaiah took in all that had happened. Apparently the others had managed to handle themselves; Inqiury quickly turned around and started heading back, ready to fly in pursuit of escapees or provide transportation.
Isaiah, meanwhile, needed to find a way to deal with Salamander. Preferably while keeping Gallowglass and Psyche unburned. And where had Haymaker gotten off to? One thing at a time. Perhaps he could convince Salamander to stand down before anyone else got hurt.
"Alright Salamander, listen up. We know you're in there, we've got you outnumbered, and our backup is on the way. Your flying friends have already fled without you. We could keep fighting, but I'd rather not have to hurt anyone else today. How about you just stand down and surrender, and nobody else has to burn, freeze, or lose their limbs. I'll even throw in a few informational pamphlets on various productive and profitable uses for fire breath if you want."
Holly wriggles, before noticing the altitude. This won't work. Holly says You've made a huge tactical error
And what's that? Airfoil says, gripping her tighter to prevent her from slipping from his grasp
I'm sure my team will catch me. how about you She says, as a shard drives itself into Airfoils flight-pack, and both heroine and villain go tumbling towards earth.
"Bear, out!" Gallowglass shouts, as she ducks and weaves through the falling debris.
They make it out moments before the roof collapses.
Looking over, she sees Isaiah offering Salamander a chance to surrender.
She nocks an arrow, aims for the fiery villain, and waits for his response.
Horizon walks close to Ballista and sees that she's stunned at Shard being taken down.
"I understand if you don't want to fight them, but I don't want anyone else to end up seriously hurt today," He tells her.
Then Frostbite woozily steps out of his fastball special and collapses.
"Too late," Hoshiko says.
Shin studies her youthful face, full of uncertainty. He's sure that she's wavering in between fleeing in an effort to save herself and trusting Horizon. She looks at him expectantly, and seems to want assurances that he'll prevent her from being incarcerated in one of the major facilities designed to house dangerous supervillains.
"With Shard down, I don't think they'll stick around. I don't know if I could--" she says finally. Shin's pretty sure she's not going to help hunt them down, but perhaps if they were still a threat she might be willing to help -- if Horizon was in real danger.
As Scorch takes to the air to join the other half of the group, Psyche unleashes her powers and is just... there, leaving Horizon and Ballista over the unconscious Shard.
Airfoil streaks into the sky, carrying his hostage higher into the air. Mosaic makes a desperate gamble, slicing through the harness around the Chosen and letting herself fall. She plummets, holding onto the bulky pack that contains Airfoil's heavy machine guns.
Airfoil, however, doesn't fall even when deprived of his pack. "Uh, I'm a metahuman! The pack's not how I fly!" he shouts after her, then turns and rockets away.
Praetoria swoops in and catches Mosaic just as the Star had expected.
Attraction's parting gift has the structure crumbling around those still within the factory. Gallowglass and Bear parkour their way out of harm's way.
Psyche appears suddenly and throws up a telekinetic barrier, stopping the rest of the building from coming down upon the occupants. She maintains the barrier so as long as she's concentrating, the structure is temporarily stable.
Isaiah takes this opportunity to demand Salamander's surrender. His words are forceful and direct, but curiously are met with only silence. Moving into the diminishing steam cloud with Gallowglass and Bear, they find a hole with glowing hot edges that leads down into a storm sewer or old subway station. Bear sniffs at the edges and barks, but the way down is dark and filled with more steam and smoke.
With the remaining Chosen fleeing or having fled after the capture of Shard, the scene calms down with the only noise being rapid heart rates and heavy breaths plus the creaking groan of the abused structures. However, now that the immediate combat is over, there's still the sound of fighting nearby, plus the occasional thundering like localized earthquakes.
Everyone's communicator comes on. Nimbus sounds out of breath as he says, <<"You guys caught Shard?? That's great! We'd be there to help, but we've got a bit of a situation here. Any help you can spare would be-- OOOF!">>
Praetoria pries the metal from Mosaic's head while still high in the air. The sounds of battle draw both your attention towards another section of Rustside, where there is an immense figure swatting at flying heroes like some sort of human King Kong.
Oh, no. The Heralds are engaging Bunyan!
What do you do???
