Arashi

Cortianna tilted her head as she concidered the room before them and poked her mental fingers in a bit beyond.


"When they start trouble, any of you who can make them see things, try disguising us. That trick won't work when they're paying attention, but if things turn chaotic, they probably won't notice."

Corti smirked at Arrow. "Chaos, I can do." Her form flickered a little further from perception as she floated along the ceiling.

Taking the lead from the confusion Arrow started, the psychic closed her eyes, her hands touched lightly against her temples as she opened some blocks she placed around her power. When she opened her eyes, the pale blue/white of her eyes was blazing with light, the soft teal spiking in front of her.

She held a hand out to the room as her mouth curled into a grimmly satisfied smile.

<You all will have two minutes, watch out for the Huntsmen, or whatever the Masters call them. They'll most likly throw off my influence sooner then the rest.>

Mental probes spiked into the minds below, bypassing what little they had for mental defences. Once inside, she found the smallest instances of anger, resentment and annoyence the troops ever felt for their fellows, then she magnified it beyond reason and surpresed their self-control.

The result was that the room errupted into a full blown riot as the troops saught to 'get even' for the wrongs the others had done them. The Huntsmen tried to bring order back, but their words were ignored and Cortianna gave a little extra push to them. Their anger over their men's behavior surged up and they drew weapons to deal with them.

Above, floating silently, Cortianna smiled once more.

Virtue by and large has the most visable RP community. (Though watch out for 'mature' RPers)

Pinnacle and Protector have a well sized one as well.

AJ smirked at Greta, though her expression faltered at Dr. West's harsh statement to her.

"Hey now..." She started only to be cut off and ignored as Essex, then the Doc overrode her. The silver-haired reploid frowned as the conversations. Then Curtis turned to her.

"Reckon there's fightin' ter be done, AJ, you ready?"

AJ grinned at the gunslinger, a faint tracery of red stretched across the bridge of her nose.

"Always am. Anything's better then sittin' 'round here while something major's going on up top."

The Magus' detonation rocked the lab and nearly set her off her feet, though Curtis' hands steadied her.

"Um... thanks."

"...Let us show them some Earth hospitality." West finished, readying his gun.

AJ arced an eyebrow and smiled. "Welcome to Earth, huh?"

Cortianna looked at Jake as he politely asked her to keep her mind to herself. She was impressed with his self-control, most of those she encountered with... aversions... to psychics tended to be much more vocal about it. Not to mention violent.

Shame there was only so much she could do to not listen. To her telepathy, every impulse was like a neighbor with their stereo up too loud. Obvious to hear and next to impossible to block out, if sometimes unintelligible.

<For what ever it is worth, nothing I might gleen from your mind will ever be used against you. Unless, of course, it poses a direct threat to me. I'll be aware of your surface thoughts unless you find a way to shield them. I will not instigate deeper probes into your mind unless asked or the situation demands it.> She told the man before gliding along after the others to the base.

The tripping of the alarm and the rapid deployment of troops brought a faintly impressed expression to the psychic, right before she lashed out with her mind and brought up a sense of unbridled terror in the men, followed by altering the perceptions of one to see his friends as enemies and his enemies as friends.

/e clap

Very nice. Enjoyed it a lot. Though I personally wish you had done more with Kathode's history. But I'll wait for future stories.

Cortianna gave Soul Striker a faintly amused grin as she heard his thoughts before floating through the portal herself.

Perez sounded pretty empty to ears, but, while a great deal quieter then previous, was a rumble of thought impulses from living creatures both great and small. The cacophony was familiar to the teen, and hard won experience let her allow the bulk of the noise wash around here as she expanded her telepathy. A subtle wave washed the distance of her mind's range, informing the subconscious minds of everything that looked in her direction that she wasn't there.

It was an old and simple trick she made, but it still demanded that she not instigate things, and abnormally disciplined minds tended to see through the message before she got too close.

A light touch on the minds of her current allies kept both them aware of where she was, and her of the state of there minds.

AJ blinked at Greta, closed her eyes and shook her head, then leaned forward to peer closely at the woman for several seconds.

Then she began to laugh uproariously.

"Oh my ohm... the chick's possessor over tracks for the Doc!" The tombot clutched at her sides, nearly doubled over in laughter.

"Can you believe that?" She asked of the nearest Malta she was now leaning against. The TacOp looked down at her, a bemused smile under his mask as he wondered how long before she would start acting the same once she really realized Curtis was in the room.

Cortianna easilly pressed the button on the shpere she had been given, the psionic having quickly pulled the intent of the device from the minds of the soldiers before them had even finished giving them out.

She listened quietly to Sybil's speech, listening with both her ears and mind to the woman as well as the minds of the ring of resistence soliders. Her face was carefully blank as she tip-toed amung the mental tulips before coming to her decision.

"I am called Cortianna out of the Rouge Isles, I will aid you to the best of my abilities."

AJ blinked at Curtis, her own hand had clenched in preperation of releasing an electric bolt, of course, seeing Curtis, the tombot doubted she would've gotten her arm halfway up before her optics were turned into vents. She really wondered sometimes if the Maltan gunslinger had cybernetics or something, organics couldn't be that fast.... right?

"Pre-a-what?" She stammered at him as Essex came around with a full squad of Malta and... "Whoa!" Her arm snapped back up with a visibly crackling electric charge.

"The fission module!" Zealstorm gasped. "We are all doomed!"

"Nope jus... wait... what?" AJ wasn't to proud to admit she was lost at the moment. That had not been the response she would've expected from the assassin reploid. Essex's hurried explanation didn't help matters, but the gap in sudden appearances had given AJ time to reassert her personality.

"Uh huh, so by nice you mean this one is not a psychotic witch seeking to examine you internals by the most direct route? Forgive me if I remain doubtful." The silver-haired reploid gave Greta a very dubious, if not out-right hostile look before addressing the remainder of her 'little' sister's words. "Yeah, Doc should be back there, I'll check."

Activating her linear accelerators, AJ was off like a shot, though not nearly at full speed. No way she was leaving Essex in the same hall as Zealstorm, Preatorian or not.


----------

Ronnie had a bare seconds warning to lift her arm to absorb most of the impact of the black and red clad woman. Recoiling slightly, she turned her full attention to her assailant, trusting her flame pulses to deal with the weakened byron.

"Vironica Halie I presume." Her own voice sneered at her.

Ronnie was at a loss for words for a brief second. Sure she had dealt with Preatorian Earth before, even smacked Nuron and Anti-Matter around a bit, but for some reason, the idea that there was an evil version of her just never entered her mind. Her second of hesitation cost her as Blaze launched a fist wrapped in black flames into her stomach. The impact drove the breath out of her and pushed her back, but one didn't get to the point of running jobs at Portal Corps without learning how to take a hit. She hadn't even gotten a foot back before she stopped and hovered.

"Yeah, that me. Nice to meet you. Shame it'll be a short one though. Can't let you be late for your meeting in the Zig." A wave of flame cascaded from her hands to wash over her burning double to her amused laugh.

"Oh please, I know you're smarter then that." The flames cleared, Blaze showing almost no sign that she had even felt it. She smirked at her heroic twin, only to see empty air. "What?" She whirled in circles trying to find Ronnie.

