The Good, The Bad and The Spandex

The Black Flamingo

Reverb ceased her deception, almost pouting for a moment and looking to Bernie with some concern. He wasn't a pushover, even now that his villainous days were behind him. Still, she worried these uninvited guests would provide more trouble than the old man deserved, "If you say so, Bernie..." She said, leaning against her bass and frowning, unhappy to see guns drawn in the middle of the establishment. "I swear, every damn show there's something..." She laughed to the band as Strip Poker stripped the female agent of her armour, perhaps a little sympathetic to such a fate.

Poor Strip Poker was now unconscious for his trouble - perhaps a bit of karma, there. Luckily Gian was trying to diffuse the situation but Sally was ready to fight back if necessary. She was also wondering about this 'War Crime' smashing up Easton - the TALOS agent sounded more than a little disconcerted by the news.

Downtown Easton - Late Arrival

Pollutrix burst out of a manhole in the middle of an intersection nearby to the magic's source, which she quickly identified as the angry guy in nothing but pants. She also spotted a number of superheroes already on the scene.

She recognized Dragon Man and... was that Simon? What was Simon doing here? She also recognized Mindseye from the commercials for her private investigations firm. But she very much did not recognize Crystal Boy or the Human Blowtorch.

Standing this close to the man, she suddenly realized why she could sense him from so far away. His power was like a physical force pressing in on her mind, overwhelming all other magic signatures in the area. But she also felt something else. Before the the man's power hit her, her own powers were changing it, corrupting it, polluting it.

It was keeping her relatively safe for the moment, but Pollutrix didn't know if she was powerful enough to hold back such an oppressive force for very long.

Downtown

Mindseye almost fainted as she got a surge of anger, shock, horror, despair, regret.

No, she hadn't fainted because she's sitting, sitting on a pillow on the floor in Mentor's room. The pillow is purple and gold, like her robes. Mentor's robes are just gold, and so is his pillow.

She is practicing with Mentor. He is picturing things in his mind, and she is reading his mind and projecting the word back. It's hard to differentiate between mental words and pictures, and it's hard to keep projecting her own thoughts. They had been practicing for what felt like hours, and she didn't think she was getting any better.

With a pained groan, she slumps down and opens her eyes. "I'm sorry," she says. "My head hurts. I can't keep doing that."

Mentor's eyes open as well. They're the same shade of gold as his robes. He's angry, and she could tell even without empathy, because he's glaring at her like she just insulted his mother.

Oh? he thinks at her, and it echoes through her brain and it hurts. She whimpers.

Little one, I chose you alone from the six million people on Earth. I thought you had potential, power, strength. But you are just a whimpering child. Perhaps I should send you back.

Her eyes widen. "Don't send me back! Please! I can do better! I mean-" i can do better ill do better

Little one, Mentor thinks, and his tone has softened. He almost sounds affectionate. Your mind is a muscle, and like all muscles it must be exercised to be strong. Strength is the only way to be respected. The weak do not survive long. You want to be strong, yes?

yes yes more than anything

Then sit up. Stop your blubbering. You will be Psi-Lord one day. Have some dignity, little one.

The memory shifted and twisted, and her stomach turned as she recognized it- she's eighteen and holding a sword and-

NO!

She was back in Easton now, back on Earth, nineteen and on her own and she was Mindseye. She was leaning against a wall as she hyperventilated and resisted the urge to throw up.

Rage and regret flowed through her. Thinking of Mentor always made her want to throw something, preferably at his stupid fucking face and his stupid mustache and his ability to make her feel like she was walking on eggshells no matter what. She wanted to beat him until he begged her to stop, she wanted to make him feel as weak and worthless and powerless as he made her feel.

But he wasn't here.

He was on Venus. He was ruling his cities and he probably found a new student now and doing everything to them that he did to her.

Mindseye's hand balled into a fist. condescending fucker thought he was so much stronger than me smarter than me and look he was right couldn't fight superior on your own almost got killed by a fucking mask you'd be helpless without the dragon who only wants you to make him feel better about yourself aren't you a perfect pair

Mindseye's breathing slowly grew steadier. She could hear screams and crashes, sounds of pain.

The anger was slowly burning away. If nothing else, she knew how to compartmentalize. This wasn't the time for self-indulgent self-loathing. People were dying.

As Mindseye composed herself, she contacted Dragon Man. If he was going through what she just had, it could be disastrous- especially seeing as how he could do a lot of damage.

Aaron, Drakon, you need to get away from him. Now!