”Guess the job isn’t over...” Praetoria says with a smirk to Mosaic. ”I doubt you’ll want me carrying you to the fight. And someone has to get Shard to incarceration, before he comes to and escapes or is busted out.”
Praetoria activates her team comms and says ”We need to get over there quick. Let’s get Shard restrained and contained onboard Inquiry and get rolling. I’m going to go fly ahead and see if I can lend a hand until the cavalry arrives.”
After she sets Mosaic down somewhere safe, Praetoria takes off into the air and streaks towards the new fight, looking for an advantage to exploit while en route...
__________
Seeing that her companions have everything under control, Scorch angles away from them and towards the towering form of Bunyan, accelerating as she does so. I'm on my way. she yells over her communicator. "Keep Shard under guard. We don't want anything to happen to him!"
The flames emanating from her wrists brighten in their intensity as she streaks towards the fight dropping low and then swinging around in a wide arc behind Bunyan and then upwards in a tight curve around his head. As she passes she changes the angle of her flames to strike the behemoth in the eyes with a hot and wide, but low intensity gout of flame, letting her momentum carry her through the air past him. Attack run made, she adjusts her jets and circles the enormous figure, ready to make another attack.
"I'll keep Shard under wraps for now," Horizon says over the comms, wishing that he could do more to help. He's at least convinced that Ballista isn't going to turn on him. He's given her a second chance to do things right. "Isaiah, I could use Inquiry here to pick us up and put Shard in a cell. Frostbite's out cold - no pun intended - so it's just me and Hoshiko," He says, looking at her.
"You did the right thing here, Hoshiko. I promise I'll do everything I can to make sure that you get a chance to prove to everyone else what I already know," He tells her with a happy smile. "If they try to lock you up, I'll tell them they'll do that after them put me in chains first."
He goes over to where Frostbite and Shard are, digging them both out and grunting as he pulls them out of the rubble one at a time. "Since we've got some time, I think there's something I have to ask you about," He told her as he laid them down, with a bit of distance between them as he waited on Inquiry's arrival.
"Am I the first time displaced version of Dusk you've met? I have this crazy theory that...well, actually, I think it's pretty much confirmed now. So let's ask a more relevant question. Who is Apotheosis, and why is he trying to alter reality?"
"Hmph, didn't consider that escape angle."
Isaiah went and collected what was left of his bolter, so that he could reclaim the valuable and difficult to replace raw materials for making a replacement. He'd also pick up Fossil if he was still around, though very carefully. Otherwise, it was off to get Shard and Frostbite as quick as Inquiry could go.
"I'll come and help with the big guy over there once I've got the unconscious people secured."
As soon as Isaiah was out off there, Psyche let the building collapse, rocketing away after Kayla.
...Maybe I should have stabilized the building instead...
She was pretty sure her fields could take at least a hit or two from Bunyan, but there really wasn't a reason. So once she was at a comfortable distance she plummeted behind a building, questing out with her thoughts to send a dazzling bolt into Bunyan's brain.
As she streaks toward the fight with the towering titan, Praetoria watches how the Heralds are faring against Bunyan. She sees large chunks of debris being teleported high into the air to drop down on him courtesy of Rendezvous while Ragnarok is darting around and heaving things at him from the ground. The myriad duplicates of Tenfold are confounding him from numerous angles and throwing punches at his ankles or performing fastball specials of their own. Meanwhile, Nimbus is fading in and out in his vaporous form and throwing banks of clouds to confound Bunyan's sight. Lastly, Half-pipe is zipping around on his energy disk and generally being an annoyance.
Praetoria believes that the Heralds are holding their own and given time will probably wear the behemoth down. A few of the heavy hitters that the Sentinels can offer will undoubtedly tip the battle in the heroes' favor.
Scorch jets on ahead and burns past Bunyan's eyes, bursting into a flare at the right moment. Temporarily blinded, the giant flails about even more desperately.
Psyche unleashes a mind bolt from a distance, and gives him a titanic headache to match his size.
Isaiah cannot find Fossil anywhere either, the stony Chosen apparently also having limped away when everyone's attention was elsewhere. But he is able to have Inquiry arrive at the location of the unconscious Shard and Frostbite and is able to collect both.
Ballista looks only moderately relieved after Horizon's assurances. But she helps him load both Shard and Frostbite into Inquiry.