"You're right, I am." Blaze looked up in time to see a burst of black flames impact with her face, blinding her for a few breaths. Above, Ronnie smiled under her mask, the other didn't seem to have much more then a remedial grasp of aerial combat tactics. Point home team, she thought. She was keenly aware she'd need it. It looked like her twin had turned their natural flame mutation totally inward, sheathing her body in a barrier of flame far superior then the one Ronnie herself had only recently managed. Her time to gain her barrings ended when, with an angry cry, Blaze launched at her airborne sister.

Just as she had thought, unlike her own merging with the thermal currents, Blaze rammed through the air under an explosive burst with a hand clawing toward her. Grabbing the preceding appendage, wincing as the intense flames quickly began to overcome her innate resistance, Ronnie spun, redirecting Blaze's momentum to send her crashing into the hollowed globe in the center of the campus courtyard.

She's even more reckless then I am. Never thought that was possible. Still, it's a good sign, I might actually win this after all.

Cortianna gave Windsong a brief look, taking the time to memorize her psychic imprint before lifting off on waves of telekinetic force after the other three fighters. She gave Jake a lazy blink as she skimmed up.

Hearing Soul Striker's verbal decliaration, as well as his mental latiny, she gave the teen a smirk.

"Well, I know I was being sent to what was supposed to be a time ten years from my present." Hovering half a foot off the ground, the 18 year-old girl tilted her head before continuing with in amused tone. "And while Arachnos and I are in a state of... disagreement, I'm still technically classified by the barber poles as a 'villain'." Though she gave no overt indication, Cortianna mentally taged everyone's mind and braced to overwhelm them with their fears if the situation turned hostile. She'd much rather have her position out in the open and know where they stood then try and pretend to be a 'hero'. Such deceptions rarely worked for long.

Nerva was not exactly the where Cortianna would've expected to find an experimental Arachnos portal, but here she was, talking to Technition Naylor about using it to go into the future. To say she was leery would be an understatment. The psionic babble from the demons and mages on the island had already given her a headache, the tehcnical terms Naylor thought in didn't help matters any.

"Fine, just answer me this, will this thing work?"

"Oh sure. It's been tested and documented quite thouroghly."

"Fine, I don't really have a choice anyway." The teenaged psychic sighed. Part of the deal to get Arachons off her case involed agreeing to this. She was well aware that a large portion expected her to suffer an 'unforeseen and unfortunate acident' while passing through the portal.

Stepping through the portal proved a unique experience, the sudden silence from her telepathy was more disorienting then the anything else. Then the voices began again as she emerged into, what was apparently , a fight. The thought patterns of those involved was... odd to say the least. The Arachons soldiers she was familiar with even if the armor was different. Not too unusual to expect out of what was supposed to be a ten year jump.

She looked at the three men near her, their minds quickly told her that they were heroes out of Paragon.

Great, jusy my luck to land in Capeville. Pale white-blue eyes flickered to the soldiers, what she had first taken as Arachnos troops were apparently soldiers for some group called the Masters of Mayhem. No help there then, guess I'll be trying my luck with the capes.

A focused bolt of telekinetic force lashed from her to impact against the closest trooper with the force of a car impact. A needless guesture with her hand and she began to burn the webbing around Soul Striker and Entity's legs.

<<Evening, I guess the idiots at Arachnos tried to kill me off in a rather spectacular way. Name's Cortianna by the way, we can decide later if we need to fight eachother once the more common foe is out of the way, agreed?>>

The reploid code-named Arc-Jump E-3-B, informally known as AJ to her friends and 'family', was lounging in her room in a low-power state. She wasn't in her pod, but there was next to nothing happening in the base and she was so board that she put herself into a power save mode, just to pass the time.

The alarm jolted her out of her nap with such force, the electric generating tombot fell out of the chair with a startled cry.

"Oww... ok, someones getting an impeadence test for that." She grumbled as she got up, rubbing at the brused synthskin on her hip.

What the toast is going on here?

Essex, she knew was out in the park playing with her flowers, where the others were, she wasn't as sure of. Deciding that her 'little' sister would most likely be able to find out what was wrong, or at least shut the alarms off, AJ began making her way to the teleport chamber.

------

In Steel Canyon, the Paragon City University was a den of frantic motion and confusion with students running every which way and screaming.

The arrival of the Preatorians didn't help much.

The lumbering clockwork-like machines soon made their presence felt howerver, and the normal tone of the campus took on a paniced edge as the normal students made for cover.

On the second floor of the west wing, in her Applied Writting class, Vironica Halie looked out the window with a raised eye-brow.

"Huh, I know I said I'd give anything to get out of that Trig test today, but this is a bit much."

Tapping a sequence on her wristwatch, the young woman burst into flame even as the black nanoweave undersuit she wore at all times shifted and changed her normal skirt and blouse into the red padded armor, thigh-high boots, gray biker's jacket with matching fingerless gloves and the red lower face mask with gold trimming of her 'work clothes'.

"Time to earn next months tution fees." Vironica Blaze murrmured as she opened the window. With a jaunty wave to her classmates, she stepped on to the air and blasted toward the closest machine in a trail of flame.

A quickly lanched blast of flame burst against the silver armored machine as Blaze closed in with a scimitar of fire manifasting in her hand.

Across the quad, another young woman leaned against the side of one of the lion statues marking the enterence to tha tmain admin building. Vironica Halie was tasked with passifying the collage but she felt no need to do anything herself. The toys Neuron provided were doing well enough.

She moved the sleave of her black leather jacket to look at her watch when the sound of one of the machine's exploding got her attention. Looking over, Blaze saw herself, the reds and blacks of her costume were reveresed, but it was her.

"Oh.. this'll be fun!" She charged to woman even as orange and blue flames licked around her.

Yes. You can slot multiple uniques from different sets into the same power.

As for click/toggle/auto slotting. Auto will always be active, toggles will add their bonus to you while active and clicks will give you their bonus for 2 minutes after clicking it.

(Note that the click is how I've been understanding how they work)

An awesome guide. It's definably helped in my planning for my fledgling F^3 (11 as of this evening after being rolled today). But only in slotting manners. I found we made nearly identical choices of powers. Order was off naturally, but the advice on slotting as tactics is a help.

As to Sevrums question, that I can answer. My primary Blaster (lvl 50 Eng/Ice/Force) has it. With PFF active, you can have other toggles up, HOWEVER!!! they will NOT do anything. You're just wasting the endurance. The 'Only Affecting Self' tag means exactly that.

You Sentinel, however, will continue to act as it's not in your bubble.

((Well, this is a little something that I've put together with the help of some of the other RPers I run with on Pinnacle. Notes on characters:

Nightrayne/Rachel: Recognizable from Super Hero 101 (I hope), this is the game version of her. They started similar but game Rach diverged very quickly thanks to dynamic interactions. Mostly with the below.

Jason Collier: played by @big mike. Katana/Regen.

Moriyaku/Miranda Collier: played by @moriyaku Illusion/Kin

Leroy Collier: played by @red savina claw/regen

This story, and many, many others can also be found <a href="www.rpcongress.com" target="_blank">here</a>. Including some minor references to past events in this story itself. Though not enough that it can't be read and understood I think.))



