Averick

Eh, I'm game for anything. I use virtue to death. I have room everywhere else.

A buxom redhead rolled across the floor and landed next to Jason. She wore a black leather costume with buckles and straps with deep green gloves that went all the way up to her shoulder length red hair. Here eyes were a white-blue that lit up her face and her hands were steaming with the cold energy she was wielding. She planted her hands on the console behind Jason trapping him and kissed him deeply.

"You never did have a knack for keeping us out of trouble, love. Why must I always fall for the exciting men? Do your thing, I'll give you cover baby." She bit his lip playfully and then rolled away to hurl ice at the dark creature.

When Tick-Tok leaped toward the creature's back this time, it was as if the creature were expecting it. It leveled one arm at Tick-Tok and cut the robot in half with a beam of black energy. The force threw the ex-clockwork against the wall.

More beams cut through the air near the redhead as she threw up a shield of ice in front of her. Beams slammed into it, cutting deep grooves and sending spray everywhere. "Jason, hurry!"

Mystic's body began to stir. His arms came up and his palms pressed against the carpeted floor as he pushed himself upright. He drug some of the dark mist with him as he stood, and it dripped off of his hands and down his legs.

Then he turned toward the others, his red glowing eyes replaced by a white/blue. His hands reached out toward the other heroes and flame shot forth, striking the wall behind Melissa and setting everything flamable near it alight.

What? You JERK!!! Riley's got ONE friend and that's YOU. Fine, quit on us. Turn your back on all of us. We don't need you, *sniff* we'll be fine. *sob* I miss him so much already!!!!

Seriously, though, I think I have a pretty good feeling for Harrier. Mind if I keep him in the story as an NPC that does pop in? I mean, if you don't intend on doing it yourself.

Mystic waited while others ate and some got comfy with their consoles. He discussed his plan several times with them to make sure all the details were hammered out. Then, when Jason was done wiping the remainder of his lunch off his hands and appeared to be paying attention, Mystic summoned magics that controlled the element of fire. Flames curled around in the base of the device and lanced up the four strands until they were licking the arched ceiling. Then he focused on the sphere he saw the face in and drew all the flame to that one spot.

It was then that he began incanting the runes he was not as sure about. Protection, light, the unweaving of magic from a fully formed spell to karmic energy, all these thoughts ran through his head as he recited the words to the best of his memory, in an order he hoped would give him exactly what he desired.

Nothing appeared to happen. Then, the energy connecting the sphere he was concentrating on, at the top of one of the strands, disappeared, disconnecting it from the others. The sphere fell to the ground with a heavy thud that resounded off of the walls. The blast doors slid down over the iris and another iris closed over the service door. Red lights began flashing in the room. Mystic looked at Jason who gave him a confident “thumbs up”.

Mystic approached the sphere, still smoldering from the heat and singeing the carpet. He reached down and touched the outer shell and it broke, falling inside the sphere in a couple inches around where he touched it. Black smoke began to pour out. Three spheres lit up behind the smoke as it coalesced into a solid form that resembled an emaciated horse with broken dragonfly wings, standing on its hind legs. The figure was grey and black with glowing blue-white eyes.

It regarded all of them momentarily, then looked back at the device. Then it reached out toward Mystic, and killed him with one lancing dark beam through his chest. His lifeless body hit the floor a second after the beam disappeared. Then it turned its attention to the others.

"Perhaps after a bite to eat. Has anyone seen about lunch." Mystic deduced from the expressions on everyone's faces that he'd said something amusing. It wasn't until he noticed that they were all holding plates and or food that he realized what it was. "Right then."

He floated over and made himself a small sandwich using the freshly cooked meats and vegitables, but it quickly turned into an open faced afair after he applied one of the sauces provided. He didn't take large portions, but couldn't seem to decide on one item. In the end his plate looked like a hors d'oeuvres serving tray.

He listened to the speculation about the device for a while as people ate. He began to think about the face he'd seen and the voice he'd heard. He thought about Tick's interaction and the negative energy that made up the outer shell.

Then he got a frightening thought.