She gives her grandfather a shrug at his questions. "Why? You mean there's nothing about how things are that you'd change?" She shakes her head. "I don't know who Apotheosis is. Shard told me a little about him, though, after I brought back the case and had some questions. He's got some sort of reality control powers. He wants to remake the world."
Seeing Scorch blind Bunyan as well as him suffering from the wide variety of attacks, Praetoria tries to figure out the best way she can help. She scans the area for any civilians...
Looks like anyone who was here already got out. Good.
She wills her weapon to form into a two-handed hammer, and turns her flight into a dive towards the giants legs, she whirls between them and to the side of his left knee, drawing back and taking a mighty swing at the joint. With a sickening crunch the knee is busted, and the behemoth cries out in pain as he stumbles to the ground clumsily!
__________
Isaiah considered the giant battle from afar. There wasn't much he could do to help on his own; he'd need Inquiry, or at least a working bolter, to tackle such a foe. Still, things looked reasonably handled, and Inquiry was unlikely to arrive before it was decided. Instead, Isaiah investigated Airfoil's gun-pack, wanting to see how it was made and what capabilities it had, and if it gave any hints as to where he got his equipment.
Inquiry spent a bit of time making sure Shard was secure and Frostbite was comfortable. It also overheard Shin and Ballista's conversation, including some very worrying tidbits.
"Reality warping to remake the world? Does that guy have any idea how insanely dangerous that kind of stunt is?! Even if he means well, I sincerely doubt he has the necessary forethought and mental processing power to actually consider all the consequences of what he's doing. Waaaay to easy to render a planet uninhabitable, or exploded, just by bumping the wrong fundamental constants. And that's not even counting the kind of attention such activity tends to draw. If you want to change the world, I strongly recommend doing it the old-fashioned way. Much safer."
Shin loads Shard into Inquiry, happy to see that Isaiah had already built a holding cell for him. He strapped him inside of it and let it seal up, pondering how autonomous Inquiry was to its handler. It seemed funny the smaller machine operated a larger machine. He didn't dwell on that too much as he helped Hoshiko bring in Frostbite next, laying him down and making sure he was all right.
"I get that you still feel apprehensive about all of this. It's not easy breaking free of someone you thought was right. But you asked the right questions, thought critically, and I'm glad that you saw what was the right choice," He tells her, seated now in Inquiry. There's a moment where he thinks things over in his head before turning to look at her.
"I promise, no matter what happens, I'll be here for you. Even if I have to stand between you and the rest of the Heralds and Alliance to do so." He stands and holds out his hand to her, hoping that she'll take it.
Isaiah's blared in response to the whole reality warper problem felt like it cut through the mood a bit. "Well, it seems like we've put a thorn in his plans for now. I'm hoping that Trapdoor is out of commission after I irradiated his portal - oh, yeah! Hoshiko, do you know if this Trapdoor is the same one that's supposed to be in lockup? The Alliance have been scratching their heads about that."
Scorch twists in the air and flies straight at the back of Bunyas's exposed neck, where she lands, trying to slam her fists into what she assumes will be a weak point at the base of his skull. It proves thicker than expected, however, and her punches glance off harmlessly.
Bugger,...
Will struggle past the pain - mark Afraid and insecure
AND
Give ground (opponent gets an opportunity)
Psyche's plan to take on Bunyan from relatively safety quickly flies out the window as Praetoria and Scorch keep closing the distance with the titan! Both of them seem heedless of any danger, and before she even realizes what she's doing, Psyche finds herself soaring in the air close by the fray.
Mattie or Kayla? Her moment of indecision while her brain hummed with power nearly sent her mind splintering into pursuing all options again, but with an effort of will she brought herself back into focus.
Kayla can take a hit if she needs to. I can't let Mattie get hurt.
Her skin and eyes flare to life once more as she tries to interpose shields between Scorch and Bunyan's swipes.
But Scorch keeps flying around; Psyche had to keep blinking the shields out of existence! At the speed she's flying I could squash her like a bug on a windshield if I miss the timing... "No!"
Praetoria and Scorch fly at the blinded and wildly flailing Bunyan, looking for their opening. Psyche tries to help by throwing up barriers to block the wild swings, but keeping them interposed between Bunyan's fists and leaving openings so she can dart in and strike a sensitive part is too difficult.