Her Father's Daughter

Striga Isle, July 2006

The Council operatives assigned to the small command all knew their superiors didn't expect much from them. Just keep an eye on the feeds from Paragon City and report anything that involed a Kheldian. Simple, easy and most of the time irrelivent to either the Council or it's Nictus allies. Still, orders had to be followed.

The trial of the Warshade 'Tutelary' was totally unexpected, but the base's Archon received it with the same disinterest as every other report he had been given. It was with long prior experience that the Nebula soldier entered the office and presented an optic disc with the day's results.

"Sir, not counting reports on Tutelary's trial concerning her specifically, we have four results."

The blond haired Archon looked up lazily. His purple eyed gaze boring into the soldier even as his hand closed over the disc. Without dismissing the messenger, the Archon placed the disc in the reader and watched the records impassively.

“What... there’s one... what’s her name? Nightbane? Nightrain! Miss Nightraine! Alice Covinton, Paragon News. What is your reaction to Tutelary’s trial?”

Seeing the young teen, the Archon's posture jerked upright and stiff even as the girl's uneducated voice butchered the words she spoke. Not paying the recording any more attention, the Archon turned to the surprised soldier, whisps of dark energy shimmering from his eyes.

"Where did that one go? And how long ago was this?" He bit out sharply.

"I... one of our bases in Steel Canyon was attacked by her, transmitted video footage showed it clearly just after 1000 hou...ack!" The soldier broke off as his form was encased in threads of dark energy that slowly began crushing the life from him. Then it was over and he fell to his knees.

"All operatives are to find this girl, I will not hear anything else from you except where she is, precisely. Am I clear?"

"Ye... yes, sir..." He croaked out, already scrambling to his feet and for the door.

Letting the human leave, the Archon stared at the frozen video of the angry, gray-haired girl.

"Well Rachel, you've managed to hide quite well from me. Imagine my surprise when you suddenly showed up as a missing host. I knew then that it was only a matter of time before I could catch up with you. Even less time now. Make your time with who ever you know count, because it's time you came home. After all, daddy knows best." With a grin, Galaxy Archon Julian Tress sat back in his chair. Soon, he would regain his lost possession.



Present

Nightrayne sighed as she shuffled the papers she had found in what was apparently the base commander's office. This job for Collen was certainly interesting, though nothing had been said implicitly about the 'Path to the Dark', but if she was reading between the lines of Jennie Bassie's journal correctly, she may be on the trail of the Nictus. The complex below a Brickstown warehouse was not as useful as she had hoped, but she wasn't finished searching just yet.

The two mercenaries slipped quietly into the base. Their commander had informed them that one of the Kheldian aliens, a renegade Nictus in particular, had gone in. The Void Stalker was hoping to go alone, but the Archon had demanded he take another. It was just his luck that the only one available was a new Seeker. Their orders were very clear and allowed no room for failure.

Nightrayne was flipping through a file cabinet when the comm tucked into her headband vibrated softly. Pausing only long enough to pull the microphone down, she answered while still searching.

"Nigh'rayne 'ere."

"Hey hun," Her father's voice brought a smile to her lips even as she continued her search.

"'Ey dad, 'ow's Mom doin'? You kee' 'er up pretty la' las' night."

Jason coughed. "How did I do that?" He said slightly amused.

"Oh c'mon. I ain' tha' mu' o' a kid. The wa'er pipe 'scuse ain' 'ery goo' you know. 'Spes'ly whe' I c'n feel echoes 'cross the lin'." Even across the comm line, Rachel could imagine her father's now red face.

"Um... so... Mira wants to take all of us out tonight." He tried to change the topic to Rachel's laughter.

The two Voids heard a girl's voice from the room and froze. Readying their Quantum Array rifles, they crouched low.

"What are we waiting for?" The Seeker demanded. "We're more then a match for any stupid squid."

"Shut up." The Stalker hissed, "If you underestimate the target, you've just given up any advantage you have. How else do you think so many other Hunters get arrested? They messed up. Now, on three we move."

"So, you going to be able to make it home before sundown? Mira wants to take us out to some diner in Steel Canyon."

"Oh? 'll do my bes' to ge' 'ere 'fore eight. Wha's thi' pla...."

Back in their apartment in King's Row, Jason's blood ran cold as his daughter's voice cut off in a scream and the distinctive whine of a quantum gun. "Rachel!"

Her body wracked in pain, Nightrayne was unable to answer. With a thought, she crossed the void between her two attackers and lashed out, gathering her energy as fast as she could and releasing it in an explosion the tore the wall apart and sent both Voids flying. Through the pounding of her blood in her ears, Rachel heard Jason's voice demanding to know what was going on.

"'mbush... tw' voids... gotta ge' ou'a 'ere..." Shacking her head, she staggered over the rubble for the main complex, she could hide there, recover and plan. Searing pain flashed across her existence as a third and final blast from a quantum gun blanked her mind and sent her to the ground. Lowering his rifle, the Stalker gave a disdainful glare at the unconscious Seeker and his broken Array rifle.

"Base, mission complete. She caused a lot of damage and the new kid's had it, but the squid's in the bag. Send a recovery team here." He flipped the line closed and walked to the downed warshade. A man's voice was coming from the side of her head. Kneeling, he pulled the communicator, the star emblem of the Allience of Champions clear on it's body and the urgent voice coming from the ear-piece, told him that their operation wasn't as quiet as he had hopped. Crushing the device, he shouldered the girl and left. The new kid could go to the Zig for all he cared. With the other heroes aware of these events, he didn't have time to wait.

----------------

Jason burst into the DTP headquarters. "I need to see Miranda, Now, I don't care what meetings she is in, I don't care what clients she is with I need to see her now." Jason's voice was a combination of fear and anger.

"All right, honey." Ginny's voice was relatively calm as she lifted the phone to dial Miranda's extension. "Head on in, she's with the security guys. I'll let her know you're coming."

Jason walked rapped on the door of Miranda's office. "It's open, babe," she called through the door. "C'mon in."

"Something happened to Rachel," Jason didn't even pause to wait to see who was in the room. "I was talking to her and she got jumped by voids. She hasn't appeared at any of the hospitals I checked before I came over here." Jason shakily sat down in a chair in the room putting his head between his legs.

Miranda stared at him for a moment, the color draining from her face. It took a second for her to get the words out, her own voice remarkably cool and crisp despite her appearance. "Reiki? There's a biosig backup under the admin password. There should be a folder labeled with Rachel's name... set it up for tracking, would you? Sync it to a handheld to go out in ten, okay?"

The wiry dark-haired man nodded, already at the door. "In five, tops. Ginny'll have it at the desk when you're ready to head out."

I'm gonna need to get the new armor see if we finally fixed it. Jason said his body finally calming down.

Should be fixed, she answered in kind. It'll take a half-hour to calibrate it, though.

Chances are we're gonna need it. He looked up. It's always something.

She got up from her desk and walked around to the chair, a hand on the back to steady herself. "When did it happen?"

"Twenty-Thirty minutes ago, I checked with all the hospitals and the Base before I decided to come here." He sighed. "I really don't know who'd go after a kid like this, most of the groups around here do have limits and that's a serious line to cross."