"Jason, is it possible for you to start a schysm, where we experience only a possible future and then snap back to where we are now? What I mean is, can you create an alternate possibility experience for us that you can terminate at a time of your choosing? I wish to try something, I just don't want to destroy our universe doing it."

Mystic took a bite of potato salad as he waited for an answer.

[ QUOTE ]
Captain Fletcher looks up at Shard and grumbles "psh meta human"

Shard wasn't pleased with this remark, but it was his job to end fights, not start them. So he shuffled to a back table and sat down.

[/ QUOTE ]

((OOC: Shard must have mis-interpreted Capt. Fletcher's previous disposition toward metas, as Shaw was even trying to set him up with one earlier and he was allocating troops to aid them in a pointless rescue effort. We PMed, but I think it's too late for him to edit it, thusly I'm going to rewrite the scene and hope that Shard finds it acceptable.))

Super Shard: Old battle scar. I'm suprised my mutant genes still work.

Captain Fletcher looks up at Shard and nodded, wolfing down a bite of sausage.

Shard shuffled to a back table and sat down.

Fletcher leaned over toward him and said in a low voice, "did I hear you say you wanted to take the bouncer job."

Shard nodded to him.

"Well great," Fletcher smiled as he puffed on his cigar. "Things got rough in here day one, and that was just during breakfast. I'll say kid, you sure got big brass ones. I'd rather be fighting monsters and aliens than drunk Metas."

With that, Fletcher put his cigar back in the ash tray and stabbed at some eggs.

The morning light shone on the tables and reflected wildly off of the ash trays and napkin dispensers as Sgt. Shaw walked in. He looked around, nodded to Tony and walked out.

After the wait staff shared a look and a shrug, the door opened again. This time Captain Fletcher and Sergeant Shaw both walked in. "In fact, it appears we're the first ones here."

They took off their covers and moved to a small table in the corner, out of the way. "The coffee was good. Glad to see they got the place fixed up."

Shaw was wearing dress greens that day, while the Captain never wore anything but his field gear in the city. "I've even heard tell that there's a Meta behind the bar at night now, so they may have taken your advice about a bouncer."

The waitress came over and took their orders almost faster than they could settle in and lean their rifles to the walls. Shaw ordered some tea, and Fletcher ordered a full breakfast with coffee, milk, water and orange juice.

They broached business when their coffee and tea arrived. "How long are you going to tie up General Howard's men looking for Riley's lost hero?" Shaw didn't look up when he asked, and he avoided showing any expression either. He just let the question out as naturally as he could.

"If they don't find him by sundown, I'm pulling the platoon back to the base." Fletcher stared at a spot on the wall.

Shaw nodded and made a note on his laptop. "And if he elects to stay behind?"

"Let him. Do you know what you're going to say today about the Talos Island incident?" Fletcher made no attempt to hide the fact that he was changing the subject.

"The usual. Regretable, unfortunate, catastrophe and a few more buzzwords to let the bloody idiots in the press mock us as feigning remorse over civilian deaths. As if we could possibly feel good about killing those we're sworn to protect, that we're dying to protect." Shaw pulled up some notes, then took notice of the silence. "Well, I'm off then. I hope you enjoy your two day furlough. Whatever will you do with yourself?"

Fletcher leaned back in the chair and watched his breakfast come in. "I thought I'd just... see where the day takes me."

Shaw saluted. After Fletcher saluted back, Shaw left the bar, passing the third customer of the day.

"Necromancer, sir. You were searching for that word earlier, I thought I'd... nevermind." Mystic finished taking notes on what he'd heard and hovered toward the object.

Mrs. Reynolds turned her chair toward a table in the corner of the room where some food had been placed. The more perceptive of the crew had doubtless seen the panel slide open and the food be moved out on a conveyer belt, then slide shut.

Her voice machine came to life once more. "Help yourself. Through that door is the dorm and showers, should you elect to stay here. If you have any other needs, push the button next to the Iris and Stanly will help you. I must greet anyone else that decides to attend, so I will take my leave." With that, she rolled out through the Iris and it closed.