Praetoria summons an earth-breaker style hammer and slams it hard into the giant's knee, sending him on a slow topple. As she pulls up to get clear, another of Psyche's barriers appear. The Legacy turns to avoid it, and comes around just as Scorch is doing the same thing. The two fliers suffer a midair collision, Scorch getting the worse of it and ends up being pretty rattled.
The Heralds take advantage of the downed giant. Tenfold's multiples begin running loops of heavy steel wire around Bunyan in true Lillipulutian style as Ragnarok jumps onto his chest and readies a knockout punch to his jaw in case he struggles further.
Half-pipe zooms in beneath Scorch and catches her, before yelling, "Hot!" and dropping her onto her own energy board. He lowers them both down to the ground.
"Thanks for the assist," Nimbus says to Praetoria. "Though you might want to practice flying in tandem soon." He grins sympathetically.
While everyone is focused on containing Bunyan, a glowing white circle appears underneath Gothic, who had been a relatively safe distance away near Rendezvous. Before anyone can react, the goth girl falls through the circle and is gone!
Frostbite stirs, finally coming to after the fastball special.
Ballista sits in her seat on the alien vessel, still looking like a prisoner despite Shin's assurances.
She turns to Isaiah after his warnings of changing reality. "I get it. There's a lot in this world that needs to be fixed, but I'm not really feeling comfortable with someone just waving a magic wand."
Horizon's efforts to make Hoshiko feel better seem to work. "You don't sound like you do now. And I'm not sure if this is really the right side to be on. I mean, no one's ever going to look at me as a hero. I shoot radiation. That's generally something people fear."
She doesn't look convinced about Trapdoor being taken out. "I don't know. I've gone through the portals fully charged up and haven't heard any complaints. Though I haven't met him. He's one of Apotheosis' people, along with Bunyan," she says.
Praetoria gasps and covers her mouth as she runs into Scorch, sending the girl toppling out of the air! She starts to dive after her, but Half-Pipe manages to catch her. When Nimbus flies over and gives his thanks and suggestion, Praetoria blushes at the praise and attention. ”Thanks, and it wasn’t a problem. It’s what we do, right?”
Her brief revelry at their victory is shattered when she sees Gothic get pulled through another of Trapdoor’s portals. ”Gothic!” she cries out, too late. She places a hand on Nimbus’ shoulder and looks to see how he reacts. She then activates the designated channel of their comms to contact the members of all the teams involved. ”Trapdoor just took Gothic!”
She then flies to Psyche’s side. ”Stay close to me. If he tries to take you next, he’ll have to take both of us!”
"Hoshiko, I apparently grow up to be someone that the entire superhero community shuns and hates. Despite that, they're letting me walk around free and work with them instead of locking me up in the deepest, darkest hole they can find in an effort to prevent my future from coming true. If I ended up here for a purpose, maybe it's not to find my own redemption, but to guide others back into the light." He shrugs and smiles. "As for our powers, they can be deadly, but there's a lot more to them than zapping others. How else could you fly around like that? I kind of wish that I knew that trick. Maybe you could teach me-"
The burst from the comms startles him, Praetoria's voice coming out loud and clear. His eyes widen, grabbing it and speaking. "That can't be right. I warned her and Imagerie this could happen!" His mind whirled, trying to figure out how Trapdoor could have done that. He'd thought that he needed some kind of coordinates already set up to open his portals. He hadn't thought that the Heralds would have lost Gothic - he hadn't thought that Gothic could have fallen prey to them at all!
"...Prae, it'll be all right. We have exactly the right person to ask all about their plans," He reassured her, looking back at the holding cell. He had to believe that Gothic would be a great deal more difficult for Apotheosis to contain than Psyche. Worry etched over his face as he considered options and possibilities. One worry now in particular gnawed at him, looking at Hoshiko.
The Heralds had just lost one of their own. They might not be as welcoming to her anymore in light of that. Rory was starting to stir as well. He might not take this news as well either. The only one he could count on to think logically was Isaiah. "Isaiah, can you track her? Trace the energy of Trapdoor's portals, or figure out the end point of the one he just made?"
