2013.07.24 - Anomalies, Part 1: Aberrant Takes New York

The concert started at five o'clock. It opened with a set of silly songs for children performed by Gary and Bill, and they were followed by Four Real, an a capella group. Each set has lasted around forty-five minutes, and the first several were decidedly family friendly. As a result, for the first couple of hours the crowd was dominated by families with young children, but as the hour grows later more teenagers and young adults arrive. Many of the teens wouldn't admit it, but they remember 'Coming Up Rosey' fondly, and are looking forward to hearing Beverly Sunderland perform. Most say they're here for one of the harder core acts that will come on later.

But as eight o'clock rolls around, Beverly is ready to take the stage. She carries no instrument with her, but is backed up by the house band. The blonde grins broadly out at the audience, raising one hand to wave as she shouts into the microphone, "Hello New York!" to the rowdy approval of the crowd. She's cheerful and chatty, taking a few moments to speak to the crowd and tell them how glad she is to be here, how much she loves being asked to perform for the City that Never Sleeps, and things are looking bright (no pun intended) when she launches into her first song to a clatter of guitars and drums.

"On the floors of Tokyo And down in London-town a go-go With the record selection and the mirror's reflection I'm-a dancin' with myself..."

The crowd eats it up. Bev isn't known for her own music thus far, just for the few songs she sang on the show, but it wasn't much problem to put together a list of popular songs from the last twenty or thirty years that she could sing well, and she thrives on this stuff, loving the act of singing as much as the response of the crowd to her voice.

But somebody in the crowd isn't cheering with the rest. He pushes steadily forward, trying to get into position at the edge of the plaza where he can see Beverly. It's hot and humid this evening, but this man wears a leather duster and a pair of goggles with red lenses even so. He can't be comfortable in that get-up.

Amongst that teen set, a certain Titan. Oh, Marissa Sometimes is not in costume, of course. In fact, she's wearing a faux leather mini-dress and sandals, moving through the crowd to get somewhat closer to the stage. Her dyed-blonde hair falls loose over her shoulders. She's got a small rucksack slung over one shoulder that seems to be serving her as a large purse for the evening. Her arms are bare except for a watch. Is she here to listen to Beverley? She wouldn't admit THAT any more than the rest of her age cohort that are present. In fact, right now, she's actually passing almost unnoticed in the crowd.

There's another person at this concert. Someone who well.... Let's just say it. Kate Bishop is /NOT/ sure why she's here. She won't lie. She won't deny.

To be honest, events like this just aren't really her 'thing'. Just like a certain live event a few months back featuring a reality TV series wasn't her thing.

And yet, here she is. Not in costume. Not dressed up in some expensive and fancy clothes. And unarmed.

Yeah. Despite her wearing clothes, she feels a bit naked to be without at least /something/ these days.

But oh well. As Bev starts to sing, even Kate is willing and able to admit that the singer does have a nice voice, and that /maybe/ coming to the concert was a 'nice' change of pace.

Othello is staked out in the parking lot across the seat from the venue. These concerts always bring at least one predator out to hunt someone that has been separated from their friends. Othello is sure that he was supposed to be here tonight. Why else would he have seen a National Geographic magazine next to Teen Music Beat magazine together side by side at the supermarket. It must have been a sign.

If there was one thing that Terry enjoyed, it was music... and so a concert made perfect sense to the teenager as far as a reward to himself for his heroics as of late went. He was actually enjoying himself so far, even if the music -- and crowds -- that started the day weren't exactly his 'scene'.

Still, it was time to step out of the shadows. Do something he wanted to do, without fear of his powers regressing and traumatizing someone completely unsuspecting.

He had come alone, but it isn't too long before he finds a familiar face in the crowd... and after a little sneaking past one or two people, Kate might feel a tap on her shoulder. "Hey, stranger!" His voice purposefully louder than usual to be heard over the crowd.

