Contact raised an eyebrow above his sunglasses and looked quizzically at Neko. He started to ask her what was wrong when he felt it.
Someone was trying to break into his mind.
"Someone is attacking us, " he muttered, losing focus on the group surrounding him and raising his defenses. Contact withdrew himself into his own mind.
Psionic battles are never as flashy as other struggles. There are no explosions or blasts of colored light. Often time though, the stakes are just as high if not higher. A damaged mind is nowhere near as easy to repair as an injured body. There is no such thing as a mental bandage.
Contact was old hand at this and had the confidence of a practiced dueler. He knew the attacker had the advantage as he had no idea where he was and that if allowed to continue his attack, he would eventually probe through his defenses. So, Contact let him in... Almost. Much like a swordfighter would attempt to draw an opponent in by feigning a mistake, Contact hoped to entrap his attacker in a psychic version of a honey-pot.
The Madness Mage's brow furrowed briefly, he hadn't been expecting any resistance. It passed quickly though as he found a ***** in the target's mental armor. He braced himself for the final mental thrust that would break through the defenses, lowering his own to allow for the attack.
"Gah," the Madness Mage gurgled, startling his robed cohort who was busy siphoning power off the already weakened heroes. His face contorted painfully as he realized he had been tricked.
"Good night," Contact said softly, his own mind crushing the weakened defenses of the Mage, sending the Mage's psyche retreating into the deepest parts of his mind. True to his name, the Madness Mage flopped forward, convulsing and twitching on the pavement.
Drained, Contact stumbled forward a step and leaned heavily on a near by lamp post. He wipped a small trickle of blood away from his nose and breathed heavily, spent from the effort.
Kate had been tracking the Circle of Thorns for several days now. Having heard a rumor they liked to hide on rooftops, she had been climbing from building to building in hopes of finaly catching one.
On this particular night she finaly found what she was looking for, however the evil Thorns had plans of their own, and were heading down this rooftop towards a group of strange looking hero's down in the street. Kate desided to follow.
The voice of Zull spoke in her head to her. Why do you still stalk them poor little Kate. Do you actually think they possess information to remove me from this shell?
Please leave me alone, Kate thought to herself, You know full well what I'm trying to do here.
Ha I will let this continue, only because it will amuse me when you once again fail.
Whatever, she thought to herself. I'm just going to block you out anyway just don't try anything stupid when I catch up with them like you did last time.
Fool do not forget where your powers come from!
Kate found herself locked in an argument with Zull, and forgot totaly about the Thorns. That is untill she heard yelp of pain down the street. She turned just in time to see the last Thorn fall to the ground, and a man stagger a bit as he wiped his nose.
No! Kate yelled as she ran down the street to the fallen Thorns...I needed information from them!
Kate looked down at the Thorn at her feet and could tell by the look on his face he would be no use to her.
"What a drag." She muttered to herself.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Oh my dear Katie once again you fail you have much to learn young one, just give in to me and accept your fate.
"Never! I will never gi...errr oh sorry excuse me."
Kate noticed the gathering of heros rising to their feet were giving her a strange look.
"Err sorry about that, I was ummm looking for some Thorns for some information, and it seems as though you found some."
Do not Tell them of me! Or I shall make it very painfull for you, my dear Kate.
"Ummm sorry I could not be of more help to you."
It takes all of Kates strength to hide the troubled look she must have on her face.
Sly seemed to be totally out of his league today. (Of course, being used to such a position, it did not worry him as it might a hero who often had the upper hand.) If he wasn't getting pummled accidently by the cute cat, he was being befuddled by the alluring Deth. Then, when he had finally thought he had a grasp on how to handle this, he suddenly felt his mind thinking of the shadowy Master with the whip from his youth, and the fear he had long thought conquered. When Contact suddenly stumbled forward, the image vanished... however as Fox recovered his noticed Cyberjack and the new robot arrival still seemed to be ill at sorts...
He galnced at this other newcomer who seemed to enjoy talking to herself.
"Pleased to meet you, M'Lady," he nodded. "I'll let introductions slide for now, as it seems our comrade Contact is still feeling the effects of whatever that was..."
Sly approached Contact and steadied the psychic. "You ok? Any idea what that was?" In a second Sly put two and two together and got five...