"Hmmm... If I'd been there when the portal formed, and was ready for it, almost certainly. As it is, I don't know how much of a trace it left. I'll have to check. If I can't trace the portal directly... well, if Apotheosis is serious about this, a reality warp potent enough to change the entire planet must require a massive power source. With a good vantage point and enough power, I should be able to find that at least. Or maybe team up with Psyche and scan for telepathic distress calls."
Isaiah hopped aboard Inquiry as the ship rushed past, and tossed the remains of his bolter and Airfoil's gun pack into a hold for examination and processing. The craft sped towards where Gothic had dissapeared, ready to try to scan for traces.
"Gothic? Where did he take you?
Can you hear me?"
There was no time to worry about Mattie, no time to send more than a pulse of warmth to Kayla for her support. Gothic could be anywhere; Psyche had to push that message out into the aether with everything she had. If Gothic wasn't shielded, if she was still... okay, she should respond.
Frostbite manages to get up to his knees, "Ouch, I need a vacation..." he looks around Inquiry, "where is everyone?"
The Heralds react with dismay as Gothic is abducted. Ragnarok takes it the hardest, shouting as he rushes to the spot where she was taken. Tenfold still devotes most of his duplicates to keeping Bunyan tied down, but he also sends someone to where Rendezvous is standing shocked. Nimbus gets on the communicator with the Alliance, and Half-pipe zooms up in the air to look around as if she might be nearby.
Isaiah's scanners detect some residual dimensional energy, but nothing traceable.
Psyche feels a connection almost instantly. She gets a vision of a lab through a glass barrier, filled with various pieces of equipment, including the components that were stolen from the facilities the day before. She sees Chiros working on the equipment diligently.
A figure in a tailored suit approaches the glass, frowns, then shifts from the well-dressed man to a goth/emo youth all in black. "'Sup," he says in a slightly drugged-out voice. "Gothic, right? Sorry, but I got you in a reality where telepathy doesn't work. I'm not going to hurt you, but I need your genetic code for a little project I'm working on."
Riding Gothic's senses as you are, you're not sure how she pulls this off, since part of your own powers feel cut off.
The man shakes his head and looks hurt. "Don't look at me like that. This is for, like, a better world." He holds up his hand, with black nail polish and metal jewelry. "I'm not going to change you. Don't worry. But I do need you unconscious for this."
He goes to push a button, but he pauses, then starts punching in a code on a keypad next to the wall. That gets Chiros' attention. "Hey, she's not out yet! What are you doing?!?"
He makes a move but Gothic's vision focuses on him for a moment, and the half bat turns around and goes deeper into the lab. Then her focus returns to the goth at the window. He is looking confused, his hand wavering between the button and the keypad. He starts punching in numbers.
"Ah ah ah," comes another voice from out of frame. The source is a woman in a high-tech suit of armor with a full faceplate who steps into view. "You're cheating," she says, and hits the button.
A whitish gas fills the chamber Gothic is in, and the vision goes dark.
Praetoria listens to the chatter through the comms before adding in ”We should get the teams together. Figure out exactly what has happened!” before switching to the frequency that broadcasts only to the Sentinels. ”Everyone meet up at Inquiry! Then we will rally up with the rest of the teams!”
"She's somewhere with... Chiros, and some sort of reality shifter he's blocking her powers, or... trying too. There's a woman there too, she's got some sort of battlesuit, and... she knocked Gothic out, drugged her..."
Psyche's eyes open. "I lost her."
She projects the faces (or faceplates) of the armored woman and the reality shifter to the teams.
"Does anyone know who they are?"
"...Dammit. Kuso! This is my fault. I should have pressed further for Gothic to keep watch," Shin berates himself. "Especially after stopping Psyche's abduction. Should have made Gothic's safety the priority."
He paces inside, looking between Frostbite and Hoshiko. He knows they could get what they needed from Shard for a rescue, but he doesn't know how long that could take. He looks around Inquiry, thinking about how Dusk hacked it yesterday. Just to change events so that Psyche was saved. What else did he know?
He could try to talk to his future self. Get Isaiah to try and communicate with him. He'd gotten a taste of what he could accomplish this way. But what would it cost him? He wondered if Dusk's motives might have been to have him free his granddaughter from Shard's clutches.