She surveyed the area. Amethyst and Warlock were busy with civilians. A woman in a green costume was watching- a superhuman. She had to be.

Hello. If you possess superhuman abilities of any use in combat, can you try and keep the man attacking's attention off of the dragon?

edited 21st Oct '16 8:22:03 PM by emilyorthoclase

Downtown - Providing a Distraction

Rebecca was brought out of her shock by a voice in her head. And it wasn't the regular voice in her head either.

Right. Distract the shirtless guy who was literally radiating power. Sounded easy when you said it like that. Despite her reservations, this guy was putting countless people in harm's way, so Pollutrix barely hesitated before launching a high-pressure jet of sewage at the man's bare chest. If that didn't distract him, she didn't know what would.

Now she just had to figure out how to not die once the man's attention was on her. Fun.

Dark Witch

Soon War crime would be able to feel the place around him getting colder each second. A night shadow that wasn’t cassted from any wall appeared. Soon a woman wearing a dark dress stepped out from the portal towards him. The dark shadow that brought her soon vanished like water evaporating.

“Ah”– Eris clapped sarcastically–“ So, I assume that you’re the man I should be thanking my freedom,” She walked around him checking the bald man closely. “You don’t look bad,” she shrugged. “Not a fan of the name, though. “War crime.” That's a mortal delusion. There are no rules in war, much less any crimes. Like in love, everything is allowed,” she looked at him directly at his eyes, getting very close to his face for a few seconds.

Eris then walked infront of him, facing the heroes.

“Let it not be said that I am not––grateful,” she closed her eyes.

She directed her hand towards the villain and soon a white-golden light would come from her hands. She started casting a healing spell towards him that would engulf him in a golden aura. If successful the spell woulds start reversing any wounds War Crime had.

Eris then began to adress the heroes. “I told you chaos couldn’t be contained.––Now you see? All your efforts and all your laws were in vain. I’m free again and I always will be,” she spit in the ground, and then she gave them a mocking smile.

edited 21st Oct '16 10:27:59 PM by FallenLegend

Downtown

Amethyst cocked a brow at the woman who just made a new entrance and glanced back at the ambulances retreating now with their cargo. Looking back at the woman, he let his shield drop at last.

"I have no idea who you are," He replied as his own insult.

The Black Flamingo

Lodestone was focused on the news of a "War Crime" character turning up to challenge these "heroes" until the officer's gun fired, with the bullet hitting the cloth-shredding fool and the Italian man trying to diffuse the situation. Then, Lodestone stood up and approached the crowd, "What seems to be the problem?" He was not above assaulting them but if his new "friends" could solve this problem without it escalating to that, he wouldn't mind.

Downtown Easton-A Primal Urge

Aaron screamed as he was bombarded with those godforsaken memories. He was clutching his head, and reeled back, spewing fire up at the sky.

Inside, Drakòn and Aaron were both screaming in agony. Aaron! Listen to me! It isn't real! It is just a memory! Don't give in! You mustn't give-

The King of All Dragons was caught off as Aaron gave an ungodly scream. And then, he coughed. The human form of Aaron's mind started to cough up a black liquid smoke. He collapsed onto his hands and knees, still coughing up the substance. The blackness started to slither and grow, slowly taking shape. Drakòn felt himself hissing, felt something rise in his own throat, and coughed violently. More of the substance poured forth.

The strange, black stuff slithered through the air, both of the pieces entwining and weaving together. Aaron and Drakòn were both coughing violently, spewing more of the slime. As it continued to merge togther, it began to take shape. A pair of demonic wings shot out of its sides. Limbs began to stretch and flex, and a body started to convulse and snap into existence. Then the head arrived. It was like a dragon's head, but much worse. Two red, burning eyes stared out, and the whole thing just seemed.....evil.

The thing stared first at Drakòn, then at Aaron. Then it struck, tackling Drakòn and dragging him off somewhere. Aaron saw this, and was shocked. He heard Drakòn try to struggle as what sound like a key turned. A scream came afterwards, which only belong to Drakòn.

The thing returned. It was towering over him, staring down. And it smiled. And then, Aaron truly screamed.

In the real world, the moment this happened, Aaron did scream and began thrashing about violently, convulsing and twisting about as he screamed. His eyes were full of fear as a darkness began to seep into them.

ILENE, RUN! JUST RUN, PLEASE! HURRY! HE'S GONNA KILL YOU! FUCKING RUN!!!!!

The muscles in Aaron's body began moving in different ways than they usually did. His leg muscles tightened, and his neck began snapping about from side to side. Something was taking over.