"You stopped it, didn't you?" He slapped Contact on the back, earning a glare from the recently spent hero. "Sorry, but well done! Now what is still effecting our robotically inclined friends here...?"
At least one thing good has come of this, he thought, looking around for the energy sapping culprit, I didn't have to register with that damned white robot. I think I may have to use an alias with that guy... I don't like organizations to know too much about me...
Seeing Neko act that way towards Slyfox stunned her and, quite frankly, she felt a bit of jealousy as well. However, when Neko's shield dropped, she knew something was wrong. About that time, she felt the presence enter her mind. He should not be there, only her masters visited these dark recesses. The pain was never this bad. She turned and felt a locked door in her mind being tested. That door, I cannot let it be open. I will destroy him. She starts to move to fight him off when she realizes she is in the grasp of tentacles, that seem to be draining her energy. NO! I will not succumb to them again. She sees that the door was an easy target. She fights but it is useless. As the door opens, she calls out 'MASTERS!'
The door begins to swing open and she sees her bedroom 10 years ago. The bottles have fallen off her night table and the smoke is intermingling. (Flashback Back ground) Something is coming out of the smoke. As it starts to take shape and to come into focus, she feels the presence of her Masters thundering in like Mongols trying to get the first grog. The door is slammed and the strange presence is forced out.
'We told you, you should practice the mind shield. ' As they leave, she feels herself falling, physically and mentally as well. 'Be wary of the new one Kate, although we have not probed her, we sense that there is more to her than she shows'
Deth hoped that she would remember that tidbit but all that she wanted to think about now was a nice feather bed, roses in a vase, and a huge stack of pancakes being served by .....
The others see the attack on Deth and hear a shrieking scream, 'Masters' and she falls face first to the ground. Her shade falling off and cracking as she crashed to the ground, unconsciencous.
Contact brushes Sly away, wiping more blood from his face with his forearm, "There must be another... go. I'll stay here with those still under the effects of the attack."
Although still weakened he pulls himself up straight.
Looking around worriedly Lobe asks, "What is going on, can I help?"
After thanking Deth for her assitance, Kyle appologized for the outburst. Quite suddenly, it appeared as though everyone was fighting a battle in their head. Soon after Deth fell, he suddenly remembered something, but as if it was forced back..
In a flashback,
"NO!!" he heard one of his old friends cried. Cabas had collapsed bleeding out of his Predator-eske mouth. Kyle whipped his revolvers out of their holsters only to relaize they were out of ammo. He dropped them and grabbed his G-11 and grabbed his shotgun which was strapped to his leg. He fired at the advancing horde of vampires. He dropped his weapons as soon as they were out as well. He focused his energy into his fists. He glowed with blue fire and leaped at the horde. He punched and kicked with all his strength. He was rewarded with the vampires' blood spraying him after each physical connection. When all were down, he looked back at Cabas. He knew he would survive. Looking forward, He saw his girlfriend lying unconcsious on the alter. He ran , only to find him self imprisioned in a force field of sorts. He was blinded with a flash of light only to awake on a building in Atlas Plaza. "Where am I..."
Out of flashback.
He awoke consumed in blue fire. He reached for his gun and fired where the energy was coming fom. The bullets were drowned out by his screams of bloody murder. His fellow heroes that were awake starred in awe. The CoT members were riddled in the hail-fire. They all fell in a pool of their own blood. He put the gun down and whspered, "Carrie.." and collapsed.
"No, I think he said 'Carrie', not Carly."
A little ways off stood what appeared to be a robot. Using the high powered comm antennae on his helmet he listened in on the group who had just defeated a group of Shockers and then some Thorn monks. The bright blue of his visored eyes pulsed slightly.
"Yes, I know the heroic thing would be to help them, but they seem alright by themselves." This wasn't the real reason for his hesitation though. The group's tactics were a little more extreme than a lot of the other heroes he had met so far, and Carly was already worked up over the charred monks. He didn't want her witnessing anything truly gruesome.
As always, he couldn't hide anything from Carly and she called him on his real reasons. "Okay, I guess I can't argue with that. That last Madness monk DID give them a bit of a hassle. All right, I'll go."
He smiled inwardly at Carly's glee. Funny that she was more adventerous than he was. He started walking towards them in plain site. After several attacks they were sure to be a little on edge and he didn't want them to think he was an enemy.