He had to think rationally. Not let himself get worked up and make another mistake because he'd let his guard down. He waited for the others to come to Inquiry, trying calm down by reciting the periodic table in his head.
When people arrived, he was the one to make introductions. "This is Hoshiko. She's my future granddaughter. Though I actually think she's older than me at the moment. Anyways, she's helped out today, so treat her like you'd treat me. It's been a difficult transition. Nothing that happened is her fault," He finishes. The emphasis he puts on the last statement makes it apparent he's not going to let anyone lay into her.
"Shard can probably tell us all we need on Apotheosis and his plans. But I don't think he'll cooperate willingly. He seemed to have bought in on the plan to change reality," He tells them. "There's another possibility though. We can try to contact Dusk. I don't think we should, but I'm fielding the option out to you guys."
"Shard doesn't need to be willing."
Holly ha been keeping Shard's Arms and Legs restrained in the brig of Inquiry. further bands of hard light wrap around his torso, so she can move him, when it comes time to bring him in.
she spends her time listening to everything go to hell in a handbasket over the comms. but she wasn;t going to Let shard get away. he was probabbly scarier than Bunyan, and besides, Ms. Lester would have a couple cameras there when they took him in. ms.Lester was Very specific about where she should be when that happened. so she stayed there, trusting Prae and Psyche and The siblings and Isaiah to take care of it, and she waited fo them to arrive, or Shard to Wake up
Inquiry/Isaiah ran the images past their memory banks of known supers, as well as comparing them to anything else they could think of. In particular, they tried to identify the technology used in the armored woman's power armor.
"Can you give me a full picture of that armored woman? I'll see if I can identify the armor. Any ideas on location? A direction feeling or something?"
"While Dusk may have tipped us off about Apotheosis, I'm not sure I would trust leaning on him for more information. Maybe if other options don't yield anything, but only as a last resort. We'll have to see if we can get the info we need out of Shard. I'd like to be able to drop him off somewhere soonish, by the way. I can also try doing some high-altitude scanning; reality ripples are usually pretty visible, but it might take a while, or a lot of power, to pinpoint a spot. Hmmm... how do you and Ballista feel about doing your best impression of a nuclear power plant, Shin?"
Shard's eyes crack open while the chaos breaks all around. His eyes dart around, absorbing his surroundings, then fix on you. He smiles. "Hello, my dear. I recognize you. I think your show improved when you were brought on. I couldn't help but be flattered when you fought 'The Called' in Episode 2.5. Though the actor brought in to play Shrapnel could have been more charismatic. He was a little too much of a mustache twirler."
The comms come alive with chatter. Whippoorwill reports that they've captured and contained all of the Mongrels except for Chiros, who was not part of the rescue attempt.
Ragnarok's comm is one continuous stream of chatter -- as always -- though this time it's him urgently informing everyone of Gothic's capture and how she's usually pretty good at avoiding attacks considering she knows what everyone's thinking in a fairly wide area so sometimes she's actually allowed herself to get captured since it's a good ploy to find the bad guy's hideout and then sneak out a message through her telepathy which is really powerful so has anyone heard anything from her???
The word of the capture of Shard and Ballista is some additional good news. Isaiah and Inquiry are requested to fly back immediately to Alliance HQ where they can put him into an Omega containment unit before he tries to use his powers to escape.
What do you do??
Praetoria freezes and puts a hand out on Psyche when she shares the image of the armored woman. When Psyche looks at her, she can tell Kayla is clearly unnerved. ”Psyche...that...that looks like Dr. Dread’s armor. If there is a new Dr. Dread, and they are involved in all this, this just got a lot more dangerous...”
Slamming into Praetoria's armoured body, Scorch is momentarily stunned and begins to tumble helplessly towards the ground, only to be caught by Half-pipe and lowered gently to the ground. As she gathers herself, Gothic is suddenly abducted and the Heralds go frantic. As she stumbles over to rejoin the others she shoots Praetoria an embarrassed look. "Sorry, I should keep more of an idea where I'm going." she says, smiling weakly.
Honestly, it's irritating enough when Horizon pulls that "my dear/dollface/toots" crap. you don't have the excuse to do so.Holly says, frowning.
But, yeah. mostly that was just the writing team improving though, honestly, once it stopped being Henderson's show... you know She says, absentmindedly forming shapes in the air with her power.