Miranda nodded, her lips pressed together tightly. Who's she been working for lately? Is there a lead that might have turned ugly? Was she... She froze, a hand at her mouth as she considered one of the graver possibilities. "It wasn't out at Portal Corp, was it?"

Jason shook his head. "Brickstown, That narrows it to Council or Crey, or Freaks, I doubt it was the freaks though."

At the mention of the three possibilities, Miranda's eyes narrowed. In retrospect, Jason would realize that he had seen a similar expression on the face of the Mannequin once upon a time when Derrik's own daughter had been involved. Her hands balled up into fists, the lavender tendrils curling from her palms. "She and Dirge. I've got a good idea who it was."

Jason stood up as he started to glow. His face twisting into the look that was familiar to those who had seen Jason when Miranda was in a coma. "So do I." His eyes burned with anger. "Let's get her back."

-----------------------

The light slowly brought her to wakefulness, soon Rachel became aware of the hard surface she was laying on. It was one she was, unfortunately, familiar with.

I know 'ere wasn' a cell blo' 'n tha' base. Mus'a bee' moved to 'nother one while ou'.

Rachel? Good you are awake.

D? Wha' 'appened? Las' thin' I 'member was gettin' hi' by one'a them d'mn quant guns.

I am not sure, I only regained awareness recently myself.

Grea', guess we gott'a bus' out'a 'ere now...

Sitting up, Rachel found one thing that was different then the other Council cells. Neatly folded on a chair in the back was a Council Galaxy uniform. Giving the clothes an odd look, Rachel turned to face the door, a Shadow Blast already gathered between her hands. She was about to fire her fifth blast when there was a thick chunk and the door was opened. Startled, she lost the blast even as she recognized the two quantum guns being pointed at her by the Council soldiers on the otherside. Each flanking a Galaxy Archon who stepped into the room and looked down at through his mask.

"Leave us." The man's voice resonated through her and sent her into shock as the soldiers withdrew and closed the door.

No way... i' ain' pos'ble...

Waiting until the door closed, the Archon pulled the mask off and gave the girl a possessive smile under a pair of royal purple eyes and a thatch of blond hair. "Rachel, you've finally returned to me.

"..dad..?"

---

"I don' ge' i'. Wha' 'appened to you af'er the 'splosion a' Venice?"

Tress frowned at his daughter's nearly unintelligible words before he managed to figure out what the child was referring to. "I was found by a patrol of 5th Column soldiers and taken back to a near by base. After recovering, I decided to join. The chaos of the invasion allowed for a rapid rise in the ranks. After those oh-so-noble heroes sent the aliens into hiding, I began to search for you." His eyes flickered to Rachel's gray hair. "The hair is what seemed to have been what threw my queries off. I had been asking for a blond-haired child. The first I had heard of you after Venice was a report from a hostbed facility reporting your loss. It was quite fortunate that one of my facility's functions is to monitor Kheldian activity within the city. We finally got a firm lock on you last month, during that one warshade's trial." Tress shrugged, "From there it was just a matter of a few hackings and thefts to get your information from city records."

"But enough with that." With a clap, Tress walked over to the folded uniform and tossed it to the girl, who caught it by reflex. "Change into a more appropriate attire. I will not have you in that pathetic outfit any longer."

Rachel looked down at the padded armor costume she used as her 'work clothes' then back to Tress with a slight frown. "Bu'... I don' un'erstan', wha's wron' wi' this? 'N why'd I wanna loo' li' a Council goon?"

Tress' face flushed red and his hand was across Rachel's cheeck in an instant.

"Do not question me girl. You will do what I say, when I say it. Is that clear?"

"Yes Daddy." She replied without hesitation. Old habits of following his orders without question resurfacing in an instant.

"Good, I'll send someone shortly to dispose of those rags." Three sharps raps on the door and Tress left the cell, the door locking behind him.

Rachel! We need to get out of here. They've taken our communication device, that will make things harder and this Archon...

No..

..doesn't seem... what?

I... I can' figh' 'im. I.. I gotta do wha' 'e tells me...

No you do not Rachel. That being has given up all rights as a parent!

However, Rachel was already slipping the uniform on, a haunted, dull look on her face as she ignored Dirge's voice.

-------

Leroy Collier stepped off the ship into the Port Nobel pier. With the third day of Rachel being missing, Jason was starting to loose it again. With Voids being involved, it technically could've been anyone who had Rach, but from what Rachel had told him, the Voids were really just a different arm of the Council, and after he and Jason had finished their rampage across Independence Port, Brickstown and Boomtown without any luck, Leroy decided to try Stirga while Jason continued to cut through the soldiers in Brickstown.

Three hours later and several dozen Zig tags later, Leroy tried a different tactic. Mainly because Long Jack called him up first.

"Hey, I've heard that you're looking for some girl the Council grabbed."

"Yeah, the bastards got Rach and I'm gunna find out where."

"Well, I don't know if it's the same girl you're looking for, but a group of Council soldiers and one of them Void mercs were spotted heading into a base up on the north coast. The dockworkers said they had someone with them in a stretcher. If you want, I can give you the location and you can see if it pans out for you."

"What? Yes!"

A quick run later, Leroy was breaking down another door to a Council base. Sneaking through the base, Feral Tabby was surprised at the lack of guards. The entire hallway was abandoned. He was starting to think another hero had already been through here when the footfalls sounded. Flipping up to the ceiling and scurrying behind the pipes, he watched as three solders went by waiting until they had passed before jumping down. The noise caught their attention and they turned around in time to get hit with a whirling ball of claws.

"Watch out! I'm set to puree!"

Repeated tosses into the tunnel walls added and the soldiers were down and tagged before an alarm was sounded. Preening to himself, Leroy went off deeper into the base. A voice echoed up the tunnel, the words muffled and distorted into unintelligible noise, but the indication of several people had the scrapper crouched to the ground as he came to the large hall, Council regalia hung from the ceiling above the heads of what was probably the full compliment of soldiers in the base. Feral stopped counting after 30. They were standing at attention as a Galaxy Archon stood on a raised dias and told them of the great success they had in reclaiming a renegade Nictus.

Feral's knuckles cracked after hearing this, but before he could to anything a soldier's voice called from behind him.

"Intruder alert! A hero's in the base!" There was a flash and Feral was thrown through the air as the lobbed grenade detonated and drew the attention of the gathering and the Archon.

"Get him! Make sure he can't go anywhere!"

Scrambling to his feet, Feral chucked several rocks broken by the grenade at the soldiers. "Face the... um... rubble of Justice!"

His efforts managed to send most of the soldiers to the ground before a strike from an Adjacent sent the young man down. Dazed, he felt himself being hauled up and his recall patch torn off. Through blurred eyes, he saw a Galaxy soldier approach. An odd one at that, far smaller then the rest and, if the slight curving of the uniform was correct, a girl. Almost unheard of among the Council. She leaned forward and placed a gloved hand on Feral's cheeck before trailing it down to his chest.

"You shou'n've come 'ere Lee." She whispered in a shockingly familiar voice. "No' 'lone an'way." Even as he tried to demand an answer from Rachel, he felt one of her shadow blasts slam through him at point blank. Slumping forward, he was vaguely aware of the recall system pulling him from the hold of the Council and whisking him off to a hospital.