Jamie has no idea why he decided to go to the concert but here he is, taking a break from the PI firm and going to enjoy the free concert. Watching the music brings the flashbacks to Jamie, he sent one of his dupes to study music. Said dupe studied for a while and then ended up becoming a broke blues singer who had talent but never got any lucky breaks. And of course he was absorbed the day before he was going to get a record deal, so was the life Lame Lemon Madison.

So he's watching the concert, and hey actually enjoying it. So he listens to the music, and stays in the back, away from the crowd kinda. It's funny the guy in the trench coat who is never alone, just doesn't want to be buy the dancers. He just doesn't need an accidental bump when he's not concentrating. Vorpal didn't know why he came here. Sure, he was going to ask Patrick to come with him, share an outdoor concert with him- be a regular couple on a summer night.

Then Patrick walked out on him.

He wasn't in the mood to socialize. He wasn't in the mood to really attend the concert, but he figured that since he had cleared his schedule, he might as well attend in an official manner. Sometimes these outdoor functions attracted troublemakers. It was a good reason to focus away from what was going on in his life and stay on the task ahead. Beverly could sing, he thought to himself, but he only wished he were in a mood to actually enjoy the music. Hiss it was, he remained perched on one of the lampposts, invisible and watching over the crowd.

"So let's sink another drink 'Cause it'll give me time to think If I had a chance I'd ask the world to dance, And I'd be dancing with myself, oh-oh-oh..."

Beverly is completely caught up in the music, in the sheer joy of performance. She's aware of the crowd as a massive beast, more than a collection of individuals. A thought flits through her head -- an avatar of approval -- and this causes her to grin all the more broadly, silver eyes shining almost literally as she throws herself into the chorus.

The man in the duster finally reaches the edge of the arena, close enough to see the girl bouncing to the beat of her own song. She told the world she was a mutant, so as far as he is concerned she gets what she deserves. All she had to do was keep quiet, and she might never have wound up on his radar. He focuses his attention on Beverly as he reaches into his coat. He brings the force of his will to bear upon her.

On stage Beverly misses a step, almost trips over her own feet, but manages to right herself.

Because the man has been interrupted, his attention distracted by a small, high-pitched voice as a little boy tugs at his mother's sleeve. "Mommy, that man has a gun." It only takes a moment for his mother to confirm her son's observation, to grab him up into her arms and start trying to force her way out of the crowd screaming "GUN!" at the top of her lungs.

The world knows...or at least most of the world knows...that Marissa Sometimes is a mutant. And other things often as unkindly treated. Did she hear...did she hear somebody screaming gun? Dang it. And now the rest of the crowd is picking it up, surging back away from that point. Lightly, the young woman pushes against the force of the moving people. No sense worrying about a costume, although if this outfit gets worried she'll be pissed. It's brand new. As they surge around a car, she leaps onto it, rummaging in her rucksack as she crouches, looking for the gunman. If she's lucky, it'll be a toy, a prop, or some other case of mistaken identity.

Screaming fire in a crowded theater is a big bad that everyone knows is a big bad. It's one of those things that usually can't be topped.

Unfortunately there is one way to top it. namely shouting something like 'Gun!' at a crowded concert in a post-9/11 NYC.

Thus, before Kate Bishop even has much of a chance to register just who was shouting a greeting at her, she hears that. /THEN/ she glances at Terry. Which prompts her stomach to drop.

"We should get you clear. This is gonna be a mess of fear any moment now..."

Wait... What?!? Kate is taliking about /RUNNING/?!?

Othello is still a bit too far away from the concert itself to actually notice anything that might be going on, so he continue to monitor the parking lot.

This is why he can't have nice days. This is /exactly/ why he can't have nice days.

Terry freezes for a moment as the echoed cries of 'Gun!' start reverberating through the crowd. Not because he's scared, no. Because /other/ people are. He can feel the shared emotion being thrust at him, trying to crush him under it's weight.