The table contained turkey, salmon, roast beef, chicken, cod, and a number of vegitarian entrees. Also, a number of supporting dishes were present, from potato salad and coleslaw to biscuits and gravy. At the far end were some cans of various brands of motor oil and tools.

Mystic Inferno moved into the center of the object and looked down at the bowl at the bottom. "Incredible. From here it looks completely dark."

It was about then that he heard something that sounded like a voice behind him. The origin seemed only a foot behind him, but this was unlikely as there was a string of spheres there. The voice said, "Have".

Mystic moved like a shot out of the device and across the room. He hovered by the wall over the table of food and tried to compose himself. "You all heard that, didn't you?"

It appeared from their expressions, that they had not.

"Well," Mystic thought, "yes and no."

He interpreted the expression on her face to mean she expected a more robust explanation.

"You see, magical energy cannot be, thusfar, measured like current or radiation. Since only those who are naturally attuned to the energy can even sense it- and most who can sense it are too busy using it, or perhaps hiding their gift from others to avoid being ostracised- funny story about that... Yes, well I'll get on with it. I can approximate the strength, but in putting together the counterspell I may not be exactly precise. Additionally, what if that is the final barrier keeping whatever that is safe for people like you and I to be in the room with it?"

Mystic turned dramatically toward the object.

"Well," Mystic began, "not a great deal more than your deductive reasoning, I'm afraid. It is comprised of living magical energy, or perhaps a shell of magical energy. It exudes it, radiates it so brightly that I could close my eyes and feel the room around me like... sonar."

Mystic moved to the base and stared at the patterns of magical energy. "There's certainly no record or history of anything like this on Earth. There don't appear to be any markings, at least not surface markings. Although I can sense different things in each sphere. As if, each sphere generates a different magical energy, perhaps for a different purpose."

"Well," Mystic puzzled, "perhaps that's it. Perhaps it's a machine or magical device of some sort."

Once the doors were open it was easy to seen the path of destruction that led into the park proper. The Statesman and Ms. Liberty led the charge into the park, instantly bolstering the spirits of the younger heroes. Captain Fletcher did his best to keep the formations tight and prep everyone to follow one battle plan that he was sure he could make up as the Statesman and Ms. Liberty went to work.

A ladder of flying heroes formed above the creature as the battle raged. The creature would break away from the Statesman and Ms. Liberty and the others battling it to be frozen solid in a block of ice instantly summoned by ten heroes, then break free to be fried by ten more, then mentally scrambled by ten more, until the Statesman, Ms. Liberty and the others could re-engage.

Then Captain Fletcher shouted out to the statesman as he reeled from a powerful punch. The Statesman looked over as Captain Fletcher gave a gesture intended to get the Statesman to throw the creature into the air. He quickly coordinated with Ms. Liberty and she took the legs out from underneath the creature while it grappled with a powerful hero.

Then the Statesman grabbed ahold of it from behind and pulled its arms back shouting, "let go of it."

Everyone complied as he hurled it into the air. Several heroes effected the gravity around the creature, making it weigh only a fraction of its regular weight, and heroes began grabbing it and throwing it, higher and higher to the next hero.

Up and up the creature went, until heroes and creature were too far away to see.

The screen crackled to life and the static riddled image of the battle on the other side played out on the monitor. The sound of impacts on or near the doors rang out in time to the dance witnessed on the other side.

"Hey, heroes, I hope you're ready. I'm not going to just stand by and let those guys die. We're going on the offensive." Captain Fletcher picked up his com handset and said, "Open the doors."

"ALRIGHT EVERYBODY MOOOOOOVE!!" Shaw screamed as he waved his arm frantically at the assembled heroes. He urged them to rally near Captain Fletcher who had picked up his own rifle, lit another cigar, and was walking toward the doors as they opened slowly before him.

When the heroes assembled, Fletcher turned and addressed them. "We're likely only going to get one shot at this, so listen very carefully to what I want you to do. I know everyone thinks they can one on one this thing, but I need you to put aside that ego crap for a second and listen up. If we work together, even a group of low levels can be more powerful than the Statesman and his friends. Now, here's my plan. We don't have time to argue it. So either work with me, or do your own thing, but this is what I had in mind."