"What?" Tress shoved forward and grabbed the soldier that had been holding him. "I told you to get his recall patch!"

"I... I did, sir." The soldier protested, holding the patch as proof. Tress glared at the patch and snatched it from him.

"Then how it that meddlesome hero get..." He growled before looking over to the silent girl. "You gave him yours." Tress stated towering over Rachel. "I warned you about defying me." Tress struck the girl and sent her back. "Throw her in her cell. Lock the base down, that hero's bound to bring more next time. Nothing comes or goes in 45 minutes, activate all countermeasures." Tress barked out as he stalked from the room. "And I want the heads of the technical divisions in my office in five minutes!"

-----

At the Brickstown Infirmary, Jason and Moriyaku were once more speaking with the recall device technition.

"I told you already sir, Nightrayne's recall never went off. The reports from the base she was apparently taken from indicated it was shielded. As good as the mediport system is, it can't get through that."

"Well can't you remotely trigger it or something?! Force her back here?"

"No, sir. The protocols don't work that way..." Both heroes were spared having to listen to the details of mediport coding when his terminal beeped at him to indicate an incoming mediport. He looked absently at the ID code before blinking and turning to the two Heroes. "Nightrayne is incoming, medport five!"

Jason was already at the gurney even as the form shimmered into being, only to see his hopes crash. "Leroy? What the hell happened to you?"

"Nugg... I found her Jase... got beat up though..." Leroy grumbled as he sat up. He looked down at his cheast and the medpatch that had been placed there. "Rach slipped me her patch after those Council jerk grabbed mine, then she knocked me out."

"Leeroy, tell me where she is, Mira and I are going in."

"Striga. The Council has her."

-----

Rachel sat on the cot in her cell, her hero costume in her hands.

Rachel, why are you just doing what ever that man says?

'e's my father, 'm... 'm supposed to do wha' 'e asks o' me... Her excuse sounded weak, even to her. A fact Dirge jumped on.

I've seen how he looks at you, and I've seen how Jason does. Those two are nothing alike in how they see you. Julian just sees you as an object for him to use and abuse. If that's what a true father is supposed to be like, frankly I'd rather Jason never become one.

I... I know...

You need to decide Rachel, what family do you want to be with. I will support you regardless of your choice.

I... I... I wan' to see mom 'n dad 'n Lee 'gain.

Her course settled on, Rachel put the padded armor and cape she was used to back on, and the Galaxy soldier uniform was tossed into the corner of the cell. She was just reseting the clasps of her cape when the door opened and two Qunatum gunners addressed her.

"Come with us Nictus, Archon Tress wants to see you."

-------------

Jason's armor had finally started to work better then it had, he bashed through the door of the base like a tank and scanned the area. "It's too quiet." His eyes had taken on that haunted look again, his family had been attacked again and he was sick of it.

"C'mon," Feral said, "The main hall's this way."

Jason looked over. "I'm gonna scout ahead, 'Randa can port me if you need me."

"Wait!" She frowned a bit before waving a hand over both their forms. In a few seconds, anyone walking past would see only one hero, not three. With another wave, Miranda herself faded into nothingness.

I'll be careful I promise. I'm getting good at this entire.. Save my... family..... Thing.

You shouldn't have to, babe. Stay safe, okay? She reached out an invisible hand towards the spot where she'd seen him last, fingers brushing against his chin.

I will, I'll call if I find here, somethings not right here. He reached and gently grabbed her hand and gave her a reassuring hug before he silently walked deeper into the base.

Moving along the corridors of the base, Jason noticed several things. There was a distinct lack of Council troops in the halls or rooms, just automated defenses tracking over each room with sensors that failed to detect him or the others following him.

"I don't get it." Feral whispered, "I saw a base full of guys. Where'd they all go?"

"No time to wonder about it now. Let's just get Rach out of here. Anything gets in our way, take it down." Jason tightly replied.

Progress through the base was eerily silent, a fact the disturbed the three almost as much as if they had been fighting an army for each foot they walked. It was along what Feral told them was the last tunnel before the main hall that the other shoe finally dropped.

"Arroooo!" From the other direction a warwolf came barreling down on them only to be hurled back by Miranda. The pounding of several boots on stone became apparent as Council soldiers charged down on the heroes.

"I got these losers." Feral said, stepping between the approaching wave and the other two. "Get Rach out'a here. No one's gunna crash your party, I'll make sure of it."

Jason frowned, briefly considering sending the soldiers to the Zig then moving on, but the thought of leaving Rachel in these guys' hands for an instant more changed his mind. "Ok, watch your back Leroy. And use all the cinder blocks you want." Grabbing Miranda's hand, Jason sped down the tunnel.

The door was in sight when a girl's scream echoed from within.

-----

"Rachel." Julian looked at his daughter's clothes in disdain. "I believe I had instructed you to not wear those rags, no matter." He waved as he walked toward the stack of crates near the walls of the main hall. "You've proven unworthy of the uniform of a Galaxy anyways. All that remains is for you to beg for forgiveness."

"No."

Julian stopped in his tracks before looking at Rachel, "'No'? Did you just tell me, 'no'? Have I not told you what the penalties of disobeying me be?"

"You're no' my father, no' an'more. You're jus' 'nother Council flunky 'm gunna send to the Zig." Rachel was surprised her voice wasn't shaking, she hadn't felt this scared since facing Arakhn, and that was with a full team of friends with her.

"Is that so..." Julian's eyes narrowed as he sighed, "It can't be helped then." He detached a device from his belt and tapped a few keys before returning it. "The purpose of this base is to develop anti-Kheldian technologies for use against our enemies. Most of it is still in the experimental and development stages, but several are very much ready for use. I just activated one such device. Through out the base, specialized blockers have just gone active, in addition to blocking all matter transferences, they also interrupt the build up of large scale energies." He leaned against a crate with a dark smile. "What all that means to you, my dear, is that you can't teleport, you can't transform and you can't use any of your stronger abilities." Rachel frowned, an attempt at teleporting proved just as useless as it had in every cell she had been in. There was no reason to doubt the rest of what Julain said wasn't true as well.

"'Ell loo' 'ho go' a blue rib'n a' the sci'ce 'air." She tried to act unimpressed.

"Oh I got first in more then just science." Tress smiled as he pulled what appeared to be a broadsword from a crate. The blade, however, was a reddish black crystal. "You have one last use for me child. We've taken this prototype Quantum Blade as far as lab work can take it, all that is left," A switch was pushed on the hilt and the blade swirled with quantum energies. "Is a test subject to use it on." Tress lunged, the blade aimed at Rachel's neck.

Diving to the side, she flung a bolt at him with little effect. A flicker of energy coated his form and the bolt slid over him like water. Smiling with satisfaction, Tress slashed at her again, ripping her cape as she rolled again.

"Is running all you can do now? How pathetic."

Rolling into a kneeling position, Rachel concentrated and lanced out with a pair of tightly focused beams from her eyes. "Jus' kee' tal'in', 'll fin' a way to bea' you yet." Wincing slightly, Tress jumped at her, preparing to bring the blade down on the girl's head.

