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Post by TasK on Nov 5, 2010 10:30:18 GMT -5
Oldschool makes a mental note to ask this... Arc, about what she knows about 'Kick'. There was more than met the eye going on here. He also wanted to ask her about her powers. Nothing had suggested that she had any superhuman abilities.
Why did they want to sponser a superhuman team if one of their agents already had abilities? Oldschool wondered if there were more. The Vigil agent's eye glowed with some sort of unearthly energy. That was two he knew about and he had only really found out about them, today.
"Yeah, let's go Solo!" he agreed before turning towards Vendetta.
"It may come down to you, old friend, if we fail. I can't condone it, but if it saves innocent lives, you may have no choice."
Oldschool pats Vendetta on the shoulder before he jogs over to stand beside Solo.
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Post by Vendetta on Nov 5, 2010 11:10:29 GMT -5
Vendetta gave Olschool a nod and said "I hope it doesn't come to that - I dont like the idea of having to kill a member of my own team anymore than anyone else - I guess the difference is I'll do it if I have to."
after getting into the chopper he quickly checks his guns, making sure they are fully loaded.
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Post by shockwave on Nov 5, 2010 15:38:01 GMT -5
"Get us there! I'll take my best shot to take him down. We'll figure out how to catch him on the way down. Might be back to plan A with the sonic bubble at that point. If it doesn't work, we'll just hope the concrete at least makes it painless. Oldschool, once we teleport to the center, I'm probably going to need you to throw me at him to get maximum intensity at close range. If I fail in the shot, at least I'll divert his attention while he turns me into a block of ice and you guys get a next plan."
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Post by Dead Sidekick on Nov 5, 2010 16:24:18 GMT -5
Arc says to Vendetta as they climb into the waiting helicopter, "I imagine it's still chaotic in the Lower East Side. The pilot will drop us off at the shelter and we'll want to leasve ASAP. That area is going to be crawling with police and investigators soon, but we have to extract Flashdance. If Windchill jeopardizes that extraction, I'll take him out myself."
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Post by Vendetta on Nov 6, 2010 3:49:49 GMT -5
Vendetta nods, and makes a mental note to keep an eye on Arc.
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Post by TasK on Nov 6, 2010 12:54:24 GMT -5
Oldschool nodded. He didn't like it, but he couldn't think of a better plan that didn't involve him knocking Windchill's teeth out. It wasn't the youth's fault. Any plan that someone else was offering to deal with the consequences of attacking their team mate, the better it was for him. Oldschool had enough guilt even attacking those who deserved it, let alone a friend.
"Let's do this."
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2010 8:53:19 GMT -5
Without another word Solo touches the shoulders of both Oldschool and Shockwave, attempting to teleport them to the homeless shelter.
Initiative [attack=194721692685953]
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Post by Dead Sidekick on Nov 10, 2010 9:00:00 GMT -5
ooc: Everyone but Rin head to Chapter 9.3
Rin, you're still in the sub-basement levels of the Paladin Institute... see earlier post about what he's seeing.
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Reen
Ex(20) Member
'Annoyances'
Posts: 112
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Post by Reen on Nov 11, 2010 17:58:01 GMT -5
That was close... thought Rin as the elevator stopped when the intercom came on. Luckily, the men with him were dumb enough to include the red guy in ice as the third....
Rin stared in amazement as they reached their destination. Such a place could exist under a building! Did every building owned by rich people have such places?
As Rin stared wide-eyed as he looked around the room, his eyes met the two necklaces sitting in the indentations on the table. There was more of these? So, maybe now he could determine if that new voice was from the red guy...or the amulet. Well, at least he could assume there was seven of these necklaces from the indentations. It seems that they were collecting them...
Stricken to find the answer, he sneakily hopped onto the thing with the indentations, timing it to not hit the people continually swarming around it. He stood there on it for a moment, watching everyone scurry, before crouching down and staring at the two of the current necklaces. His hand slowly reached to touch them both, so slowly that he didn't even know he was doing it.
It was as if his arm was being called to them. His attention snapped to what they were doing with the red guy, but his arm continued on it's path.