Fletcher gave sweeping orders that covered a lot of general areas. Ice powers to be used first, then firepowers, then mind control, not knowing what he had at his disposal. He hammered out the detail while the creature hammered Sol-Ar and vice versa. Then he turned toward the open doors.

"Engage your target." He spat the words out with contempt.

Captain Fletcher turned toward the com station that was hastily erected at the scene of the incident. "Get me some video from the other side. Security cameras, traffic cameras, something. I need to know what's going on over there. Do we have a patrol in Perez park?"

"No Sir." The com operator didn't turn from his station. More soldiers and police arrived, along with more heroes. Everyone stared at the door, waiting for some indication of how the battle was going on the other side.

"What?" Mystic said hovering away from the sphere. He stared suspiciously at the sphere for several moments before turing to answer Tick-Tok. "Yes, quite I'm an expert in anthropology and mythology. More might be coming. But few will have as keen an eye for detail or an alert or sharp mind."

He looked up and started slightly at the two new people talking with Mrs. Riley. "Whats this then? New researchers?" Mystic floated over near them and landed. "Mystic Inferno, at your service."

Mr Dark Blurred past everyone, doing his evil deeds, asured of his own immortality and indestructability. After all, only an agent of Light as powerful as Mr. Dark could even hurt him. And then, with the balance of light and dark necessary in the universe, nothing could truly destroy him, right?

Wrong. What Mr.Dark didn't realize was that another, even more powerful force was watching their battle on Earth. He watched the voids play out their sick little game and when he felt that the agents had meddled in Earth's affairs enough, he acted.

Mr. Dark froze, unable to move or even think. The dark void attempted to recall his agent, but found itself also unable to move or think. A man in white robes appeared over the battlefield and mists of time erupted from the ground as people froze momentarily. The two timelines schismed visibly.

In one, Tick-Tok was far too far away from the creature to even hit it, in the other, he somehow fired a shot from the park and had it deflected at the soldier manning the defense.

In the first timeline, the soldier fell and convulsed, in the second he was greeted by two new heroes coming to save the day.

The new, robed man spoke, as Mr. Light and Mr. Dark were trapped, powerless by an unseen force. "Your battle has not resolved the ultimate issues here, and your powers have been abused regularily. The cycle must be broken, there must be a reckoning."

With that, he pulled his hands together and the two voids melded together, melting into the same material that the entire universe was forged from. With their powersource removed, the light and dark agents found themselves unable to simply wish away every danger, they no longer could instantly ressurrect themselves, and were no longer impervious to all but weapons of the other agents. They were no more powerful than your average Paragon city hero or villan.

Mr. Dark slid to a stop and found he could only run three times as fast as a regular human, not ten million. Mr. Light found he couldn't anticipate every move and hesitated.

"Let the timeline be healed", the robed figure said as the mist faded away, and Captain Fletcher turned back toward the two heroes, shaking the extended hand.

"Glad to have you try. The doors are closing fast and those two in there might not be able to stop this thing. See if you can't organize those heroes over there into some sort of useful force." Captain Fletcher indicated the crowd of heroes that were just pushed back by troops to make room for evacuation.

The doors slammed shut with an omenous "clang", sealing the three brave heroes in with the creature in the green jumpsuit.

There was an eerie moment when Mrs. Reynolds stared at Corvus without speaking. The moment lingered as if the old woman were trying to decide if to answer, or how. Then her voice modulator kicked in. "I didn't exactly pick you."

Corvus looked puzzled and Tick-Tok turned away from the wrench he was intently studying microfractures on. Mystic stopped incanting and spun about in mid air.

"I don't know any other way to put this, so I'll just say that I think it chose you. Not in so many words, but several researchers have come in physical contact with the device, all have been treated for wounds and all of them have had the same dream. Five wounded researchers, two heros a piece. At first we didn't know what to make of it. But now, we've exhausted our standard scientific resources and even a few exotic processes yielded nothing. Without any other avenues, we chose to summon you. You are, literally, our last hope at unlocking this mystery."