Kate's words wake him up a bit, and he just quickly nods. "Already is." he chokes out, the color already starting to fade from his flesh. The bad thing? It's not going to be easy to get out of this crowd, although the teen is going to try -- whichever direction that takes him in.

Okay that is one way to get closer to the stage, yell something to get everyone to clear out. The problem is that's not the type of thing someone would yell. So of course the mutant PI does something that most other people wouldn't do, and that is start to go against the crowd, trying to get closer to the stage. There is one thing a panicking crowd is good for, elbowing and shoving people out of the way. And when one of those people is Jamie Madrox, well it just helps make the crowd a lot bigger. Everybody shoving and elbowing him, well that is just making more and more dupes. Strength in numbers, one of them is bound to be able to get to the person with the gun.

Vorpal pushes off from his light-post and floats into the air, soaring over the crowd. It is no doubt his ears have picked up the first screams of gun, even before the crowd has picked up the panic. Business mode. An emergency may be in the works, and the first priority was to identify the threat and execute immediate crowd control.

Cloaked within his invisibility, the Cheshire cat summons an illusion that hovers over the crowd--- an image of the police symbol, like a hologram. A voice resounds powerfully through the area:

"Please exit the area in a calm and orderly manner, do not panic. Agents have been notified and are en route."

Vorpal narrows his eyes to study the crowd and its reaction, trying to pinpoint where the cries had first emerged.

It would happen during her set. Bev felt something happen to her mind, something that almost made her drop in place, and while she recovered quickly, it's too late -- the crowd is trying to scatter, and somebody... has a gun? "Looks like the show's over, boys," she says in the direction of the band. "This was supposed to be my finale." She hums to herself a few bars of 'Instant Karma' as the light suffuses her, making her glow brighter than anything in her immediate vicinity, becoming a figure of pure white light. "We all shine on!" she proclaims, and then wonders how stupid that sounded as she searches for any sign of the man with the gun.

The crowd has no particular objection, en masse, to Madrox or Mend going in the other direction, and while, individually, these people would love to leave the area in a quick and orderly fashion, they are hindered by all of these idiots around them! So the people are trying to escape, and doubtless making things worth for each other in the process. But what can you do? Sheep. Baaaaa.

The Anomaly Killer, or, as he prefers, the Aberrant, is annoyed. Stupid kid! He could... well, he doesn't hurt kids, doesn't, as far as he is concerned, hurt anybody who doesn't deserve to be hurt -- or need to be hurt -- but the brat should mind his own business! He lost his hold on the girl, and...

And she's got back-up. He should have known. New York is sort of the hotbed of superhuman activity, and he really doesn't want to have to throw down with any of the non-anomalous types. But he'll do what he must. And for the moment what he must do is give himself room to operate.

"Enough!" roars the man in the duster, and with his voice comes a short-range burst of incredible telepathic power, forcing into the minds of those within a dozen yards the realization that they are very small, very weak, and very much worthless in the eyes of the universe. Almost as one the people around him collapse, leaving a solitary figure with a gun in one hand standing at the edge of the plaza in the center of a rough semicircle of human bodies.

"I know who you are, Beverly Sunderland!" he shouts as he aims his pistol at the glowing figure. "You are an anomaly, and you do not belong!" And he fires three times in rapid succession.

"Bastard!" comes from the girl in the black faux leather dress, in a low-urgent whisper. She's too far away to stop him from firing...but with everyone around him unconscious or worse? That means what she has in the rucksack will be quite effective... "Fire in the hole!" Which will hopefully make him turn. Hopefully, because the teenaged heroine just lobbed a flashbang. Right at him. Hopefully nobody important was looking at it...

"Can you find who ever it is who /has/ the gun?" Kate asks Terry, right in time to see the 'Killer' KO those people closer to the stage.

"Or just grab /THEIR/ fear?" is said as she points a finger.