An, yeah, I thought the mirroring of real life was a little much in that arc. but, you know, it was a kids show, not much room for moral ambiguity. And you had to know when you became an extremist that people would think of you as a villain. you do villainous things.
Kayla looks down at the ground when Scorch apologizes. ”No, it was my fault. I fly faster and am tougher. I should have been looking out. I’m so sorry...”
She makes her way to Inquiry and looks for her phone, taking note Shard. She casts him an emotionless look before resuming the hunt for her phone...Inquiry has shifted forms a few times since she stashed it away, so she was having trouble finding it. ”Hey, Mosaic, are you alright? Those were some rough hits you took back there. And where is Gallowglass?” She then mutters to herself ”And where has this ship moved my phone...”
She switches her Sentinel Comms back on and says, shooting a nervous look to Psyche ”Guys, let’s meet up on Inquiry. We need to talk.”
When everyone gathers back at Inquiry Frostbite is sitting on the floor with his index finger in his mouth making sure he still has all his teeth. "Well. glad to see everyone is still in one piece."
I'm fine she says, makeup already covering the bruises on her face and neck from attractions face mask. you? Haymarket got a direct hit on you, didnt he?
Kayla jumps when Rory speaks up, she hadn’t noticed him sitting on the floor. She kneels down next to him and puts a hand on his shoulder. ”Oh my god! Are you alright?”
She looks back to Holly and smiles. ”I’m fine. Haven’t even had a bruise in four or five years. Still hurts though, but once the initial hit was done I was fine. I feel bad for leaving everyone hanging, though.”
"We should bring Shard in as soon as we can. The other teams are more experienced and they have the tools needed to keep him contained," Shin says as they hear the request from the Alliance. He's standing next to Hoshiko at the moment, making sure that he's a comforting presence for her. He's sure that she feels intimidated surrounded by people who she would have considered her enemies a short time ago.
"I want Hoshiko to come with us to our base," He tells the others. "She doesn't deserve to be locked up like Shard by the Alliance. She's been upfront and honest with me from the very beginning and she can help us out with what she knows. But I understand if anyone's apprehensive about it. Regardless, I don't want the Alliance or the Heralds treating her like a criminal. She's family," He emphasizes.
He knows its going to be tough convincing everyone else about this, so he looks at Hoshiko and gives her a smile. "Do you want to say anything to the team?"
Rory smiles, "Yeah, I'm ok. Had a pretty nasty collision with Shard and knocked both of us out, but the nice thing is I can make my own ice packs. Hahaha."
"They're only villainous to the ones writing the script. You know. Mundanes," he says with a smile. "Like I said, too much mustache twirling for me."
Shard's eyes bore into you. "Wouldn't you like to write your own script? One in which you decide who's right and wrong?"
As Inquiry rockets away from Rustside, another buzz comes in from the comms. It's Captain Stalwart.
"Sorry, I know this isn't the time. You need to stay focused on making sure Shard gets to us. I'll be meeting you halfway and escorting you back. But Praetoria, I've got an urgent message from your uncle. He says you need to check your phone messages."
True to his word, the gold-and-blue form of Captain Stalwart is hovering at about the halfway mark. As Inquiry flies by, he matches the flight and stays with the alien ship as it heads toward the center of the city.
Inquiry/Isaiah made sure to pick up the whole crew, collecting Gallowglass and Bear (though this did lead to some mild cramping, with the addition of Shard and Ballista. At least making more room was just a matter of stretching out a bit), then headed for Alliance HQ to drop off their prisoner and make plans.
Isaiah also handed Praetoria her phone when she started looking for it.
"I'm good. Salamander melted my gun, but I retrieved all the parts so it won't be hard to make a new one." And my arm covering has had time to regenerate. "I don't think we're going to have much time to rest, though. Apotheosis sounds like trouble. I don't suppose you're going to make things easy and just tell us where he's holed up, huh Shard?"
Psyche almost reached out to dig through Kayla's mind. She hated looking ignorant, but she really didn't know who this Dr. Dread was. I don't need to pretend with her. Kayla gets that we don't always know the answers.
Still, she asks who Dr. Dread is in a private sending.
And it kept her mind out of Ballista's. She wasn't ready to break Shin's heart, and she was pretty sure what she'd find.