The Black Flamingo — Dancin' into Trouble

Xy whistled a meaningless, meandering tune as she walked her way towards the Flamingo, happily -decked out in the dressiest clothes she'd ever owned; a white, long sleeve, button-up shirt, a black button-up vest, black slacks, and shiny, black shoes. She'd even given her lips some shine with some pink lipstick that closely matched her 'natural' hair color.

Truth was, having a steady job at a classy establishment did wonders for self esteem. Sally'd helped her pick out the clothes, and apparently Bernie had liked Xy enough to hire her for the bouncer position. Now that some actual, honest money was rolling in, she was starting to replace the Ray-man Instant Noodles in her cabinet with actual damn food.

As she stepped inside, unfortunately, her bright attitude dimmed somewhat; some sort of agents, some wearing obvious body armor, were present with their weapons drawn. 'Shit,' she thought to herself as she eyed everyone present; she made a slight nod to Sally, who was up on stage with the group. She also noted the "Poker" fellow she'd heard about, who was surrounded by a group of...'are those guys identical to each other?'

As she pondered Doppelganger and his, er, doppelgangers, she caught glimpse of a gleaming badge on the armed newcomers; 'Shit shit shit,' was all she could think as the TALOS badge gleamed, and her face went from calm and annoyed to frightened and angry. She slowly edged her way behind them, keeping an eye on Bernie, Sally, and the rest as best as she could as she formulated a plan.

Downtown

Mindseye's first plan had been to try and psychically incapacitate War Crime- even if that didn't work, at least she could get some information about him.

Was War Crime or Dragon Man the bigger threat?

She reacted impulsively. This wasn't the time to stop and think, not when people's lives were at risk.

Amethyst, when you're done with the civilians, try and distract the woman in black. Warlock, green girl (sorry I don't know your name), try and hold Dragon Man down- he's not in his right mind.

I'll deal with the ringleader.

An illusion of herself appeared in front of War Crime. The real Mindseye was functionally invisible- hopefully, War Crime didn't have any enhanced senses.

"Hello there. You must be new here. Otherwise, you'd probably have a plan beyond attack random civilians. Tell me, is that for simplicity's sake, or are you just too intellectually challenged to come up with anything more sophisticated?"

It was only a distraction and it couldn't last. But it was better than nothing.

Downtown, seriously considering Multiclassing into Fighter

"What the hell do you want me to do? It isn't like I'm going to be able to pin him or something!" Warlock yelled, to no in particular, before gating over to his Draconic friend, and blasting him with a face full of fire. Naturally, it did no damage and didn't catch him on fire (this was one of those times were Warlock started to regret his life decisions. Take a pact with a Fire based entity. Yeah, such a good idea.)

Since he didn't have time to do anything else, he threw up a barrier in front of himself, hoping that the now presumably out-of-his-mind Dragon friend wouldn't pimp-slap him into a nearby building.

Black Flamingo

"At ease, everyone" Agent Jones said. "Lower your weapons."

He did not, however, order them to put them away. Something everyone present probably noticed.

Only Jones put his gun back in its holster. He then smiled (kind of an hypocritical smile, but still) and walked up to the bar.

"Evening, Bernie" he said.

"Agent Jones" the bar owner responded, with an equally fake smile. "What brings you guys to my humble establishment?"

"Just wanted to ask you a question. We're looking for a guy, calls himself Fracture. Really bad piece of sh- stuff, even the people present here probably would not like to deal with him. He's currently high on TALOS hit list, but he's slippery. Any help you or your -friends- could provide, would be appreciated."

Downtown

It was chaos. Debris, fire, people screaming all around.

Fortunately, agents belonging to some outfit calling itself TALOS showed up, barking orders around as if they owned the place, but hey, at least they were helping people evacuate and tending to the wounded.

And then chaos personified arrived. Oh Hell Simon thought. The witch from the other day! As if Evil Superman here wasn't bad enough. There were several heroes present, would they be enough to handle them? He heard someone's telepathic plea for help, but even if he wanted to fight, he didn't know if he would be of much help.

And then the Dragon guy screamed as if in pain. His body starting twisting. Uh-OH, I have a baaad feeling about this!

Meanwhile, War Crime addressed Eris:

   "I did not choose my current name, it was given to me by frightened mortals"    it explained.    "I care little for words... including yours, telepath"    it said to Mindseye.    "Nice trick, but your mirage lacks anger inside. You however, have quite a bit of it right now"    it said mockingly.

edited 22nd Oct '16 9:11:49 AM by Sijo

Downtown - Oh Crap

When she got a follow up head-message telling her to hold down Dragon Man, Pollutrix decided her distraction must have failed. Shit. Before she could do anything about it, a girl dressed in black showed up out of nowhere.

