Strain

[ThreeWords]

The man in the hail of bullets stopped as he spotted the supers. Ignoring the gunmen, who's fire slid off him harmlessly. He stared at them, took a few steps in their direction, and aimed a device. Nothing happened, but he seemed satisfied, and immediately accelerated straight upwards, heading for cloud cover

 

[Zemalac]

Christian stumbled out of the clock tower door and into light. Faint light, to be sure, coming from a lone streetlamp, but it was certainly brighter than the darkness he'd caused to fill the tower. There were less people out here, too, with the mind-controlled crowd having a hard time finding its way out. He took a frantic look around and didn't see anyone, which was both good and bad. Where the hell was Lier?

A broken section of street caught his eye. That right there might be the answer he was looking for. Went underground and pulled the door shut behind him. Dammit. Right there were all of his current leads and his target, vanishing into thin air. That was unacceptable.

He went back into the clock tower--quickly now, he could hear the sirens in the distance, didn't want to be around when they got here. No time to go back up to the penthouse, but that was fine. He should be able to find what he was looking for behind the front desk...

He avoided stepping in the doorman's blood. He avoided touching anything that might hold fingerprints. He even avoided breathing overly much. What he was about to do was not, strictly speaking, legal, and he'd rather not be brought to the attention of the sort of people who cared about that technicality.

Monitor was here, that one was a power cable, so the computer must be...ah, here we go. Old Dell machine, more used for keeping records than anything else. And here, next to it, a spy novel and a small notebook...notebook probably contains passwords, Christian didn't know anyone who didn't write 'em all down somewhere...

He took it all. The novel and the notebook went into his pockets while he considered the computer. He wasn't about to walk out of a ransacked building carrying a full computer tower--he might as well just hang a sign around his neck that said "COMMITTING CRIME." No, all he needed was the data.

It took him a few seconds to get the case open, but not long after that to remove the hard drive. He slotted the remains of the machine back into its cabinet, wrapped the drive in his coat, and walked casually out of the building. Here, at least, was somewhere to restart his search.

 

[ThreeWords]

Spoiler: @Zem

Sorry about the control, but I felt like bringing in a little spice. If it feels too invasive, gimme a yell!

Nothing happened as Christian left the building. No policemen stopped him, no swat teams descended upon him, and no hidden snipers smote him from afar. He crossed the street, walked down the road, and headed down an alley.

Which was when the agents stepped out.

The on that appeared in front looked human, but the another descended straight down with jets coming out of his, or it's feet, and they looked exactly identical.

"I'm sorry, Mr Factor, but we're going to have to ask you to come with us. You are required for questioning"

 

[ThreeWords]

The super had disappeared, and the soldiers were in retreat, They fell back, firing half heartedly as they went, but it was no danger to the Damien, James and Dyme. Things fell quiet. Almost too quiet.

"Damien Lier" came a clear, piping voice, "Serial killer and terrorist, responsible for the destruction of... well, I don't think it's even on the map any more." It was the voice of a child, not yet into puberty, and spoke with a clear, slightly lisping innocence despite what it was saying. "Also with him, Dyme Allesandros, an impressionable youth and, I suppose, a drug addict, and James Vex, corrupt businessman and exploiter of the masses. The last one sounds a little weak, I think. Perhaps we should add something about a rape charge...?"

From round the corner came a small figure. To the three supers, who had all heard of the free robot that had so many times fought the agents of the Company, the child resembled Threewords in a state he had never been; this voice, this face, this way of movement all hearkened to a the childhood that the robot had never had.

"It's so good to finally meet you" said 1W, with a open, childlike smile.

 

[Zemalac]

There was a short period of silence before Christian responded.

"...Really," he said. He held out a hand, conveniently shifting his weight to bring his pistol within easy reach and to hide the outline of the hard drive under his coat a little. "I will of course comply with any request made by duly authorized authorities." His tone made no comment onto whether he thought these two qualified for that. "May I see your warrant?"

Behind Christian Factor's calmly smiling face, plans began to form.

Spoiler: @ThreeWords

That's perfectly fine. I stopped narrating when he left the tower intentionally, just in case you wanted to do something like this. I'm just assuming the agents intercepted him on the way to his car.

 

[ThreeWords]

The agent smiled, sort of. At least, he turned up the ends of his mouth. "But of course, Mr Factor" reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a flat, white rectangle and held it out, stepping closer to hand it to Christian.

As he held it up for Christian to see, the agent closed his eyes. Something was definitely fishy, but it wasn't till the rectangle burnt a single, blinding flash into his retinas that he knew what.