Mystic turned back toward the sphere and then cried out with surprise as he floated defensively away from it. "A face. I thought I saw a face in the sphere", he explained when questioned.

"Sir, permission to join the two heroes inside." Marx stood next to Captain Fletcher, reloading his gun from the ammo brought by other soldiers as they arrived.

Another soldier, Gabresey stood next to him. "Me too, sir."

Fletcher looked over the evacuation, the younger heroes pooling up around the door, and even civillians collecting to look in at the noise and see what all the disturbance was about. "I just can't help but think about Bull Run. All those people. What would have happened if the South pursued? I can't take that chance. Permission denied, prepare to herd this crowd back."

The gate guards began firing at the opening with their shotguns and civilian assault rifles as the hole grew larger and the creature invaded more and more into the small corridore between sections of the city.

Captain Fletcher grabbed one of the soldiers that had just arrived off of a truck. "When I point at you, I want you to fire your LAW at the top of the archway." He turned toward Sgt Shaw, who had also arrived on the scene moments earlier. "Shaw, deploy every available gun to disperse the crowd, and get the wounded out of here by truck. Instruct your men to fire over the crowd's head. We need to clear this area."

"Yes Sir!" Shaw immediately related the orders and moved soldiers in amongst the wounded and in a circle inside the onlookers. Every soldier had his rifle ready. Each was facing out, toward the crowd.

The young soldier that Fletcher had singled out had pulled, pinned, and extended his law, and was pointing it at the wall above the archway. Fletcher tapped him on the opposite shoulder and he fired.

The rocket left a visible red trail as it streaked up into the titanium archway and exploded. Gunfire erupted from the center of the crowd and heroes jumped back into defensive stances while civilians ran for cover. Captain Fletcher held the reciever of his military radio up to his ear. "Close the Inner Atlas Park door. And try again to find the Statesman."

Fletcher put the reciever down as the creature tore through the last of the outer door. The inner door began to close. "Calash and Sol-Ar. Make a note of those names. Good luck, heroes."

Tick-Tok felt and odd vibration through the wrench even after he had stopped tapping the metal.

"Oh, Tick-Tok, be careful. The sphere itself has a harmonic that damages living tissue and puts stress fractures into metal. You may not want to come in direct contact with it." Mrs. Reynolds warned from near the door.

Mystic had returned to floating near the top spheres. He closed his eyes and began incanting a spell that gives him control of fire, changing the incantation slightly to attempt to affect the light that slowly twisted between spheres.

A small drawer slid out of Corvus's console. "Of course, dear." The mechanical voice was at once comforting and yet slightly off putting. Perhaps it was the way that Mrs. Reynolds didn't move her head or gesture. Perhaps it was the barely adubile hiss of oxygen that was being pumped into the extremely old woman.

Corvus found a black notebook with six shiney black pencils and six shiny black pens in the drawer. A number of other office supplies were also neatly arranged in the drawer. As Corvus began to sketch, a small holographic cube appeared over the left side of her console. The lines that appeared on the paper also appeared inside the cube as the computer was mimicking her movements with light.

Mrs. Reynolds turned her wheelchair around and greeted the stranger. While Tick-Tok explored the unbelievably versatile tools at his disposal and Corvus drew, Mystic hovered up near the top sphere closest to his console. He removed one of his gloves and reached forward toward the sphere. He was just about to touch it when Mrs. Reynolds finished bringing the newcomer up to speed and called for everyone's attention so that she could introduce the fourth member of the research team.

"Well, I'm afraid I don't know exactly, but it has to do with the large thing behind me." Mystic hovered to one side and extended his gloved hand at the large, glowing device.

Mrs. Reynold's voice modulator kicked in again. "I'd hoped to wait until we were all assembled. I suppose you can fill the others in. It was recovered from a Rikti base not too long ago. It doesn't appear to be anything that matches Rikti technology and was shielded by several layers of security designed to keep it in, instead of keeping the heroes that found it, out. Initial spectrographic readings and, really, all scientific testing has proven futile thus far. This is why your special talents have been enlisted. I have had a workstation prepared for each of you as I anticipated your special needs would dictate."