Sly closed his mouth, nodded to Helsing, and said "Don't worry Contact. Found and taken care of..."
He then quickly kneels to Deth Aszicen. "Hey there pretty lady, don't feel too down. I was only gone for a second, I'm back." He tries to wink playfully, but his obvious concern shows through.
With a hand still resting on Deth's shoulder, he glaces over at Neko, working her jaw and gaining speech back, and the Dark shroud already enveloping her lithe armored form. Then he notices the deeply innocent and troubled look on Lobe's face.
"Don't worry Lobe, your courage helped us. We couldn't have beaten them without you." Glad to see the light back in the giant's eyes and the huge grin spread on his face, Sly takes in Helsing and Contact once more, and the newly arrived Cywhite robot... and along with CyberJack... all four seem best left to recover on their own.
Sly nods to the new girl with that odd penchant for talking to herself. "Sorry, miss, seems as if we can't keep any thorns long enough to question, but we are heading for a Rebecca Morningstar who might have some informaiton. Hell, with the way things are going we will probably run into even more 'throns in our side!' Or some other whacked out group. Everybody seems interested in this damn idol."
He pulls the statue from his pocket, shakes he head at how such a stupid thing could cause so much trouble, and puts it back.
"So you're welcome to come along if--" Sly breaks off as yet another what looked to be hero walked toward them...
damn... he thought, If people don't stop showing up I'm going to have to introduce myself in front of that infernal white corporate library over there...
Deciding to ignore the appraoching hero and let things work out as they would, Sly turns back his attention to the recovering Deth.
Nevur was getting more apprehensive as he neared the group of heroes. The rifle the one man wielded had torn the monks to pieces and now Carly was getting scared of one of the others. A well-dressed man was kneeling next to a woman who had been incapacitated by the monk. As soon as Nevur focused on the woman, Carly suddenly broke into a fit of shivers and started babbling something about "dead eyes".
"We can go back," he offered. But Carly swallowed her fear and insisted on continuing.
"Hello there," he called to the heroes, "I noticed you were..." but he was cut off by an explosion. A woman suddenly flew from a sidestreet, hit the ground and rolled several feet before stopping. Staggering to her feet she began limping as fast as she could down the street, glancing frantically over her shoulder. Spotting the heroes she called out. "Please you have to help me!"
A cloud of green energy exploded out of the same sidestreet as the woman, followed by a very nasty looking thing wearing a Circle of Thorns robe. Glancing towards the woman it drew itself up to its full height and bellowed at her.
"MORNINGSTAR!!!"
Kate sat atop one of the fallen Thorns still trying to get information out of the now brainless shell of a man
"Well this one can't even talk anymore..Oh,I'm sorry, I'm Kate. I know I don't look much like a hero, belive me I don't really feel much like one. I do have these powers I errrr inherited that I'm trying to use for good things, but I'm still figureing out how to do that.
"If it's true you'll be running into more of them, If you don't mind I'll tag along a bit to see what happens."
Just then Zull noticed something in the hands of one of the strangers.
HE HAS THE IDOL!
Kate had never heard the voice in her head so loud before. She visably staggered as Zull caught her off guard.
We must get that Idol....Kate...that Idol can release me from you, be a dear and see if you can get it for me.
Yeah right, she thought to herself. I'm not going to fall for some stupid trick like that, your slipping man, your slipping.
Am I?
It was to late..Kate's mental barrier did not go up fast enough, and Zull took controll.
" Sir, that Idol you carry, would you mind if I took a look at it? It's so pretty.
Noooo don't listen to him...damnit, I need to get controll back from him. I hate it when he gets by me. Hrmmm maybe if I just concentrate over here I can get back in....
Suddenly Kate's whole body went limp and she crashed to the floor with a groan.
Before anyone could react An explosion went off, and a woman started limping to the group asking for help.
Kate was fighting for controll She was aware of the trouble at hand but in her current state she was powerless to do anything.
The explosion was large enough that even Lobe's normally slow perceptiveness couldn't miss it. When he saw the lady hurtle to the street from the blast, and get up to start limping towards them, a stillness overcome him. Then, the perpetrator of the blast presented himself in full sight and bellowed for the lady he just hurt. Lobe's fists began to shake. His arms began to shake. His whole body began to vibrate. The reason for his sudden physical display was written on his face. Gone was the innocent, childlike smile, the glint of pure happiness in is eyes, the aura of benevolance that normally made it difficult for him to intimidate anyone without physical displays of raw power. In its place was a mask of rage: pure, unadulterated, and blazing.