Spoiler: Zem

Where is your God plan now?

 

[Zemalac]

Christian couldn't help but be a little surprised that they actually had a warrant. He had some doubts as to how legitimate it would be, but at least having a paper to hand him bespoke a level of preparedness that he hadn't anticipated.

And then came the flash of light. Goddamn. So they didn't have a forged paper with his name on it, just some fancy tech. Despite his sudden blindness, Christian couldn't help but feel vaguely relieved at that.

Okay. Blind, they're obviously not taking no for an answer, original plan is out the window...let's see what we can make of this. Light still searing into his eyes, Christian made a sudden movement for his gun. They would never let him reach it, of course. He was counting on that.

He heard them move, and his face froze in a smile. Perhaps, if he was lucky, they'd break their hands when they hit him.

 

[Sam G]

"Dyme Allesandros, an impressionable youth and, I suppose, a drug addict..."
That was what was said. All that Dyme could hear in his mind, though, was "1W1W1W1W1W1W1W1W1W1W1W1W1W". His eyes widened at the sight of the little robot, his mouth dropped open slightly and the guitar he was using to drop a sick jam of some thaumaturgical effect slipped out of his grasp, landing with a clatter on the ground and dissolving away into purple flames.
I... Dyme thought. God, he couldn't even think in coherent sentences; what on earth was he going to say to the unbelievably amazing little robot standing not ten paces away from him?

Unconsciously, Dyme took a stuttery little step towards the face hiding halfway behind the corner of the building.

Nine paces.
Alright, now say something. Go on; it's never been so important for you to think in your life, dammit! Take all the thinking you should have done during those school exams you spent staring out the window and playing songs in your head - all that thinking you're due - and spend it now, on one coherent sentence! SPEAK, GOSH-DANG YOU TO HECK!

"Drugs are bad," Dyme said with vigour and determination, drawing himself to full height to face the small boy who'd killed more men than Dyme had broken guitar-strings. "You're 1W. "One-Dub". I used to sketch pictures of you in my notebook at school. Here, could you sign this- no, wait, what are you doing here? Yes, that. What are you doing here, 1W? Oh god, you're so beautiful..." Dyme somehow managed to trip over his feet, even though he wasn't moving, and stumbled another step towards 1W.

 

[Xero Scythe]

Damien thought fast. Unfortunately, this mostly involved swearing. "1W. Great. Just great. Why not screw me over by sending Pain as well, God?" Damien inwardly fumed. He smiled angelically, showing nothing of his thoughts. "1W! 3W said so very many things about you." Damien's eyes widened as he saw Dyme walk towards the robot in a haze. Damien's arm lashed out and snagged him, pulling the super behind him. "You idiot!" Damien hissed, so that not even the robot ears of 1W could hear. "That thing could kill you in a heartbeat! Don't go near it!" Damien looked at 1W. "So sorry- he is rather impressionable, but drugs are a bit harder to fake. Rape... While I detest it, there's very little a few million won't make go away. As for my charges..." Damien slowly took his smartphone out of his pocket and played a video, keeping the screen to himself. Gunshots and artillery could clearly be heard through the speakers. Damien shook his head sadly as screams could be heard, then more gunshots. "Y'know, y'all shouldn't just put the Company's insignia on everything. It makes it so easy to identify everything. Especially when all your soldiers wear the same clothing. I shot this video right as I tried to escape Gen City, and you know what? It's pretty damn good quality stuff." Here Damien chuckled. "You know what's even better? How absolutely easy it is to make a video file into a virus that passes most firewalls, including Norton. All I would have to do is press this button right here. To send the truth out to the world, a single button would change everything. Technology these days is amazing, isn' it?" To make his point, Damien moved his thumb over the send button, while moving his right hand to scratch his back, to make 1W even more nervous about how confident he was.

 

[ThreeWords]

1W clapped his hands, a delighted smile on his angelic face.

"Oh yes, oh course! Send out your video! Show the world you blurry images of an impossible truth!" The little face grew serious, "It'll have no effect, Lier. I control the media, and with it the public opinion. Your 'evidence' could be filmed after the event, or constructed out of CGI. Or maybe the troops were under your control; everyone knows you're a dangerous mutant of unknown power. Yes, I think we'll go with that; you made them do it. I'm sure it wouldn't take much to get a few mind-scarred, shell-shocked 'survivors' to break down as they talk about the horrors of mind control..."

Abruptly, he seemed to loose interest, and turned to Dyme with a simple, innocent smile, "Hello Dyme" he said sweetly, "You guessed right, I am One-Dub, as you call me. As for why I'm here, it's because I want to talk to you.