She looked like she was just a kid, but her magical signature was dark and intense. It wasn't a physical force like that of the shirtless man though. Instead it felt... contradictory. It was wild and uncontrolled, yet refined into a weapon. Whoever she was, this girl was bad news.

When she managed to bring her head back into the fight, she saw the blowtorch guy... who also gave off an aura of dark magic, this one intangible yet forceful, like a flame. What had she gotten herself into? At the very least, this guy seemed to be on her side, as he was trying and failing to hold back Dragon Man.

Rebecca was still standing next to the open manhole, and she used this to her advantage, hurtling spears of condensed sewage at Dragon Man's wings.

Downtown Easton

As Aaron's body continued to twist and squirm about, he continued to scream. His eyes were darting around, staring at something only he could see. His eyes began to grow frantic, head darting around, but below his chest, his body began to settle. It stilled, first his legs, then his tail. He began to whimper.

As the muscles of his body froze, Aaron felt something pin his wings down. It stunk, but he ignored it. He suddenly felt his shoulders and wings start to relax. His arms began to slowly draw away from his face. Aaron could only whimper as his body started to lie still, completely against his will. He tried to call out, but his throat wouldn't respond. Only the sound of gurgled and pain moans, small and pathetic, came out. Then his mouth closed. As he felt himself lose control, he sent out one last desperate thought.

Ilene....I love you.....

And then his eyes snapped shut. He stopped breathing. He lay completely still.

Until his tail started to sway lightly from side to side as he raised his head, starting to blink. Like a newborn child. But his eyes were different. There was a malice behind them.

edited 22nd Oct '16 10:06:24 AM by Vampireandthen

The Black Flamingo

Gian dumped Strip Poker onto the table and crossed his arms, hands off the gun for now. This wasn't going to go well. He didn't know Fracture, but if he was being targeted by tough customers like this it would pay off to help the guy out and maybe get a favor from him. That, and these TALOS agents were way out of their depth, to be perfectly honest. He didn't wanna see them get hurt.

"He said he was going after War Crime." Gian declared. "He told me he had a little bit of an advance warning about the guy somehow. I dunno what he was gonna do but, uh..." He shrugged. "Might wanna go back up your buddies out there."

Dark Witch

“Is that so?” She told Amethyst. “You all fake heroes seem the same to me. I could forgive that offense if you weren’t so–boring

“I’m offended that you all seem so focused on “Mr emotional-War Crimes ” you have forgotten about me.– She put her right hand in her chest–That’s not a way to treat a goddess” She looked at her fellow super villain.

“Let’s fix this.” Eris gave a smirk as she snapped her fingers; instantly tuning some civilians around into pigs. Lawyers, business men, secretaries around would now have the mind of humans but the screams of swine. The girl, the man or the child Talos agents were helping to escape were now trapped in a body that wasn’t theirs.

“Aren't you happy now?” she addressed Pollutrix. “Now you have a lot of friends that share your scent. You're welcome,” she smirked.

"Dragon man, wouldn't you like to eat some bacon? I invite."

Now that Topaz had uncovered her identity she saw no point in hiding it anymore so she introduced herself. “I’m the dark witch, Eris.” A lighting strike would be heard at the background. One she intentionally had cast for dramatic effect.

edited 22nd Oct '16 1:22:31 PM by FallenLegend

Downtown Easton

The thing inhabiting Dragon Man's turned to Eris. Slowly, a smile spread across his face. It was twisted, sadistic.....and unnervingly alive. "Bacon.....what is that...oh...food from a pig...." The sewage started to boil and bubble, heating up as the thing used Aaron's body to rise. "I'm.....so confused right now....what is this place? What am I? Who are all these....these um...." It snapped Aaron's fingers, "people! That's the word!" The smile started to turn, gazing at everyone. Then it settled on Warcrime. "Hey there.....what do I call you.....POPS! Yeah, that works!"

Downtown - Pearls Before Swine

Well, Dragon Man was having a seizure or something so... maybe that worked? She honestly couldn't tell. Pollutrix then felt a wave of chaotic energy eminating from the witch, and suddenly all the civilians had turned into pigs!

Then the witch compared her to a pig before talking to (the apparently not stopped) Dragon Man. That was a low blow. Pollutrix didn't care how true it was, the witch (Eris, as she introduced herself) was not going to get away with that!