With a challenging shout that would cower the very rocks if they had life, Lobe leaped the distance between him and the thing that had hurt a woman.
Lobe landed and began to pummel, without thought or fear, the robed figure. Ignoring the wounds that were steadily beginning to accumulate from the powerful defensive abilities of the Thornian, he raged and punched and kicked. Not even Lobe's immense endurance or resistance could last forever though, and it was unknown if it would last him long enough versus such powerful foe. Not that he seemed to care at the moment
"Yes, I DO see it Carly."
The thing that had burst from the alley raised its hand, powering up a blast of magical energy. Not knowing what else to do, Nevur raised his arms toward Morningstar.
"Sorry lady, but this may hurt a little," rock and earth suddenly sprang up around her, encasing and solidifying around her. The Thorn's blast streaked toward where the woman was now stuck in a column of stone. The blast washed over her granite prison, cracking and scorching the rock, but it held.
Nevur frantically began to wonder what he could possibly do against such a powerful enemy when a roar from behind froze him in place. It was so loud that he thought he might be deaf, even Carly had fallen to the floor, covering her ears.
There was a great whoosh of air and Nevur got the feeling that a mountain had just flown over him. Then he saw the giant mass of muscle he had seen earlier collide with their attacker. The rage with which he tore into the Thorn monk was almost impossible to watch. The monk stayed on his feet though, frantically firing off attacks that seemed to slam into the giant with almost no effect.
Nevur had only been at the hero business for a little while and was by no means the most powerful of heroes, but he always prided himself on effort. Concentrating as hard as he could he summoned more rock up from the ground, encasing the monks feet, giving him no way to dodge the enraged Lobe's blows.
The other heroes seemed recovered from the previous attack and began to move towards the battle. One held back, however. A pained look on her face. Nevur turned towards her, asking if she was alright. All of a sudden Carly started screaming to him about "something rotten inside".
"What?" said Nevur.
Helsing got up as soon as the explosion went off. He was a little tipsy till he saw the battle going on. He picked up his gun and ran, bathed in the flames from before. He roared and fired a grenade. Everyone flew back, everyone exept for the Thorn. He ran torwards the Thorn and started fight. The Thorn then attacked him back with an explosive energy. Helsing flew in the air. He got to his feet, leaped torwards the monster, and put the gun in things hood. Assuming the monster had a mouth, Kyle lunged the gun in a hole in the things face and fired a grenade. He colapsed when the grenade exploded. The beheaded monster was fallen but still was alive. Helsing muttered in his subconsious, "Ask it your questoins, I need a nap...."
Feeling the ground shake as if Mt Fuji was about to erupt, she looked up, muttering a few things about the parentage of Madness Mages in general and even worse sailor blushing slurs about herself and past choices in training.
' @#$%@@$@, I hate it when they are right.'
As her eyes finally focus, she sees Lobe engaging another Thorn, who although being encased in rock and thoroughly pummeled by Lobe is holding his own, just barely. She notices that Lobe is unaware of his wounds, as if he has gone beserk. Deth knows that although he may win without help, it will be very close and possibly deadly for Lobe.
She reaches into her pocket for her last stim pack and begins a mumbling a language that is more Ancient than the myth of Tiamat. After a few seconds, one can see that her health is improving and the mage seems to be in more, if possible, pain.
She stands and sprints to Lobes back. She uses all of her energy to dodge his swinging arms and moves in close. She slaps the stim pack onto his back and it breaks, the goo spreads out absorbing into his skin. He looks to physically improve. About this time is when Helsing arrived. Not seeing him, she stumbles back as if completely exhausted, trying to stay out of Lobe's way, who had not moved in the explosion, hoping that Lobe does not feel that he was attacked. She turns to the others.
'Does any one have any help for him or any more stim packs? Be careful, I am worried what will happen when he wins. Will he come out of it and remember who we are? Be ready. I can not do anymore.'
At that moment the blast occurs and the concussion hits her, knocking her to the ground and the last of her energy is leached from her and again, she collapses. This time a distinct crunch is heard from her back and a whisper is heard from her lips 'I'll never buy designer shades again. Hopefully, somebody knows Occular Repairem....' She faints.