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Post by Dead Sidekick on Nov 11, 2010 21:53:25 GMT -5
Climbing on to the center of the table with the indentations made Rin feel a somewhat dizzy sense of vertigo, almost as if he were hovering over a bottomless pit. Though the table was solid under his feet, being on it felt like standing on the edge of a crumbling cliff.
The amulets embedded in the table were similar to the one around the frozen assassin's neck except that where his glowed with an eerie red light, the two in the table were green and violet.
Static electricity arced from the green and violet amulets as Rin reached for them, and he heard a voice in his head, the new voice.
***Dreambridger! Were you real I would take your form! Everything is going according to plan. When the Keys are in place on this portal, I shall rise, free to complete my work!***
Rin's dizziness becomes a vision of tormented souls, chained to hellish columns and tormented by fire and demonic creatures. He sees one, a man in 16th Century dress, break free of his chains. Then Rin is chained to the column, and forced to watch as giant monsters and hideous creatures destroy New York City and soon overtake the North American continent, then the world.
=====
The Paladin technicians see the dance of electricity on the table, but do not see Rin.
All except one, that is. A man in a cloaked robe and glowing white eye steps forward from the shadows. The man who met the others on the rooftop named Vigil.
He extends his hand to Rin, as if to pull him out of the table's ensnaring dance of electricity.
He says, calmly, "Rin. It is good to see you again. You should not be here. It is too dangerous. Let me help you."
Behind Vigil, Rin notices seven gurneys with people strapped down and electrodes attached to their heads leading to a machine attached to another person in a gurney... that looks exactly like Rin....
...and Rin recognizes something odd from his past about this place. He's been here before. He's been here all along.
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Reen
Ex(20) Member
'Annoyances'
Posts: 112
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Post by Reen on Nov 12, 2010 0:02:54 GMT -5
Where to start.....
The feeling of vertigo was one he hadn't felt for sometime. Once in a while, when he needed food or needed to get something required of him, he had to go on the rooftops of buildings. Despite having balance, he still felt a little scared and had an eerie feeling that the ground was coming closer....
As the electricity spawned, he immediately snapped his head back at the amulets, withdrawing his hand from the strange reaction going on, figuring that if he did it quick enough, he wouldn't be hurt. But, as soon as the new voice re-announced itself in his head, he felt as if time stopped and sat their motionless during the horrific visions and the curious telling that the 'man' was showing him.
The visions, being as horrific as they were, didn't shock Rin too much. Yes, the destruction of the entire world is frightening, mind-blowing, but something allowed him to be content watching this. Maybe that it was he wasn't involved, that he had nothing to worry about in the world? No one to care about and nothing to live for...
Though, there was only one thing the man said in his head that truly frightened him:
"Were you real.."
If he was real? Rin was as real as he could think of...how could he experience all of the emotions and activate his abilities if he weren't real? Rin's heard of cases where you dream of an entire life, but he knew he wasn't in one. He thought he wasn't anyway.
At the words of "Rin.." coming from Vigil's mouth, Rin snapped out of the visions he was watching. How was he seen by him? Vigil continued talking despite Rin's thinking.
"It is good to see you again." Again? Rin doesn't remember meeting this man...unless he saw him on the roof also? But even then, he never mentioned his name.
"You should not be here. It is too dangerous. Let me help you." Dangerous? Help? There was no danger, Rin's voices kept him informed if there was danger. But then again...they didn't tell him about the new voice coming in and showing him those visions. Perhaps they were overpowered by it, as he learned from his last encounter with the voice? It still might be overcoming his voices, as their still is some electricity zapping right next to him.
As he thought and listened to Vigil, his eyes wandered around the room from the visions he was having. When he was finally freed from those, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He focused in on it for a moment, seeing some people on tables, before fully realizing what was behind those people. Himself.
"H...H-ow...?" Rin said, horrified, his eyes wide in shock. It all made sense now. Why the new voice said he wasn't real. He was somewhere else. But how? And Why? Fear managed to indulge itself into Rin, who begins to shake visibly.
It could be similar to what happened with the big guy...Oldschool...and how he was somewhere, but not really there. So then, how would he go back? It seemed that he made Oldschool go back to normal, but he couldn't even do it to himself.
