Society of Justice 3: Crisis on the Earth

[NeoAC]

Brian was just scratching his head over the arguments some of the members seemed to be participating in. Yeah, the news people were a little pushy, and it was annoying when he was trying to eat, but that's all it appeared to be. Annoying. Of course as a rookie he would probably only be annoyed by it.

He looked down at the scrap of paper he was still clutching tightly, the number still fresh on it. Well some good came out of the trip, I don't care what they say. Finally going to get a shot at some solid action. Not another one night stand of listening to some bimbo blather on about Kant and then getting some quickie sex out of it.

He yawned a loud yawn and stretched out his arms. "Well I'm feeling a bit more tired then I thought, you guys. I think I might go take a nap too there. Refresh and all, eh? I'll see you guys in a bit." He headed off to his room to accomplish this newly-established goal.

 

[CounterAttack]

Katie followed the others into the lounge, promptly flopping down on one of the couches. Since she hadn't had time to eat, she looked over at a nearby vase of flowers on a coffee table and concentrated on the plants. Seconds later a few pieces of fruit sprouted from one of the larger flowers and ripened instantly. Katie quickly picked them, snapped her fingers at the flower to revert it back to its previous state, and scarfed down the fruit. It had been a while since the time at which she normally ate in the mornings.

[hr]

Rowan hung back a bit, a thought striking him from earlier. That waitress at the café - Erica, he thought her name was - had seemed more than a little interested in Tyson. On the other hand, the sound manipulator clearly had not shown the same interest. Maybe a little digging was in order. He tapped Tyson's shoulder once Tommy had passed through to the lounge, and said, "Hey, just out of curiosity, who was that chick hanging round your neck back at the café?"

 

[elementsoul]

Tyson felt a tap on his shoulder and turned. Tyson was caught off guard by Rowan's question about Erica. It was like Tyson got hit by an ice berg as he almost instantly cooled off. "Umm..." Came out of Tyson mouth as he needed to refocus and think about his anwser. It took Tyson a few seconds but he managed to get it together. "Her name's Erica. She's works as a waitress and hostess there. Her parents own the café. She's kind of been all over me since the day I first went there and helped her out." Tyson replied purposely not going into detail.

 

[CounterAttack]

"I see..." Rowan mused, though he kinda didn't see. Evidently Tyson was leaving out details, such as anything that may have happened between them after the incident, or what had actually caused said incident. Maybe Tyson just didn't want to talk about it. People could be like that if they had to talk about a touchy subject.

"If, y'know, you ever want to talk a little more about her, I'm all ears," Rowan added. "Oh, and once again out of curiosity, is she single or taken?"

 

[elementsoul]

"Well I didn't get a chance to talk to her today so I can't say for certain but last time I talked to her she was single. She kind of dips in and out of relationships from time to time. I think at least once she's gotten into one in an attempt to make me jealous. I know she's gotten into others so people would leave her alone about moving on from me and finding someone else. To be honest I likely won't talk about her more unless asked. I'm not really one to just talk about things without reason, but if I'll anwser any questions if I don't mind the subject." Tyson answered to Rowan's question.

 

[CounterAttack]

"Alright, I get it. Maybe I'll go talk to her sometime," Rowan said, more to himself than Tyson. If Erica had been trying to make Tyson jealous of her by hooking up with some other guy, it seemed that she had underlying feelings for him. That and the whole hanging around his neck thing when she had made her first appearance.

"Anyways. I may ask about Erica again another time," he added, heading into the lounge to join the others. Hopefully there was something good on TV to pass the time before lunch.

 

[socialtangent]

Victor awoke in the all-too familiar cold, stone cell.