Yeah, odds are she's lucky she was moving away from the killer when he did that, but still...

And then of course there's that flashbang, and as it goes off Kate tries to shield her eyes.

Underneath his mask, Othello looks perplexed as he observes people running towards the parking lot from the concert. Othello whispers to himself, "Perhaps, I interpret the signs wrong. No bother, I am obvious still supposed to be here." Othello climbs to the top of a SUV to try to figure out where is the root of all this commotion, once he comes up with a hypothesis, he jumps down and starts to run towards the concert area. He reaches the concert area to see a group of people running, while another group fall down like reverse dominoes. Before he think of his next move, a flashbang goes off too.

"Right..." Terry replies to Kate's suggestion, turning to the sound of her voice. His irises have vanished, and it almost seems like he's fighting the transformation at the moment. As evidenced by the way his voice goes from the Terry she knows to something considerably more nightmarish, and back again. "...I can't..." See if the operative word, but that gets lost in the crowd. Instead the plea is replaced with a command. "......the stage. Turn me towards it. I feel the fears, I /need/ them." ...and Terry's going to be seeking out any minds right now in the direction he gets turned, that /aren't/ afraid of guns. Seems logical enough, right?

Jamie is reminded that he needs to carry his gun on him at all times, but well every time he's reminded he still never does it. It's tucked away in the locked draw of his office, because it does a lot of good there. Now the dupes were trying to find the guy with the gun, Jamie had started to send them around to search the crowd now that people were getting out of there. However his searching and actions get hindered thanks to a flash bang, cause you know the bright light just temporarily blinds Jamie and his army of dupes.

It's time to get Wonderful. A glowing, purple wall appears before Beverly- and Daybreak would know those constructs. But he does not appear. Rather, he needs to take the man's attention away from Beverly somehow, and he is about to do something about it when the flashbang warning comes. Vorpal is too slow, though, since he was focused on bringing the wall up. The flashbang's light blinds him, and the sound wave hurts his ears-- so that his focus is disrupted and he becomes fully visible and falls to the ground, stunned, altogether too visible to the man with the gun--- he's a fricking purple cat dressed in red and black spandex. Whether or not the wall's brief existence was able to stop the bullets or not, the construct disintegrates the moment Vorpal's focus is disrupted.

He remains on the ground for a few seconds, trying to get his bearings. Flashbangs are terrible for regular humans--- how much more can they be for someone with keen night-sight and extremely acute hearing?

Though Aberrant turns toward the sound of Marissa's cry, he is wearing goggles that protect him from the light. His reaction is first irritation, and then glee. The corners of his mouth turn upward, and his grin is wide and mad. "Anomalies!" he says. "So many anomalies!" Yes, a total of four of them. His eyes fix, in turn, on Mend, on Othello, on Vorpal. And he already had Beverly, now Daybreak, in his sights. But he cannot deal with all of these on his own.

The bullets have passed harmlessly through Beverly's light body. She's more angry than anything, certainly not scared of this twisted creature. She teleports, landing beside him, ready to flash intense light directly into the man's face, but before she can do so he turns his eyes back to her, and she's caught once more.

<< You know you are nothing in the eyes of the universe. You are a singularity. You have no more substance than air. Do the bidding of the universe before you fall, Daybreak -- attack! >>

And Daybreak, her psyche suppressed, forced down under the weight of the understanding: she sees a momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little mark, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, "You are here." *

Daybreak raises one glowing hand toward her face for just a moment, and then, haltingly, stalks toward Vorpal and bathes him in a radiance of laser light.

With Daybreak now doing his bidding, Aberrant turns his attention toward Marissa, raising his pistol in her direction. "Do the universe a favor, young lady, and excuse yourself." Bang.