"Well good thing I already got a nap in."
Rory appears momentarily lost in thought.
Man, I don't think I have every had this much to do back-to-back, I thought being on a team would make things easier... do I have a test coming up... maybe it was a paper due... I should probably check the syllabuses when I get home.
Following close behind Kayla, Mattie rushes over to Rory, standing a little awkwardly as the other girl bends down. "You too?" she says, "Me and Kayla bumped head too. It was like slamming into a brick wall. She's much more solid than she looks."
At Shin's words she frowns, looking warily at Hoshiko but, for Shin's sake, ready to hear what she has to say.
Praetoria sighs, ”Yes, sir. Looking for my phone now.”
Probably some critique on my shoddy performance to date...
She thanks Isaiah when he hands her her phone. As the screen lights up, she sees a barrage of messages. She unlocks it and sees several messages from unknown numbers, claiming to be reporters requesting an exclusive interview. ”Ugh...interview requests,” she says with an eyeroll to Holly. Then other messages requesting an update on “her status,” draws some confusion from Kayla.
She finally scrolls through to her text messages from her Uncle:
-Kayla, come home now. Something’s wrong.
-Kayla, this is an emergency. Where are you?
-Her mind isn’t responding right. I...I think she’s had a stroke.
-EMS is here. Flying her to Halcyon Heroes Hospital. Had no other choice. Sent a driver to get Shane from soccer. Get here as soon as you can.
If Kayla’s skin could go pale, it would be now. Her hands are trembling as she opens up an internet browser to the news. There, among images and videos of the various fights the heroes of the city were in today, is also another news article, it’s title causes her to drop her phone, which lands screen up with the header openly on display:
“Eternia Alive After All. Being Rushed To HHH. No Reports Of Condition.”
::Psyche, he’s a major villain of my family. Versions of him have hounded us for decades. This is the first time it’s been a woman, though. He’s never managed to be caught, at best driven away. He...she...they, whatever, they appear, go for whatever it is they want, then are gone again for who knows how long. Last time, he attacked my parents when my brother was being born at HHH. That was 12 years ago.::
Shin looked perhaps a little confused as to the lack of reaction from anyone but Scorch to Ballista's presence. He'd thought that his actions were going to make much greater waves with the team. He was effectively sponsoring a villain. He guessed most of the team was too preoccupied with the Gothic dilemma.
The Captain's arrival was a relief to him. He doubted that Shard would try to escape with the hero mere meters away from the ship. But something about Praetoria's reaction to his message to her seemed off. He was surprised to see her react in such shock to whatever she read. It seemed like bad news for her.
Looking over at Psyche, he thought to her. I'm sorry. I screwed up. I shouldn't have let my guard down. I knew that if Shard hadn't gotten you then they'd go after Gothic next. I was just relieved that you were all right. Also that Hoshiko seems ready to reform herself. It will take some coaching on my part, but we can probably learn from each other. Oh, Ragnarok seems worried, so you should probably show him what you saw through Gothic's eyes. Do you know why Praetoria's upset? It's kind of cramped in here with so many people. Maybe Hoshiko can teach me to fly? Sorry, I'm just...bubbling with surface thoughts. My head's racing and trying to plot out moves in advance while I've got so many burning questions. I'm just glad I have family left in this time.
"Oh my God."
She didn't dig, but Praetoria's mind was practically screaming the story. There was a lot tangled up in there, but thankfully, this wasn't something with a complicated answer.
"You have to go, Kayla. We've got this. You should be with your family."
****
She really wished she could talk about Ballista privately with Shin. Dissembling was a lot harder with a mindlink, and changing a few 'hopes' to 'thinks' might have helped.
"I really hope you're right about Hoshiko. It's very brave of you to give her this chance. I hope she takes it. But remember, she's still the person who chose to do some pretty awful things, and... Just, be careful what else you learn aside from the flying, okay? 'Cause she learned it from Dusk first, and then Shard."
"But anyways, don't beat yourself up about Gothic. She's tough. I just wish they'd gotten me too. She's got more tricks up her sleeve telepathy-wise, but that's still not as many things to block..."
"I mean, I'm glad you stopped him from taking me, but if they were going to take Gothic anyways, it would be easier to break out with two of us."