He pulled himself up to his feet, took a deep breath, and howled in rage, the primal roar reverberating loudly through his stone prison. Victor's fist slammed into the nearest wall, causing cracks to form and small bits of rock to fly from the point of impact. The single dangling light swayed from the force, casting harsh moving shadows on the walls. To his displeasure, the stone began to reform itself just as quickly as he had damaged it. The cracks began to fill themselves and regenerate the missing stone. The small chunks he liberated from the wall simply disappeared into nothingness. Turning away from the self-repairing wall, the furious British apparition began to pace back and forth, his bloodlust and rage clouding his judgement.

Victor refused to believe that a nobody could simply approach him from behind and incapacitate him in such an undignified manner. He knew he was more powerful than that. If he had full control over Taryn's mind, he would have snapped the cyborg like a twig. But why didn't he?

Because he wasn't strong enough.

The idea of being weak infuriated Victor. He wanted power. He craved power. He needed power. Power over everyone else. Power to bring the entire world to his knees. Victor needed to find, or perhaps create, a more suitable vessel than Levi's weak, insufficient body. Only then could he unleash his full power without destroying himself. But to do that, he needed to be in control. He needed to eliminate the most immediate threat: the Society of Justice.

On the thought of control, Victor shot a quick glance towards where the much-maligned Wall stood. Immediately, he froze mid-stride. In his rage-clouded state of mind, he had failed to notice the obvious. The Wall was gone. No doubt a result of the event that caused Levi and Taryn to briefly exchange bodies. A bit of chaos that disrupted the established order.

Victor, without hesitation, made his move. There was no time to cherish the moment. He leaped out into the void that would bring him into Levi's mind.

He would win this time, or die trying.

"Bartholomew!"


[hr]

Levi heard the unmistakable voice an instant before he was struck with the all-too familiar crippling, freezing cold pain in his head. He yelled out in pain and stumbled away from Taryn, crashing into a table that had remained untouched from the Union's raid. Falling to the floor and knocking the table over with him, Levi clutched his head in agony. No, he thought defiantly. You're not going to win this time. As he did his best to control Victor's advance, the pain intensified tenfold. The horrid sensation was if his brain was freezing solid from the inside out. Levi shouted out again and clutched his head tighter, writhing on the floor as his eyes began to shift erratically between his normal green and Victor's soulless pitch black.

 

[RBMidknight]

Taryn turned around when Levi yelled, her expression a mixture of concern and confusion. She reached for him instinctively as he stumbled and fell to the ground. "Levi!" Taryn snapped. She darted forward. Only to step back again to avoid Levi's flailing. 'What happened?' Taryn thought. She felt bewildered by the sudden change. Then Taryn caught sight of Levi's shifting eyes. She swore silently. Shoving the toppled table out of her way Taryn knelt down on the floor next to Levi's right side. She began speaking rapidly in a quiet repetition. Some part of her knew she might not even be heard but Taryn didn't care. She had to do something.

"Fight him. Fight him, Levi. Come on. Stay with me." 'Please!' Completely focused on the man in front of her, Taryn forgot for a moment that anyone else was in the room.

 

[blaze96]

Lillian crouched down next to Levi.

"What in the world is happening? We need to get a doctor in here." She said.

Richard immediately turned around and saw Levi before calling for the doctor to get his ass in here.

 

[Lizmichi]

Alex rushed out of her room right as she was getting in bed and ran to the lounge. "Levi what's wrong?" Alex asked then saw Levi's eyes shifting. "God no, not Victor. Levi you need to hold on. Don't let him get out." Alex said and put a hand on Taryn's shoulder. "You might want to get back Taryn. If Victor gets out he'll kill you first. I can try to hold him back." Alex said trying to protect Taryn.

Eric jumped out of his seat only remembering Victor some from the alien planet. "Wait is this crazy kill us all Victor? Ummmm shit." Eric said getting up and standing back.

 

[CounterAttack]

"Oh, shit," Katie murmured to herself, immediately sitting up and shooting a look at Levi. If Victor was trying to take over Levi again, he'd find it easier this time since the mind-switch had probably weakened his defenses. She didn't know how Taryn had managed to keep the monstrosity imprisoned, but whatever she had used at the time, it wasn't working now.