High above the city and the heroes, Ivory sat on a brown, metal folding chair, floating in the sky.
"I guess you were right about them. Did you bring the parts?" he directed twords the large red robot, a near identicle image of Cywhite.
A cold, calculating voice, similar to Cywhite's yet sounding older and far mroe calm gave reply, "Yes. You know the triad will have you killed for retrieving items from other time lines. They forbade you from the practice in the 60's.
"I'm not retrieving artifacts from other time lines." replied Ivory, turning his head to look at the massive combat routine's shell. "You are doing it for me."
"Same thing." came the reply nearly as soon as Ivory had finished. The slow whir of electronics could be heard as the red figure focused on the streets below.
"If you're so worried about him, why don't you go help?"
"The triad forbids me from interfering with the conflicts of other heroes. As an outsider I have no right to the manipulation of this world's time line, unlike you." the machine seemed to hiss to Ivory. "If you're so capable, why don't you go and finish it all yourself?"
"Their combined risk level, down there, is over 30. My insurance goes through the roof if I'm seen on a task force with them for more then a few minutes." Ivory sighed, "Besides, you know how much I hate working with psychics."
With that, the red machine disappeare with a flicker of red light. Ivory was engulfed in a flash of blue flame as he stepped back into limbo, the chair he had been sittin on fell from the sky, tumbling twords the ground.
As Nevur reached down to help the woman, her right arm suddenly shot up. Nevur was thrown back, a smoking hole in his side. Getting up, he winced as he looked over to where the she lay. Her left arm flew up, grabbing her right as if trying to hold it down.
"I don't know Carly," Nevur answered her, "she was talking to the others fine earlier. Maybe some spell from the monk." The girl seemed to be locked in a struggle with herself, but the right arm kept pulling away from the other. Nevur sent a column of stone to engulf her, but the right arm tore through the prison.
Again, the left arm came up, grabbing the right and pulling it down. The other heroes were still occupied with the monk. Nevur only had one other option and he prayed it would work. Reaching out with his arm he channeled strength from the monk, sending it towards the troubled woman on the ground. Concentrating hard, he tried to send it to only certain parts of her left arm and brain.
This would either give the woman the strength she needed or empower the violent side, allowing it to attack him further.
"Cross your fingers Carly," Nevur whispered.
Contact was still drained, striking down the Mage had taken a lot out of him. He raised his head to examine the unfolding situation, his mind taking in tacticle details.
Using the lamp post for support, Contact took a few steps towards the battle and reached his hand out towards the raging Lobe. Energy swirled between them and Lobe suddenly felt more dense and resistant to harm. Pausing a moment to catch his breath, he reached out again, this time towards Lobe's target. Energy flared from the Thorn's center, empowering all those surrounding it and healing their wounds.
Not wanting to attract additional attention to himself, for once, Contact decided it best to play safe. He moved a few steps closer to the fight and stretched his hand out towards the fallen Deth, drawing her away from the combat telekineticly as he drug her across the ground towards him.
From his position across the street, Contact watched the remainder of the battle play out.
"Tell them who u are. Tell them why you are here. Tell them what u must do." "Wish I could, but I told them who I am and I don't know why I am here or what I must do" "If u don't know, u will never get back to ur dimension." "WHAT!? I can get back? Tell the answers, whoever u are." "I am Him, the one who needs u dead, and alive." "What is that sopposed to mean?" U will find out. Now, wake up"
"Ughhnn", Helsing groaned as he got up. "You guys get any.." he trailed off. He saw the destruction he had caused. He sa the heroes who had been hurt because of his recklessness. He rushed over to Lobe and saw he was burn and bleeding. He ran to Deth and was horiffied. He started to brake down, but stopped when he heard her breathing. "Not again, no, that won't happen again," he said to himself. He proped the heroes against the building closest to him.
He remembered the Thorn. He walked over to the headless body. It reached for his neck suddenly and somehow spoke. "Haha! You have failed to defeat me, yet your friends will surely die," it said with a raspy voice. "You....Are ....So....DEAD!" He tore the body to shreads. He was covered in some fluid, but it was not blood. It was green, sickly green. Then the heroes started to stir....