As she spoke, holographic names appeared over three of the workstations. Mystic floated to his console and alighted on the carpet. He could see access to every symbol ever discovered on Earth. "What have we here?"

Captain Fletcher sat on a large concrete block near the archway between Perez Park and Atlas Park loading oversized bullets into his magazine. He'd led a five man squad in after a Kraken, reported in the Park, but they came up empty. There were only Man of Wars out this day.

As usual, there were a handful of heroes hanging around the archway, either coming or going, all with something to prove. Just down the street, a small group of superheroes was trashing a gang of skulls. Fletcher laughed when one of the skulls went through the bus stop glass. "Amateurs."

He looked back at his squad, all muddied up and cleaning off their gear as they took their first rest of the day. They'd done good. Each time he goes out with them he's amazed at the progress they're making.

He took a long drag of his cigar, plucked it from his teeth and opened his mouth to say something. The tranportation droid behind him initiated a warning. The comment was overrun by, "Incoming!"

The soldiers sprung up, scanning the horizon in the direction the captain was pointing. A figure in green landed among the heroes as they were basking in the pride of their victory, and shattered them. Energy bolts bounced off of the unknown entity, rock shatered across it's limbs and back, and a well placed radiation beam hit it in the eye, annoying it long enough to draw the new creature's full wrath.

"Marx, Up." Fletcher shouted as they all took defensive positions behind the concrete.

"Sniper up." Marx called as he settled behind cover and braced his rifle on the concrete slab. He'd acquired a site picture of the green creature holding a horned hero by the neck as flame danced around both of them. "Target Obscured."

"Maximum force load, fire at will." Fletcher put his cigar back between his teeth as he turned back toward the droid. "Get me CIC, emergency channel."

Marx pulled the clip from his rifle without taking the crosshair off of the green jumpsuited creature. He slid a special clip into the rifle and pulled back on the bolt. The hyperdense round in the chamber fell to the concrete and rolled onto the ground as it was replaced by the most deadly round ever made by man. Marx ratcheted the guass power up to full to compensate for the new ammo.

When the head came off the horned demon, the creature turned toward the archway and crouched. Marx's rifle voiced his dismay. The butt shoved Marx back eight inches and the crack of the round going supersonic caused leaves to fall from a nearby tree. The brass hit with a heavy "tong" and then rolled to a stop on the concrete platform.

Carter watched the green jumpsuit go backward and hit the deck. "Target down." It was his job to call the shot. But he'd dealt with the unusual before, so he kept his scope on the target and watched as it got to its feet again. "Target back up."

Captain Fletcher turned toward the droid, having just completed his conversation with CIC. "Displace through the doors!"

"I can take him." Marx insisted firing his second round into the creature. This one only staggered him as he started his jump, knocking him off course. The creature crashed into a building and disappeared from sight leaving a shower of glass speeding down the side of the building and glimmering with sunlight.

Captain Fletcher grabbed Marx by the shoulder and pulled him from his braced position. "MOVE!!"

The Police guards at the gate looked up at the doors as they started to close.

Captain Fletcher pushed his men through the doorway and yelled to the heroes near the door, "Get through the gate! Do NOT stand and fight it!"

And then it reappeared, heading directly for the gate. A hero with a large hammer slammed into the creature from the side and both security drones opened fire on it as Captain Fletcher pushed everyone he could through the closing gates. "GO, GO, GO!"

Several heroes elected to stay behind or simply chose to run too late. When the gates shut, Fletcher told his group to take up a defensive position. Then he moved off to the side to begin coordinating the hunting and extermination of this new threat.

"Come in, come in." Mrs. Reynold's mechanical voice soothingly invited as the two new guests took a step forward and the Iris closed behind them. "We were just beginning the introduction. I'm expecting up to seven more, if they take the invitation. This is Mystic Inferno. He gives the lectures on Anthropology and Psychology at Paragon University."

Mystic turned in mid air and tore his gaze away from the unknown object. "Fascinating, isn't it? What? Oh, oh yes. Terribly sorry." Mystic flew over toward the two new individuals.