"What should we do? We can't just let Victor run rampant, we need some way to contain him," she said to no-one in particular, trying to come up with something.

[hr]

"Wait, what's going on? Who's this Victor guy?" Rowan asked, unsure of anything that was taking place. All of the more experienced members of the Society seemed to be reacting to whatever the crisis was. Perhaps it was something that had happened a while back, before he had joined up.

 

[tsatoma]

Garrus was busy putting the now fussy Renton down for a nap when he heard the barely-audible-due-to-the-room's-sound-proof-walls screaming and commotion from the lounge. He stayed with his son for a few minutes to make sure he was asleep before quietly closing the door behind him and rushing out to see what the problem was; accidentally running into the Doctor who was also rushing down the hall and into the lounge.

"Sorry about that Doc," Garrus said, helping the man up as he muttered something about how it was like hitting a truck. Garrus shrugged that off and opened up the lounge doors to see everyone crowding around Levi. He watched as the Doctor ran over, knelt down, did a quick examination before saying that he was not a mind doctor and that there was nothing he could do.

"That's fine Doc, just get the infirmary ready for the worst," Garrus told him after walking over, cursing slightly when he realized it was Victor, "Well this isn't good at all."

 

[Pm0n3y]

Jason's casual stroll quickly became urgent once the activity in the lounge heightened for the worse. He quickly rushed up to the others as the panicked amongst themselves.

"Well, we could always strap him down..." He answered Katie as he threw off his hoodie and rolled up his sleeves. He wouldn't want to fight Levi, but Victor was a very dangerous threat. Jason (or anyone else, for that matter) couldn't risk letting their guards down.

"Victor...Well, let's just say that he's a force to not be reckoned with. He's a separate entity locked within Levi's mind. Just waiting for the perfect opportunity to take control of his current vessel. I don't know if he's always been a part of Levi's psyche (like a duel personality or something), or if they've been conjoined through some other means, but either way, the man is not to be messed with." Jason informed Rowan urgently, black tendrils running down his arms and hands as he talked, forming into their usual razor-sharp claws as they quickly wrapped and binded to each individual finger.

"Of course, you're all to familiar with 'separate entities' being 'locked within minds', aren't you?" Erebus inquired.

"Yeah buddy. We both are." He thought back quietly and breathlessly as he looked on at the sight of Levi's writhing body.

 

[RBMidknight]

As the rest of the world started to filter back into Taryn's senses her quiet mantra trailed off. She heard Alex first. Taryn ignored the questionable statement about holding Victor back and looked up at Alex with a frown.

"I'm not leaving him." she stated firmly. Anger mixed in with Taryn's fear and concern. She quickly jerked away from Alex so that she was no longer in contact with the water user. But Taryn remained close to Levi. She looked down at him, silently wishing she help him.

"We can't just let Victor run rampant, we need some way to contain him"

'Contain him?...He was contained, until I screwed up.' Taryn broke away from her thoughts when Garrus entered the room with the Doctor. Torn between her personal dislike of the man and the possibility that he could help, she remained silent as the Doctor approached and examined Levi. But the Doctor was unhelpful.

Taryn scowled and her hand clenched into a fist. She felt a small flicker of sensation and glanced down to see a tiny bolt of electricity jump from her hand to her belt. Taryn shook her hand briskly and forced herself to take a deep breath. While she worked on calming down Taryn heard Jason explaining who Victor was to someone. 'Okay, fine. We need a mind doctor...or the equivalent of one...hmm...oh wait, Leland might work. LELAND!' Taryn glared at the wall nearest to the rooms and shouted mentally again. She didn't want to leave Levi and figured that Leland should be able to 'hear' her. Hopefully. If not she'd sent one of the others to fetch him.