"Unfortunately, it's a matter of public record that you are a drug addict. I've updated the local police records, and the database of your school, while we've been talking. And unfortunately, it doesn't matter what you say; you're only a poor, confused kid who's somehow, tragically, become mixed up with nasty substances that have addled your brain. You probably don't know what you're saying, really..."

---

A fist smashed against Christians face, and another into his stomach a moment later, then nothing. As the retina-burn began to clear, he could see the agents waiting for him; impassively watching.

"So here we have a stand-off" one said, "We can't hurt you like this, and you can't leave. Of course, that won't last long; if you won't come with us, we can come to you. I'm sure some of the higher ups wouldn't mind doing a few tests with an inviolate. I wonder what happens if we run a current through you?"

 

[terribleyetfun]

Spoiler: OOC

*jumps in through a window riding a grizzly bear* hello there people of strain, I`ve already talked it over with 3W and he said I could join so hooray!

Spoiler: character sheet

Name: Jason Leahman (although during one of his many drunken fits he has made the resolution to sign his name as jason Voorhees)

Age:25

Appearance: A well built man with above average height nearly 6,5 feet with messy black hair which covers over some of his face and some of his neck he has deep blue eyes along with a small goatee Refer to this image for details

Spoiler: appearance

[/URL]

appearance
Power: Jason himself merely has increased bone density making his body far more resistant to physical injury than most normal people

Short biography: Jason has been unemployed for a while now forced to the life of a drifter moving from one place to another it`s not that he was unintelligent or lazy it`s just that he was victim to horrible luck always being in the wrong place at the wrong time, this time winding up in urbris, living on the streets and having to fight for his next meal this time though his tendency for bad luck may just catch up to him in the worst possible way

Jason fell against the hard concrete wall , the bottle in his hand scraping against the wall with him, his sense of balance disorientated, his vision blurry and just about every other sense dulled to the point where it felt like he was trapped inside himself merely watching through someone else's eyes instead of actually doing anything himself he lowered his head and retched slightly feeling the onset of a sudden burst of nausea, he dry heaved again trying to force the vomit along but felt nothing thinking it would come later he continued to stagger along back to where he kept his stuff, hidden inside a cardboard box it always brought a slight chuckle from him whenever he thought of this realizing the stereotypical nature of hobo's or 'drifters' as he liked to call himself, to live in cardboard boxes.

He continued feeling his way along the wall trying to keep himself steady Making it about another two feet before catching a glimpse of several slightly blurry figures further down the alley three of them with his back to him, he continued moving closer perceiving them as nothing more than hallucinations as he got closer he started to make out what they were saying

supers?....man those guys are messed up, just wrecking shit left right and center, not even caring about who gets screwed over by collateral damage or any of that shit, gotta admit it`s pretty awesome though, with some of the shit they pull off, wish I could do that, probably would`nt be an alcoholic then just insane

He continued to stagger towards them with a pace that would have failed him from any sobriety test having to scrape his bottle and his free hand against the nearby walls and trash cans to stay stable.

 

[The Clown]

James recoiled briefly at the sight of the child, shocked to hear such an adult style of speaking from its form. Outraged he fumed internally, his fists clenching by his sides, "Who are you? 1W.... and why do you make up such lies? Media or not you cannot control the public opinion, my company could easily rectify any of your meddling."

James took a few steps back and looked at his surroundings, the bleak streets and alleyways in the distance, "You have to get out of this mess, this is getting way out of hand you get yourself.... no this is not something you can run away from, this is bigger than it seems, try and reason with the boy, or fight him." he thought to himself as the wind blew through his now muddy hair.

 

[ThreeWords]

Spoiler: OOCs

@All: Yes indeedy, Terry's got my stamp of approval. I felt we could use another villain or two, to get some PvP going...

@Clown: Just to point out, 1W's voice is childlike and innocent, juts like his face. It's only what he says that seems corrupt and evil. Edit?

@Terry: I'm gonna assume that the 'slightly blurry figures' are the other players, but 1W's gonna ignore you until you do something dramatic. No offence, he's just busy being horid to someone else...

1W laughed gleefully, as if James had told a silly joke.

"You say you're not heroes, but you have such idealistic delusions. How long will it take you to realize that human beings are stupid, malleable creatures? They watch their televisions and stare at their computer scrrens, and never even bother to try thinking anything that hasn't already been thought a dozen times before."