To fas'! I c'n't dodge 'n time... 'nless...

Around her feet, a shimmering field of light purple energy formed and Rachel coasted to the left on a field of zero friction. It wasn't near as fast as she could normally move, but it demanded almost no energy to maintain, certainly not enough for the nullification field to count against.

Tress looked at his daughter with a smirk. "Not bad, it seems you did get a little bit of intelligence from me after all." The Archon's expression clouded in a frown. "How long to you think you can avoid me? Long enough, perhaps, for your rescue party to arrive?" Tress vanished in a swirl of Nictus energy, "Not quite!" Appearing behind her, Tress grabbed her in a field of intense gravity, drawing a pained cry from Rachel.

"Thi'... thi' 's..." She tried to force out.

"Nictus abilities, yes." Tress smiled darkly, "Because that is what I am now. Like father, like daughter, hmm?" With that, the blade thrust into her and Rachel cried out in pain.

------------

Shattering through the door and the pair of guards like they weren't there, Jason saw Rachel and the Archon in the room. Tress' head turned to the hero and, with a smile, he jerked the sword from Rachel and set it into a crate, the girl falling limply to the floor and not moving.

Jason barreled into the Archon. "You Son-Of-A-[censored]." He finished the sentence with a left hook to the Trees's stomach. Jason seethed. "You punks never learn!."

The air knocked out of him Tress lashed out, draining the energy from Jason and boosting his own abilities. Jason had been reaching to turn his comm on to Miranda but it skittered out of his hands as the blast hit him, at the same time the blast fried his stealth device causing him to come into plain view. Tress stood up, a fist wiping the side of his mouth.

"I know of you. You're the one who poisoned her. Turned her against her own father and made her useless to me."

Jason stood up eyes blazing. "So. She's just a tool to you, you abandoned her, We gave her love. You just tried to kill her." He pulled his katana out. "Let's go, [censored]."

"She's what ever I chose her to be. It's my right as her father." Tress launched a shadow blast at the man before him.

Jason dodged the blast. "Which you forfeited a long time ago!" Jason sent his own blast of energy from his eyes at the monster in front of him the battle was on.

Miranda! Dirge's mental voice called out as though from the far end of a tunnel

She froze, pressing herself against the side of the hallway. Immediately, she faded against the wall. I'm here! Jason ran ahead, he's trying to find you, she sent back urgently. Are the two of you all right? We heard her scream.

Tress stabbed us with a blade, it was tuned like a quantum gun. Rachel's badly hurt at the moment.

"Oh no," Miranda whispered aloud, a hand to her mouth. Tell me what to do, Dirge.

The anti-teleport field is still active, it also prevents any large build up of my power. I have an idea, but it will be very tricky. The odds will improve if you can get her out of here. Take out that device! It should be on the upper levels catwalk.

Miranda edged out into the large room and glanced up; without the ability to teleport, she would have to climb. Okay, upper level. Take care of her, Dirge. I'll get there as fast as I can.

I will. One more thing. Tress isn't human anymore. The fragments that make him a Galaxy have completed the transition. He is a full Nictus now. Watch out for his draining abilities.

Jason tasted the coppery taste of blood in his mouth as he slammed against another wall of the room. Miranda watch out this room has something that's affected my powers.

Dirge told me, babe, she replied. She says it's on the upper level of the catwalk. I'll get to it, just keep 'im distracted.

I'll hold him -- Jason went silent as he was hit again by a blast. He started to run away from under the catwalk in an effort to get Tress to follow only to find the Archon teleporting in front of him with a grin.

"Did you really think I would be as limited as you here?"

Jason grinned back and spat in his face. "No, I needed a nice jog." As Jason raised his leg up as if to kick a football and kicked him in the groin. With a pained cry, Tress folded in half and fell to his knees, blinking the tears from his eyes he held out a hand that sent a wave of energy that pushed Jason back.

"Did you really think I would fight fair." Jason quipped as he pushed himself up.

"Apparently not." Another series of blasts arched from Tress.

Jason dived out of the way and ran at Tress getting him into a choke hold. "Good, 'cause I ain't done yet. You don't mess with my family."

"That waste of skin is no one's family." Tress growled before shifting, allowing Jason's hands to slide through his phased form.

Above them, Miranda swung herself up to the lower level catwalk and landed in a crouch. The second catwalk hung from thick steel cables nearly four meters above her. Below she could see the two men grappling on the concrete floor. She winced as she saw Jason's head snap back, the blur of purple-black energy all too familiar from the times she had spent in Striga. Gritting her teeth, Miranda reached for the access ladder. Almost there, babe. Just keep him occupied for a little longer.

Jason stood tapping his foot waiting for Tress to come out from being phased out of sync with his surroundings. Casually walking to the stack of crates piled against the wall, Tress returned to the normal plane and grabbed a Vulcan gun and brought it to bear on Jason.

The bullets hit the suit and did little more the ricochet off it in random directions. Well the bullet proofing works. He thought to himself. "Gonna have to do better than that!." Jason said walking through the onslaught of bullets. Throwing the gun to the ground, Tress tossed a grenade at the hero. Jason dived forward and tucked into a roll as he landed as shrapnel hit his form. "That's getting there! What other toys you got in there?"

"You want toys? Try this one out!" His eyes flickered to one of the useless guards that had been standing by the door before Jason had knocked them out. With a beckoning gesture, Tress ripped the life from the soldier and forged an essence that immediately began firing bolts of Nictus energy at him.

Jason laughed. "A koosh ball are you serious?." Jason backed up and kept his eye on Tress as he dispatched the ball of energy easily. While he dealt with the ball, Tress tapped on something inside another crate with a smile. As the ball dissipated, the Archon lifted the gun, it's redish energy pulsing.

Jason turned around. "Last time I checked I wasn't a kheldian." He ran at Tress.

"Good, because this isn't tuned to kheldians anymore." A burst of light followed as he pulled the trigger.

Jason's eyes went wide with the realization of just who the gun was tuned for. The burst of energy came at him as he skidded to a stop and tried to get out of the way. He'd underestimated just how much research Tress had put into everything and the blast crashed into him he gasped and fell to the ground writhing in Pain. With a satisfied grin, Tress advanced on the fallen hero, firing another blast.

Jason's vision swimmed around him. This is familiar.... Babe watch out. Oh [censored] I know what these things feel like now. He let out a audible groan.

Jason? Oh no... The readout on her comm went red next to Jason's name, vital signs flickering. She struggled with the device as she clung to the access ladder with one hand. Talk to me, please.

Quantum Gun, tuned just for me, I'm touched that he'd think of such a thing

I'll get you out, hold on.

No. Turn off the Machine. I'll be able to heal then. We can't waste time. Jason was struggling to get up.

I can't lose both of you. The panel was just above her, the wiring similar to that of every other intricate but poorly-contrived Council device. Swinging herself to the upper catwalk, Miranda crept towards the metal box that had been attached to a power console.

You won't. You gotta turn it off it's the only way to stop him, if you port me he'll see you and I don't even think you could port me. Not with the machine.