 

[NeoAC]

Brian yawned loudly as he woke up from his little nap. He was feeling a lot better, more refreshed. He would rock that text later tonight. "Haaaah, hmmmm, wonder what everyone else is up to?"

He got up and walked out to the lounge, only to find everyone gathered around what appeared to be Levi. They appeared to be holding him down and....what were they doing?

"Uh guys, uh what's going on? Is Levi going crazy there?" he asked.

 

[tsatoma]

After only a few seconds Leland came bursting from the living area hallway, asking why Taryn was yelling for him so loudly. It's then he noticed everyone crowding around the yelling-in-agonizing-pain Levi, rushing over and sliding into a kneel next to him. He closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated on Levi's mind, images of Levi and Victor in a battle over control.

Leland opened his eyes and raised his hand, only to smack Levi on the forehead and effectively knocking him out for a moment.

"Relax everyone, just a spell. It'll give us time to think, because there is some crazy stuff going on in his head. It's like Peter Parker and...himself are fighting! But not metaphorically. And the battle takes place in the north pole! So...I think we should move him over to the infirmary while he's not all, fidgety. That was kinda why I used that spell," Leland told them, getting a few confused looks before saying, "This may sound crazy, but I think it's about time we finally get rid of that evil guy that sounds like Saruman in Levi's head."

"And you propose we do this how?" Garrus asked as he knelt down to grab Levi's shoulders, lifting him up a bit to help take him to the infirmary.
"Okay, so you guys know the movie Inception right? So, I'm thinking we do something similar, but without the guilt, planting of an idea, or ambiguity. A lot more ass kicking though. It should be easy enough for me to send us all in...you know, if you want to go in that is. I call Eames though," Leland explained.

 

[NeoAC]

"I never saw that movie," Brian complained. "I was going to, but then I went and saw Salt instead, because Angie Jolie is a lot hotter than Ellen Page, even though she's a fellow Canuck. Anyway, can't we like do something? Stun his brain maybe? You know?"

 

[CounterAttack]

"I don't know Inception. Haven't been one for the more recent movies," Katie noted quietly. She could already see a number of flaws in Leland's plan. "But anyway, I'm a little confused. What happens if you just send us into Levi's head just like that? I figure it'd be a spell, obviously, but what happens if all of us are inside his head at once? I mean, wouldn't that, like, overload his brain or something?"

"She has a point," Rowan agreed. "And what exactly do you mean when you talk about us being in his head? Is that our individual consciousnesses in there with him, or just a part of it? I don't understand it."

 

[tsatoma]

"I already knocked him unconscious for now Brian, but we need to get rid of the problem at the source! And that means going inside his head, which is completely safe and has been done numerous times in history. Otherwise this could just keep happening again, and again, and I just don't think we want that," Leland explained before sighing at the numerous questions he was getting.

"Quick Q & A time then. No, the mind doesn't work that way Katie. Though their are ways to overload the mind this is not one. You'd be surprised at how much people can fit in their own little mindscapes. As for you Rowan, it will be our minds connecting to his and us going into his mind to deal with the problem. Not sure how much sense it makes to you, but everything will be fine," he said already making his way to the infirmary.

 

[CounterAttack]

Rowan took a few seconds to try and process what Leland had just told him. It didn't make much sense. To him, the mind was not something that was easily malleable; it wasn't something like a book, that people could just open up and read.

"Nope. I still don't get it," he muttered to himself. "There's gotta be some other way to do it. Maybe it could be like Tal Rasha in Diablo II when he got sealed in an underground cavern to play 'got-your-mind' with one of the most powerful demonic entities in the entire game. Except Levi isn't one of the greatest mages of our time. No offence to him, of course."

"I dunno... all of these ideas seem like inelegant ways to help Levi," Katie mused. "But if there is no other option, I guess we have to do it." The thought from earlier that morning came back to her, and she added, "Someone remind me to deck a bad guy in our next fight."