Crap. Friendly fired an ally, and didn't even nail the bad guy. Mend twists to the side, but she doesn't entirely avoid the bullet. It grazes her hip and she hisses in pain as she rolls off the far side of the car. Okay. No more flashbangs...and now Daybreak is fighting Vorpal. Not good. Not good at all, and she crouches, ready to dive for that gun...and if she ends up taking half a dozen bullets in the process, she doesn't really care. (Yes, Terrance, looking for minds that aren't scared of guns...or weapons of any kind...sometimes backfires, now, doesn't it).

Hopefully.... /HOPEFULLY/ Terry manages to latch onto the right person. Because otherwise...

Because otherwise, as Kate blinks, her vision starting to slowly recover as she turns and tries to fight the mob... To get closer to what's going on, with all the powers are fighting... SHe's for the most part at a loss. At best she can pull out ther 'new and improved' version of the sunglasses she uses with her costume, and puts them on. but with no powers, no weapons, and no costume....

If everything wasn't going so crazy, Othello would have snapped his fingers at the thought that his earlier "message" must to have something to do with that silver skinned mutant speaking for mutants, and nothing about protecting teenagers at a concert. Othello lets out a frustrated sigh for his misinterpretation and for this predicament he founds himself in, "Anomaly, we have been called worse by your kind." Othello draws quickly his pistols, "Night Riders, Klansmen, Nazis, and others who practice your bigotry have always fallen. We were created to teach you lessons in humility and folly" Othello fires his pistols at Abberant, "First lesson, never bring bullets to a costume fight."

"...wish me luck." is added by Terry as his mind seizes on some minds. There's three that stick out to him like sore thumbs, but as much as he'd rather sort through just which one's which to find the fear he needs to find, Vorpal's message of calm to the crowd came a little too late to have saved him the assault.

Terry's form starts to melt in the middle of the crowd, gathering into a pigmentless pool that was once a human. Then? That pool seems to catch fire along it's outer edges, the if anyone were to look inside they'd see what appeared to be a portal to Hell itself having been formed.

Every so often, the portal seems to shake. Almost as if responding to someone on the other side, or even the crowd on this one. Something's getting closer, and a voice that booms with demonic presence escapes the portal first.

"I've come for you."

His eyes have cleared and Jamie sees a lady that appears to be shining very brightly, oh this one probably isn't gonna be good. But Jamie realizes he has to do something, the guy definitely wasn't a very nice guy and all that. Now the dupes just start running towards the Aberrant or whatever the heck he calls himself, for all we know it's Joe. How come there is never a really cool bad guy named Joe?

As the crowd of Jamies charges at the guy, they just decide to call out, "DOGPILE ON THE UGLY GUY WITH THE NICE JACKET." Hey if this guy hates people with powers, he's really going to hate the crowd of people with powers charging at him, right?

Dear Princess Celestia:

Today I lerned that looking up at the sun can hurt. But I also learned that being fried by the sun hurts a lot, lot more. Please send bandages.Your student, Twilight Vorpal.

The ray that hits him comes completely out of the blue, even as he recovers enough to see. Beverly...Daybreak... it is an attack from a quarter he did not expect, and his senses were so dazed that he could not Sidestep, nor come up witth a proper block. As the energy hits him, he screams and falls backwards, pain coursing through his body due to the burns.

~Get up, Get UP or he'll kill you! they both will!~

Making a supreme effort, the cat pushes himself up, without managing to sit or stand up, and looks up through eyes that are still not fully focused. His invisibility was ruined, and he was too weak to fight physically... so his best effort at this point is creating ye good old-fahioned glowing purple anvil over Aberrant and releasing it to gravity. He was too weak to really think of something else to do at this point, as his body felt as if it had been put through a life-sized microwave.

Even as Othello speaks the words, Aberrant is moving -- or, rather, no longer where he was. A split second before the man's pistols fire the belt that used to belong to the man known as Stick-Up flares to life and moves Aberrant out of the line of fire. "Good advice," he tells the man in the fedora. "Here's some for you: never underestimate a man who has killed many so-called heroes." And he fires off one more bullet before he hears Jamie -- or should that be the Jamies (ever think of starting a gimmick band, Madrox? Jamie and the Jamies -- you'd make a bundle) shouting to pile on him.