::Her mind and energies returning, NEko mad her way to Cywhite, with thorns you don't want to get in melee range when they go boom. She hoped cy would understand her action as she extend her palm crackleing with negative energy toward the robot.::
'need a boost?"
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
Seeing the object of his rage finally weakening, Lobe, oblivious to the aid his friends have given him, explodes into a renewed fury of pugilism. Tears stream from his mad eyes as the beleagured thorn mage begins to wilt under the onslaught.
My God! What is this monster? thinks the mage as his conterattacks go completely ignored. I know I have hurt him, but he just keeps coming. And now his friends are helping him and that one with the advertisements has drained some of my energy! The mage realizes he is running out of options and needs to force the big brute pummeling him back if he's to escape. Collecting one last massive charge of mystical energy, he readies himself to discharge it in his opponents face, blinding him. Just as he stretches out he's hand to release the blast it is intercepted by a chair. Trying to fathom where the errant piece of furniture could have come from he looks up to discover that oblivion looks a lot like a fist.
OOC: don't know if I should read the whole topic or not but
since I am Tom now he wouldn't have known what has
transpired so I wouldn't if any one would
like to catch him up please do.
IC: Background: Galaxy City
Sitting in cold alley with two dead cadavers and a
reaper corpse embedded on the end of my shotgun
I try thinking about how I got here. I remember that last
day in my world
very vividly, Allan had died bringing down the dreaded M and
his sinister plot of world domination. We all stood there in
Africa wondering what we were going to do now that LXG had
been officially disbanded by our governments.. As the others
walked away I could see something happening at Allan's grave
It was as if 3 feet of dirt suddenly sunk in to the earth and
standing above the grave an old doctor stood there.. I
walked toward this man cautiously and reached for my pistol
he turned toward me and said what are you going to be doing
with that and I said, "Nothing mister if you can explain what
just happened." He mumbled a few words and everything
around us disappeared. "you Mr. Sawyer are an interesting
anomaly, I have looked into the very fabric of this universe
and it seems like you are in a place that you should not belong
as did our Allan. It is what makes it possible to give him
life again and again." i asked the man, "So I don't belong here
then where do I belong, if not here." "Mr. Sawyer we don't
know where you belong but it seems like the universe has
plans for you and Mr. Quartermain in another world, they need
your help and we helped Allan along you must make a choice
now do you wish to go or stay here in a world you don't
belong in." I thought about it and decided that I had nothing
here anymore and God or whatever was out there had
always taken care of me and it seemed like this was my
path and I would let it take me wherever the river would take
me. The one thing I remember from my youth was that no
matter how bad a river seemed underneath the surface there
was a calm this may be a bad patch of the river but I would
find the calm and my place in the universe.. "Send me out I
will find Allan and do what is needed.", I told the mystic..
"You will have help when you arrive.. Allan may arrive before
you or after you but be patient.. Look to others for help and
you will find your way.. Good Luck Mr. Sawyer."
I felt the world swirl around me and as I fell into the
world I felt different. It was like being reborn.
As the monk behind him died, Nevur's stream of health he was directing at Kate trickled away. He could swear he saw her left arm grow stronger and her face seemed to take on a look of determination rather than pain. The right arm, however, still had momentum behind it and seemed to be gearing up for one last attack on Nevur.
Quickly, Nevur turned his powers on himself, bringing stone up around and through him. The rock eclipsed his vision as the killing arm rose towards him. For half a second all was quiet in his stone tomb, then the rock cracked and burned, chipping away like wax. Nevur was thrown backward, skidding down the street.
When he finally stopped he groggily sat up. He could hardly stand to move, but he had to see if his tranfusion had helped Kate, or if she was going to continue her attack.
Cywhite's stance began to go limp. His power cells were self regenerating but something was draining them at a rate quicker then his own expenditure. The small amount of power left in him used to keep his secondary systems online. He was effectively paralyzed from the neck down.
He looked to the other heroes, it seemed they too were suffering similarly. His brain, a super complex self evolving computer, had created itself and achieved conciousness only days after activation. While his brain functioned much like a human's it was built far differently. Cywhite was thankful he still had his thoughts.
"System malfunction due to outside manipulation. Assistance may be needed. Secondary systems are in mandatory working order. No two functions at once." was the message Cywhite broadcast. If he was lucky, Ivory would catch it upon coming out of Limbo. If he was unlucky, his older brother would intercept it.