Mystic's shirt was an oversized, powder blue tunic that he wore like a shirt with a belt. There were red runes in a magical language on his arms in stripes down the front and back. He wore a hood with a cowl. From the waste down he wore the cargo pants he had on when the costume transformation occurred, now emblazened with similar red runes and turned blue to match his tunic and cowl. His face was hidden with a blue cloth and his eyes burned with fire from under his hood. His gloves were also powder blue, though the tips were blackened with soot.

"How dreadfully rude of me. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Mystic Inferno." At his hovering introduction they both looked over at Mrs. Reynolds who had just said the same thing.

"I've already introduced you, dear." Her mechanical voice chimed, with just the slightest hint of laughter.

"Oh, what? I'm afraid I didn't catch your names." He kept his hand out.

Mr. Maul barely noticed Silver when he landed on him, turning his attention to the growing number of police and soldiers showing up to respond to the mayhem.

Vondor watched Ms. Hack dissappear from right in front of him. As the glider moved away, Satans little helper appeared next to him and grabbed his leg. "Let's go." With a flash of red flame that was engulfed by the exploding helicopter, they both disappeared.

They reappeared on top of city hall with Vondor pointing at the laptop in Satans tail and saying something about nuclear missiles. Satans just laughed as he took the laptop in his hands from his tail. Vondor could see black mist rolling off of the laptop.

He flipped open the laptop and waved his hand at the screen. A visual representation of missiles launching all across the country could be seen. Each of their contrails marked as a white line as they streaked toward Paragon city. The closest only 3 minutes away with a yield strong enough to wipe out everything outside the forcefield for miles. Satans little helper laughed a high pitch laugh as Vondor indicated Silver and explained that Silver might be able to stop the worst catastrophe in history.

The mischievious imp simply laughed and pushed a random key on Ms. Hack's laptop. As soon as he pushed the button, Ms. Hack's glider folded back into a box and fell out of the air. "Corrupted," said the imp as the first timer counted to zero and nothing happened. On the screen nuclear impacts were being marked, but the skies were blue and clear.

The dark power of the imp had infiltrated Ms. Hack's computer and turned it against her. As Ms. Hack was trying to defeat every superhero in paragon city, her own computer was working with all its might to hack her back, creating backdoors and viruses in each of her hidden boxes and using passwords only she knew to activate powered down computers and infect them. The laptop had become a high tech voodoo doll.

Satans little helper vanished once more in a puff of smoke, letting the resistant laptop land soundly on the roof.

"When will they learn..." Ms. Hack thought, thanking her immortality she recieved when she became a Dark Agent. "You can't kill a Dark Agent without the help of a Light Agent." She punched in a final key in her computer, and Silver Haze's database became a useless breeding ground for every known computer virus in the world.
"Take heart, Heroes." Ms. Hack laughed. "At least you can actually KILL your good friends, Doctor Vahzilok, Requiem, the Clockwork King..." She laughed wickedly as she continued to name ALL of the CoH ArchVillains.

"Who said anything about killing you", said a voice from inside the car and over her right shoulder. Ms. Hack looked right to see a small, grey face with tiny red horns on his head and a full mane of fiery red hair. He couldn't have been more than three feet tall, and he wore a sports team jersey that had a devilish face on the front of it. "I want to be your friend."

Satans little helper reached out for the computer knowing full well she had ample time to jerk it out of the grasp of his hands, and right into his tail. He snagged it around her left side and pulled it in behind himself. Darkness spewed forth from his hands and wrapped around Ms. Hack, tying her to the chair with all the power of the netherworld.

"What ARE you, you infuriating little..." Ms. Hack struggled.

Satans little helper reached forward and touched the steering wheel and the engine jumped to life. Two of the dark tendrils holding Ms. Hack reached up and grabbed the wheel, turning the car away from the light pole as it backed up. Satan's little helper cackled wildly in the back seat while the car started forward and rolling toward all the new villians that had just been released.

As SLH leaned over the seat and put his face next to Ms. Hack it morphed into Martha Stewart's likeness and in her voice he said, "I'm your worst nightmare". Then he was gone in a puff of fire and black smoke as a clockwork bounced over the hood and off the front windshield.