But Madrox -- Madrox isn't one of his targets. Madrox belongs. Madrox exists. Madrox has a place in the universe. "No!" cries Aberrant, turning toward the Madroxes (Madri? Madroces? Madrigascar?) and raising his hands. "Do you not understand? I am doing this for YOU!" The pistol in his grip waves toward the portal that was once Trauma. "He certainly does!" Even as he says this he is backing away, but he cannot outpace the Madromany so easily, and will go down underneath the oncoming heroes.

When Bev was a child she had a cat named Annabella. Anna was possibly the sweetest cat ever, always quick to snuggle up to her family, but Bev above all others, her favorite spot the girl's lap on a cold winter afternoon. Then mom decided to get a dog, and the dog took an instant dislike to Anna, and Anna spent the rest of her days hiding from the dog, unable to come out and be with her family for fear the dog would attack.

Some part of Bev (when she's herself and not crushed under the weight of triviality) is reminded strongly of Anna by Vorpal. That part of her will be horrified very shortly -- should she survive this encounter.

But as it stands, she has no will to stop what she's doing. She is under orders from one who matters far more than she. She turns up the heat, her lasers prevented from going to full power only from the fact that she cannot summon the will to drive them to their limits. Her voice is anything but melodic when she utters a single word -- doubtless compelled by the Aberrant, rather than some conscious thought of her own. "Burn."

Daybreak is dangerous. She's not as dangerous as the Aberrant...who is now distracted by Jamie. Doing this for you? What makes Jamie different from Daybreak or, perhaps, herself. Something...but Mend's going to worry about it later. Instead, she's trying to circle towards him. Oh. Crap. Teleportation...but as long as he's not paying attention to her, the girl will keep closing...well, until he's under a pile of Madroxes. "Knock him out!" she suggests. Hopefully if they can render him unconscious that will mean Daybreak is released from the mind control. Or whatever. But she's sure it's mind control...man.

Mend hates mind control.

And as Kate continues towards the fight, as she tries to figure out what to do, she is /nearly/ bowled over by a couple of people. One of which is a kid. A /YOUNG/ kid. Which well...

Yeah, new plan. Kate is trying to help people get out. People who may have fallen, or been hurt by the trampling crowd. Or what have you.

Othello watches as his energy beams from his pistols missed their target, and is about to change his tactic when he sees the army of clones descend upon the Anomaly Killer. Othello frowns behinds his mask, "You sent others after we missed only once that is not fair." Othello quickly looks around the battlefield and looks at the woman blasting a weird looking creature in clothes on the ground. Othello launches some smoke grenades at the woman's head.

Soon the portal that was Trauma reveals what was coming. First it's the horns, crooked, jagged horns of ivory. Then the head. A bald, red-skinned hed with a scowl on his features and a goatee. That's right, as the form steps out of the portal it's more than clear that Trauma has manifested as the traditional symbol of evil incarnate - the Devil. Cloaked by a cape that always sways just in the right direction to provide modesty (and careful viewers will notice that as he stepped through the portal, the fire itself became the cape) with a burning pitchfork clutched in one hand.

"It's time to come home..." booms the demonic voice, as cloven hooves start stomping through what's left of the crowd. "...I'm taking you back with me, Marissa!"

If Aberrant didn't know already that Trauma wasn't a threat to /him/ right now, that probably provided some comfort to our villain... and exactly the opposite to the remaining heroes.

The Madrarmy piles on top of the Aberrant, and once there the dupes just start trying to hit at the guy. Note to self, a dupe needs to study grappling and MMA style attacks. Would really help when doing stuff like this. Each punch includes a word from one of the dupes, "What. Do. You. Mean. You. Are. Doing. This. For. Us." With one dupe getting in, "This is for stealing our trench coat style!" That one thinks only PIs should be wearing the trench coats it seems.