Miranda looked down through the grate, the glow of the gun in the Archon's hands signal that he was readying what could prove to be a final shot. Then I hope you're right, babe. She scrambled towards the console, pulling her own Crey-issued medkit from the belt she wore. Turning up the settings as high as they could go, Miranda pressed the leads against the bare wires and activated the handheld device. Almost immediately, the concentrated rads burned through the thin coating, fusing the wires together and shorting the circuit.

Jason's vision returned and cleared as his regen kicked on. There was a bright flash of light and Jason was on his feet. "Hey! Buddy!" Jason rasped out.

Tress frowned and fired off another blast. Why isn't this fool falling?

The blast splashed against Jason and did nothing. He sprinted forward and in one deft movement he sliced off the barrel of the gun and slammed the butt of the katana into Tress's nose. Falling backwards into the crates, Tress toppled the stack, spilling guns and weapons. One of which immediately caught Jason's eye with it's reddish glow and familiar shape.

Jason grabbed the energy sword from the ground and put his katana down. He grabbed Tress by the throat and picked him up. He flicked the switch on the sword and turned it on and held it at Tress's throat. "Give me a reason not to stick you with this thing, or give me a reason to." Jason growled. "It's your choice buddy."

"What? And take a life?" Tress sneered from under a bloodied nose. "You heroes can't do that."

"We can't take a life, no. But I can burn the Nictus out of you, Which I Heard is quite painful." He tapped a place where one of the crystals was poking out with the sword.

Tress flinched and arched away from the blade. "I am Nictus you fool. You can't burn it out of me anymore." He smiled, "You can only kill me. Like I killed her."

"Then you aren't a human. I've killed before. Don't [censored] TRY ME." He slammed Tress against a wall hard. "Why would you kill your own daughter. You peice of [censored]."

"Because she was no longer convenient to me." Tress replied as though it was obvious.

Jason made to stab him with the energy sword, thought better of it and instead head butted the man he held . "Wrong Answer. Don't talk about her like that."

"That brat cost me the only thing I cared about." Tress snarled, "I brought her into this world and it is my choice if I want to take her out."

Jason jammed the sword into Tress's shoulder pinning the Archon to the wall. "No, it's not. Her father died a long time ago. You aren't him, you are a twisted reflection"

Screaming, Tress weakly grabbed the blade before glaring balefully at Jason. "You had best kill me hero," he spat. "Otherwise, I will be back and I will finish this."

"That I doubt." Jason grinned dangerously. "I warned the Zig that you're going there, I will testify that you tried to kill a hero, I will have other people go through and get evidence, I'm sure you've killed people." With that Jason pulled out a special teleport tag and pulled the blade out and slapped the tag right where the blade was seconds before. "If you get out I'll kick your [censored] again. /No one/ Messes with my family."

With a muffled cry, Galaxy Archon Julian Tress faded from the base and into the waiting prison infirmary.

--------------

Jason's feet pouned on the dirt roads in striga while Miranda went ahead to port them over to where the ferry out of the Council infested area. He had Rachel Cradled in his arms and shielded the incoming attacks from the council forces with his body. Feral, his ripped costume the only sign remaining of his fight with the Council solders, kept pace with him, his eyes occasionally flicking over to Rachel.

There was a swift crack and a pop as the air rapidly contracted and expanded. Miranda rushed forward to catch the two, her arms around Rachel as well. Rach? Dirge? She nudged gently, waiting for some sort of reply from either of them. Her telepathic call seemed to vanish into empty space, nothing was registering from the body Jason held.

"There's nothing," she whispered frantically, glancing up to Jason. "We need to hurry, otherwise we might lose them both."

"We gotta use a portal then." Jason ran to the side of the ferry to where the knights had set up a portal specifically to Striga. Miranda put the call in to the Facility, readying the group for the incoming emergency. Crossing the threshold and into the Facility, a medical team was already waiting with a gurney for Rachel. Jason stepped forward and gently lowered his daughter onto the pad, wincing at the still bleeding wound staining the front of her costume. As she was rushed toward the medical wing, he had to restrain himself from following to make sure the doctors didn't mess up.

Like I'd know what to do... Heaving an explosive sigh, Jason flopped down onto the nearest chair.

Easy babe, Miranda told him, resting a hand on his shoulder. We got her back, that's a lot. Now we just have to believe in them and Rachel and Dirge's will to survive.

"I know," Jason looked down the hall toward the medical wing. "It's the waiting that gets me the most."

"She'll make it." Leroy said with as much confidence as he could muster, "We still have to do our assignment from school." He gave them a shacky smile, "You know she doesn't like to leave things unfinished."

Jason chuckled softly, "Yeah. She'll be fine." Once more his eyes stared down an empty hall. "She has to."

----

The landscape rocked under the wrath of a storm, spires of gleaming obsidian were constantly thrust from the ground at odd angles, drawing purple lighting from the sky. In the middle of this, Rachel lay curled and trembling.

"Rachel!" Dirge's voice was distant as the Nictus climbed over the rocks, her long hair whipping in the wind. "Rachel please answer me!" Jumping down into the cleft, Dirge narrowly avoided another piercing shard that erupted from the wall. Rushing to her twin, Drige knelt and lifted Rachel. "Come on Rach, open your eyes."

Purple eyes opened, pain clouded their normal shine as her hands clenched at the wound in her chest. "D?... I' 'urts..." Rachel whispered.

"I know it does." Dirge stroked her hair as she settled Rachel onto her lap. "But it will only be for a little bit longer. I'll make it all go away." She leaned forward, lightly kissing her forehead. "It was an honor to know you."

"Wha'... wha' d'you mean?"

"I'm afraid that, in order to fix this, we will have to do something I had been avoiding for a while now."

Rachel's eyes widened as she realized what the Nictus meant. "No! Don' leave me 'lone..!"

"I'll never leave you now." Dirge hugged Rachel, her body begining to fade. "I'll always be in your memories and heart. Just like you will be in mine."

A burst of lighting struck down on the two, the land lurched and cracked and a flowing wave of dark energy shattered everything in it's path, leaving calm darkness in it's wake.

----

The steady beeping of the heart monitor was the first thing she was aware of, followed by the echoes of her family across her link. Rachel blinked her eyes open to look around. The room was familiar, it was the same one Miranda had been in not all that long before. She looked to the side of her bed and a soft smile crossed her face at the sight of her father slumped in the chair.

Jason jerked awake at the movement. He said sleepily "I need to move my recliner down here. How are you feeling?"

She looked into his eyes with an odd expression before closing them, tears still squeezing out. "I'm better, bu' D's gone. Really gone."

Jason reached out and squeezed her hand. "How so?"

"I wasn't going to recover. So D... D merged. Fully and totally. Just to save me."

"Then she must have felt it was the right decision, knowing what it would do honey." Jason said not quite knowing what to say.

"I know... but... I'm alone now..."

"No your not you have your family you'll never be alone." Jason gave her a small smile.

Rachel looked back and smiled. "That's true, and I'm never going to leave you guys again. Not for a very long time."

Jason smirked. "Good, 'cause I don't want to get hit with another one of those guns again. I'll go wake up Miranda she's been worried sick about you. I told her to go up and sleep and I'd wake her up."

Rachel's mouth quirked into a shadow of her amused smile. "And how much of that was actually the other way around?"