"The beautiful truth, in fact, is that the the only reason you don't think I dictate this country's thoughts is that I make you think you're free. I own them."

He giggled to himself for a moment, then added, "Oh, and even if you're company could do anything to stop me, it's a little late now. Everyone knows you're a known criminal on the run since you killed your favorite child prostitute in a fit of rage last night, and the government has been forced to seize your assets."

 

[The Clown]

"Wait.... how on earth are you going to make that true? My men were with me last night, there were many witnesses, my companies records show the signal I sent and from where you cannot possibly manage this, my second in command would assume, not your slave of a government, I've had enough of you boy," James said, his voice growing stronger and more angry as his passage drew to a close.

"You, will, end," he barked, James raised an arm then swung in down in an arc, black rock rushing and locking onto his hand, swooping down towards the boys skull. With his other hand he gathered a concrete ball the size of a basketball and sent it flying towards 1W behind the fist.

Spoiler: OOC

Edited, and yes I know exactly what my attack attempts will result in.

 

[ThreeWords]

"You don't get it, do you, you stupid human?" began the child, ignoring the rock weapons. As the fist struck, he merely flickered, then smiled again. "Of course, you don't think I'd actually engage you without knowledge of your powers, do you? This is just a projection, for conversational purposes only."

"Speaking of powers, however, you've just shown me yours. And where my idiot brother merely copies powers, I understand them. I bet you didn't know that you're using a latent telekinetic faculty to resonate with various mineral compounds! I'm sure I can reproduce a version of that for when we next meet..."

"In case you're interested," he continued, "It took me 2.3 seconds to hack your personal database, and a further 5.1 seconds to make all the necessary edits. Most of your men can be bribed, tutored, driven to drink and drugs, or sent on suicide missions before they can cause a problem, and any who persist will simply be killed.
That is, except for those that we observed under the control of some unknown super. They, I assure you, will suffer far more"

"Now, there was some special reason why I came to chat..." He looked mock-puzzled for a minute. A faint roaring began at the edge of consciousness. "Oh yes! Triangulation, and stalling tactics! Now we know where you are, it was just a matter of time..."

The roaring grew loader. "Remember my brother? Not the stupid one who fought Mother, but the really, really stupid one who only wanted to kill?"

The roaring was a scream, right above their heads, "Say hello to 2W"

The robot dropped from two stories up, landed heavily , and stood without hurry. Straightening up, it came to over 7 feet in height, molded from chrome and blood-rusted steel. It's shapes were all angles, the arm it raised held a nasty looking gun.

The gun fired, and a wave of sheer force blasted into the supers.

 

[The Clown]

James reacted almost instantly, rocketing himself upwards on a platform of stone, he flew over a hundred feet in the air, the platform drifted away from under his feet he split in in two pieces and send two diamond-hard shards of rock hurtling towards the screaming thing.

He curved in the air and dove down, pulling up huge slabs of concrete from the roads, wrapping themselves around him as if they were paper,
he roared and dive-bombed onto 2W with immense force, the blast crushing the thing below the ground.

James shook his head as he climbed out of his wreck then swiftly leapt away and turned to look at the mess he had made, "Knowing these dicks he is bound to climb out, and keep fucking shooting me..." he thought as he brushed the dust from his face, "Damien! Dyme! get away from them and prepare yourselves!" he yelled at his two fellow supers who had barely missed being swashed by the attack.

 

[ThreeWords]

Inevitably, 2W surfaced, unmarked and unrushed. It's expressionless face turned toward James, no doubt designating him the primary threat, and it raised it's arm once more, the weapon hurling James backwards as if a truck had just hit him.

At the same time, ports opened in it's shoulders and launched a swarm of micro missiles, each of which screamed away on their own apparently random course, before arcing back toward each of the three supers.

 

[The Clown]

As he hurtled backwards towards a large wall he tried to draw up sand to slow himself but he was too late, he smashed back first into the wall, imbedding in it.

He barely had time to get his bearings before he saw a missile flying towards him, he struck it out of the air with a fist size rock,the explosion singing his hair. He fell onto his front then crawled out of his hole in the wall, picking himself up he looked back at the others and began to run towards them, as he approached 2W he dived to the right to avoid a spray of bullets then ran again at him, sliding on his knees he swung a pole-like rock at its legs.

 

[ThreeWords]

Spoiler: OOC

Clown, I'm gonna have to warn to against dictating 2W's reactions. You don't know his powes or weaknesses, so leave it to me to tell you what your attacks do.
Edit out that you took 2W down, then the fight can continue.

 

[The Clown]

Spoiler: OOC

Edited.