Vorpal's voice rises in an ear-piercing scream. Getting no break from Daybreak's beams, nothing he can recover with, he crumples to the ground, feeling as if his flesh is about to melt from his bones. His fur is singed, and there are terrible and severe burns on his body. This is pain like he has never felt before, and as he teeters at the edge of consciousness itself, he can only think of one person- but his focus is too lost to even fully realize who it is.

In a last-ditch attempt for survival, he puts the last of his willpower into trying to create a dome around him to stop the pain, stop it at any cost...

Aberrant allows himself to be pummeled for a few moments, but just a few moments, allowing the Madromeda to ask their question. He responds, "You exist!"

And then he teleports out from under the pile, still supine, but now some distance away. "You are real! I see you in other planes! But them...." He waves a careless hand that encompasses Daybreak, Vorpal, Mend and Othello. "They don't matter. They only detract from you."

He gets to one knee and lets his eyes take in the crowd against him. Even with Daybreak on his side, he can't hope to best all of these anomalies. And clearly Madrox is not going to see reason. "You will see," he says. And then the belt flares again, and Aberrant is gone.

Daybreak is in her light form, an so the smoke grenades pass right through her, landing behind and sending the smoke among the fallen crowd. As Aberrant teleports away, these people start to come awake, some of them hacking and coughing as they inhale the smoke, all of them climbing to their feet and trying to escape in panicked confusion.

Daybreak also comes out of her stupor, but rather than rising, she collapses in memory of the trap she just experienced. An infinite void, and she the tiniest of one-celled creatures, alone. But as her light fades, as she becomes human once more, the girl's eyes widen as she sees what she's been doing. "Vorpal!" And her head whips around. "Where did he go?!"

Marissa...oh, slight problem. Not afraid of guns, nope. Not afraid of bad guys. Why should she be? The worst thing they can do is knock her out for a while. Demons from hell coming after her? With a shriek, the heroine breaks and runs. Oh no, that's not a shriek. Yup. She screamed like a little girl. And bolted. And it's going to be *all over Youtube* thanks to the fact that not everyone fled. Oops. She's NEVER going to live this one DOWN.

Othello ignores the hacking and coughing people as he observes Abberant's escape. "Woman immune to physical attacks when in light form." Othello looks around the concert "Anomaly Killer, has transportation device with him." Othello looks over at Madrox, "You sent others to help, because we made mistake." Othello turns to leave, "Next time, we will not fail, and he will learn his lesson in humility and folly. We promise you." Othello does notice the devil, but still decides to leave. "We must prepare for our mission."

By this point, inside the demon's head Terry's realized what's going on. He chose unwisely. Inside his head he's screaming at himself to stop, to turn back, to Not Do This.

It's too late to stop -- but Mend does the best thing that she could have done. The creature tries to follow, but a lumbering hulk of a demon is still that; lumbering. Soon Mend is out of range, and the transformation starts to regress.

Terry could not be happier about this, although he's still going to feel pretty awful about it happening in the first place.

Jamie is just left blinking at the guy as he teleports away. "Okay this definitely needs to be investigated." He mutters to himself, "Yeah but the cool stuff always seems to happen without paying clients." He answers back. Jamie Madrox, he's like the only guy in the world that can talk to himself and answer back without looking super crazy. But now that the crisis is averted, Jamie rounds up his dupes. Man that Shaolin Dupe has given Jamie a really useful thing with the no touching dupes to reabsorb them thing.

There isn't much Vorpal can say, or quip. Every nerve screaming in pain, his consciousness simply shuts down and he finishes collapsing in a heap, blood covering him and horrible burns all over his body.

If anyone checks his lifesigns, they will be very, very faint. This one's for the hospital.


 * Douglas Adams (1981). /The Restaurant at the End of the Universe/.