"I won the argument I said I knew my way around the room here better." Rachel snorted and shook her head with a small smile. She leaned back in her bed, the odd silence in her head would take a lot of getting used to, but she had her family to help her up if she should fall this time.



When you feel all alone
And the world has turned its back on you
Give me a moment please to tame your wild wild heart
I know you feel like the walls are closing in on you
It's hard to find relief and people can be so cold
When darkness is upon your door and you feel like you can't take anymore

Let me be the one you call
If you jump I'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn
You're not alone

When you feel all alone
And a loyal friend is hard to find
You're caught in a one way street
With the monsters in your head
When hopes and dreams are far away and
You feel like you can't face the day

Let me be the one you call
If you jump I'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn
You're not alone

'Cause there has always been heartache and pain
And when it's over you'll breathe again
You'll breath again

When you feel all alone
And the world has turned its back on you
Give me a moment please
To tame your wild wild heart

Let me be the one you call
If you jump I'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn
You're not alone

"Crash And Burn" - Savage Garden

((I'm willing to consider it. Though Milly's not an active character in CoX anymore. I may join in with another girl I've been trying to work the backstory out on.... >.> ))

Shiro's cloak, however, had drawn the attention of another of the rooms occupants. Having sneezed and shifted into a ball of light, Stell had found herself in a 'body' that had no way to be asleep, and so, had wondered around. The peepers cry and spinning of energy drew the puffball's attention.

<Hi!> She chirped at him.

It didn't take AJ long to find either the commotion nor the fleeing puppeteer. The tomboyish robot, dubbed tomboy by Solid much to her own amusement, was a runner, getting to the top of the skyscraper would be impossible for her... without some help.

Five jet nozzles extended from her back and a burst of flame sent her up, and up, and up. As she closed in, AJ tightened her fist, the impact caps popping and a charge building.

“Do you know what they injected you with?” Ella asked.

Corti looked over at the pure white girl and blinked several times.

"Yes, it was clear in their thoughts. The drug was Crey's attempt at recreating the Supes drug with, naturally, their own 'enhancements'." She snorted slightly, "Not that they'll ever be any proof of it of course."

She looked down at the wet stain on the carpet before dismissing it and getting another cup of water. When she looked back up, Ella was across the room talking to a girl in a wheelchair and shortly there after, fell over.

The sudden touch on her shoulder caused Cort to drop her drink and whirl on Ian, her now free hand clawed through the air, the instinctively called for fire not appearing due to the glowie, but even that was unable to stop the pulse of fire within her eyes.

In a moment, Cort calmed down and lowered her hand. "I... apologize. I'm not used to... not hearing the voices. It's left me... on edge." She sighed, "It's not a matter of holes in my memories," She answered him after quickly pulling what he had said from her mind, "Just a single block right after.... they injected me with that damn drug." Her face tightened with rage briefly, "After that day, my memories are clear enough, if clutter by others'. I just don't know anything from before I was 10."

Cort looked at Experiment with a slight frown, allowing Sis to introduce her. Something about the man was digging at her stolen memories, but it danced just beyond her grasp.

AJ, leaning against the War Wall gate connecting Perez to Skyway, idly scanned through the police bands, her own hero registration code allowing her to decrypt all police traffic in the 'core zones' of Paragon. A report on a 'freak' tornado in Atlas caused her to arch a silver eyebrow.

Weather manipulator? Atlas is pretty simple for someone of that level of skill. Unless he's showing off, but then it'd be by the big guy himself. Shutting her scanner down, Arc Jump shot past the check point fences, leaping over them without notice on her way to the tram.

Doubt it. Odds just don't mesh right. Time to kick [censored] and ignore names. She smiled faintly as she leaped onto a tram car heading out of the station.

The sudden number of people talking to her caused Cort to take a half step back. The glowie at her wrist recorded an attempt to access her pyrokinetic abilities and surged enough to block the mostly unconscious grasping.

"Um... I'm good." She told Sis, holding up her still mostly full drink in a slightly shaking hand. "Thank you for asking." She added after a pause to remember what her councilor had said about 'manners and curtsies'.

"I guess my hair is naturally this color." She hesitantly replied to Ella, "I've not memories of it being anything else." For a second, her pale eyes hardened as she remembered her earlier memories.

Cortianna looked over the gathered teens, children and adults with a faint expression of fear before stepping into the room.

Standing at the door isn't going to get anything done...

Stepping toward the food table to start off with, Cort randomly picked up the first thing her hand closed on. She looked up at the nearest person and nodded with a strained smile.

"Hi, I'm Cortianna."

I must not set them all on fire, I must not set them all on fire...

Dr. Sheridan McCelland looked up from the report, the GIFT logo prominently displayed along the top, to the trio in his office. Dr. Michale Witherson of GIFT he knew. The second man was a Longbow Nullifier officer, his gun still on him and ready to be pointed at the third member at the slightest provocation. That such would be required of the clearly drugged teen aged girl was surprising. The tale tail light at her wrist was clearly a metahuman energy suppressant. A 'glowie' in the more plebeian terms used by others. Either way, the device blocked her powers and should've made her no different that any other apparently 17 year old girl.

"Tell me Dr. Wistherson, why should we admit a documented supervillain from the Isles into here?"

"For one thing, Cortianna turned herself in to get help. Her previous... 'benefactors'... had their own agenda for a telepath of her strength and her interests wasn't on it." Witherson gestured to the girl. "The suppressants blocks her powers, but that's only treating the symptoms at this point. Hearing the thoughts of everyone in her, rather considerate, range drove her into psychosis, but merely stopping the voices isn't enough to cure her, not any more. She need the help of pyschitrists trained to handle things like this."

Sheridan looked at the girl, Cortianna according to her file, no known other names. The purple hair may have been dye, but it was hard to tell with metahumans. The pale skin made the vains at her temples stand out, probably why she wore her hair over it. Cortianna's head lifted up slowly at Sheridan shuddered. Even glazed over, the pale eyes seemed to drill into him, he could only imagine what her gaze would be like when the drugs wore off.

"I'm not too comfortable with the idea of a documented sociopath roaming the halls Michale." He stated, even as he pulled a pen from the holder and began writing. "But the terms spelled out are acceptable." He signed the transfer of custody form and looked at the slightly wobbling teen. "Welcome to the Crimson Warhawk Clinic, Miss Cortianna."

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((Two months later))

You need to interact more with others, it'll help you build social skills and let you bond with others.

The 'advice', more a thinly disguised order, from her case worker rang in Cortianna's head. Thanks to the glowie, it was the only foregin thought in her mind. It was an odd feeling. She had spent almost a year in the isles wishing for the voices to go away. Now that they had, she was... lonely.

The room Mrs. Shane told her about was just ahead. There were voices from inside, her hands were halfway to her ears to block the sounds before she realized they were sounds. Sounds and not thoughts, no different then what anyone else hears. She cautiously poked her head around the door frame. The people inside caught her eyes, the room itself filling in gradually to her awareness.

I'm part of a pretty extensive RP community on Pinnacle. Several of our members (myself included) also play RP characters on different severs (primarily Virtue and Protector) and we've seen 'Mature RP' tags in bios. We've come to understand that tag means 'wanna cyber?' and, for the most part, ignore them.