As Dragon Man babbled something about bacon and people like he didn't speak English, Rebecca screamed at Eris.

"Are you saying I stink?! Well let's see who smells worse after this!"

Pollutrix then shot a jet of sewage at Eris with enough force to slam her back into the ground.

Downtown

"Yeah, how about no." Amethyst said, appearing between Warlock and Dragon Man. He spoke without turning from the later. "Warlock, go hurt War Crime and BULLSHIT, YOU DIDN'T COME UP WITH THAT NAME! Don't try to pull that, 'It was not by my hands I was given flesh,' routine bullshit, War Crime. He's not fireproof and he won't kill you. If back-up arrives, turn on the Witch. I'll deal with Dragon Man."

Downtown Easton

The smile suddenly turned to Amethyst. "Who is this...Oh yeah! Aaron, right? You think I'm Aaron!" The smiled widened, teeth bared. The thing suddenly shot into the air, and began flying straight at an ambulance. It wasn't the closet. There was a pair of paramedics attending to a young child. He opened his mouth, and suddenly spewed forth fire.

Only, it wasn't fire. It was black, and crackled with red lighting. It roared and screeched like Hell itself. The ambulance crew and their young patient had only a second to notice before the hellfire slammed into them. And then their screams became so loud, it was deafening. They screamed for roughly five seconds before it stopped. The smile closed, and began laughing. All that was left of the people were dried husks. They were frozen in place, their last moments nothing but pain and agony reflect on their faces. The smile's laughter was twisted and dark.

"Oh, hell yes! That was delicious! I've never tasted anything so good before! Hell, I've never tasted anything! And now I want more! More, more, more!"

The smile turned to face the others. "I'm not Aaron anymore."

Amethyst blurred into place and throw up a dome shield around them. Black and red struck against purple, crackling, burning, while the paramedics and child remained safe underneath. Amethyst waved his hands again and expanded the shields against the fire, throwing them back.

He blurred in front of the dragon, standing right in his face there in the middle of the air.

"Good lord. Black and red now? Knock, knock, it's the 90's, they want their edge back." Amethyst's smile disappeared. "You deal with me now."

Dowmtown

While Amethyst was dealing with Dragon Man (or whoever he was now), Mindseye came up with a plan.

She contacted Pollutrix again. Is there any chance you can direct a stream of sewage into his mouth to block his fire? Or create a rope of some sort to keep his mouth shut?

Mindseye focused her energy and sent out a city-wide distress call. Downtown Easton is being ravaged by three supervillains: a psychic of immense power called War Crime, a magician calling herself Eris, and a humanoid dragon. Anyone who possesses the power and capability to help stop them, hurry.

The Black Flamingo - Faces, Cracked For Reason...

Sally saw 'Xandra' enter the room, apparently just starting her bouncer shift. She felt sorry for her, starting out the night with an incident like this. The musician gave an apologetic smile and slight shrug in the direction of cyborg as she stood behind the TALOS goons. Reverb was glad Bernie had hired her, she was practically made for the job but nevertheless the man was understandably paranoid about new faces. Her friend's face seemed... Angry? Worried? Tough, considering the intrusion, it seemed justified.

With a little nod to the band they began to play an upbeat tune to keep the bar calm. Not only that, it kept too many people from hearing what they shouldn't and kept suspicion of her committing further shenanigans unlikely. However, Saliha could hear everything perfectly and what Agent Jones asked made the merc stiffen for a moment. Reverb hadn't told Bernie much of anything about Fracture, only mentioned he was her main employer for the time being some weeks ago casually. Still, as much as she trusted Lugosi not to snitch, he didn't want his bar busted up. Almost imperceptibly Sally's leg moved, working her powers to jam the still drawn guns. She exchanged a worried glance with Xy and Gian.

edited 22nd Oct '16 2:38:06 PM by Lt.BGob

The Black Flamingo

Gian smiled calmly back at Sally. He wasn't gonna let some low-tier grunts get the better of him. And then the psychic distress signal hit them, and Gian's smile got even wider. The interface with Der Greivier was a much more primitive version of that feeling; guess the situation was a lot worse than they thought. He nodded to the guards. "Well, you heard that too, right? Pretty good reason now more'n ever to get out there, guys."

Downtown Easton

The smile pouted, and stopped spewing fire. "Oh, c'mon! It was my moment!" Cackling madly, it dive bombed Amethyst, opening it's mouth wide as it sent forth more hellfire. His eyes shone with a bright madness. A very....primal madness.