Where were the voices when he needed them? They were his guidance in situations...they weren't here for once, and they were ALWAYS here. Rin was screaming in his mind, screaming for someone to help him, the voices, anyone; Fear came in multiple and in multitudes at the same time.
How long has he been away from his body? Why has he been here? Why wasn't anyone speaking to him? What is the deal with these amulets? What does the 'man' in the visions have to do with anything? What were the visions of? Was he, the Rin on next to the tables, fake? Who was this Vigil? Why does he want to help? Why did he have to find out.......
Rin pulled out the handgun from his right coat pocket, holding it as he has seen many other people have; his right hand gripping the handle and the trigger, and his left hand holding the bottom of the weapon to steady it. He aimed it directly at Vigil, his entire facial expression on the verge of crying from fear, horror, and desperation.
"Tell me...or...I'll....I'll....." Rin held the gun somewhat shakily as he pointed it at Vigil's chest. As Rin did so, he would slowly try to fumble off of the indentation table, and slowly move toward where his actual body is. He firstly tries to position himself between Vigil and his real body, before backing up toward it.
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Post by Dead Sidekick on Nov 13, 2010 1:17:13 GMT -5
"Rin," Vigil said calmly, "you know I dislike guns. I will tell you whatever you want to know. Remind you of what you've forgotten over the last, what is it now? Forty years?"
Vigil made no move other than to wave off Paladin agents pointing weapons in the direction Vigil was facing, all of them still unable to see Rin. Vigil says to them, "Clear this level. Now."
The Paladin agents head for the elevator, and finding it disabled, turn and look at Vigil, who nods towards a door with a ladder going straight up. The agents are not happy about the long climb ahead, but comply.
"No one here will hurt you, Rin. Please, give me the gun and we'll talk this out."
Vigil holds his hand out for the gun, waiting patiently.
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Reen
Ex(20) Member
'Annoyances'
Posts: 112
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Post by Reen on Nov 13, 2010 10:05:34 GMT -5
Rin halted after Vigil spoke, keeping a few feet between them as he didn't want to be too close. Perhaps he could explain the situation, or convince him to lower his guard so Vigil can get the best of him. Was his safety worth the cost of information of these 'forty' years?
If he complied, Vigil would have the killing instrument available to himself, but he could have asked one of the other men for one...
On the other hand, if he didn't, Rin had an advantage on him and could try to interrogate him, but then he would have to prove he could use a gun...
Or even this; the man could, from what he heard, manipulate electronics. He could do something to Rin from afar, or already have a trap set for him, or even....
So many things went through his head, that he just shook his head from side to side multiple times, tears falling down from his eyes at this point. He couldn't handle this anymore. He HAD to know.
"I...Keep...."
Rin lowered the gun to point at the ground ahead of him after looking at Vigil, so depressed and shocked at all that has happened.
"Tell...and I give......"
Rin would point the gun up at Vigil if, and only if, Vigil would move towards Rin, or if something dramatically different happened to the current situation of a simple conversation.
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Post by Dead Sidekick on Nov 13, 2010 14:06:58 GMT -5
Vigil's tone was soothing as he calmly spoke, trying to gain Rin's confidence. "Some of the voices you hear in your head are those of your friends, those people there." Vigil said, as he indicated the seven in gurneys attached to a strange looking machine that was attached to the one that looked like Rin. "And some of the voices you hear are ghosts and demons and other psychic emanations from other worlds and dimensions. It's pretty crowded in there." Vigil seemed to struggle for the right words to say. "Let me begin from the beginning. Perhaps the story will make more sense. As nearly as we've able to determine, you were originally taken from your family in 1938 by men in service of an evil genetic scientist named Arnim Zola, who in turn was working for the Nazis and subsequently HYDRA." The name "Arnim Zola" evokes harsh memories from Rin, of torturous experimentation in his childhood and being forced with drugs and training to develop his mutant powers quickly, to be used as a spy and saboteur. Rin remembers a man with a face built into his chest, his head replaced by some strange box-shaped mind control device.... ooc: Rin remembers this guy.... ![](http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg340/deadsidekick/Arnim_Zola.gif) ....a mind control device that would invade Rin's head, pushing his mind into a dark cell and forced to watch as Arnim Zola controlled his body like a puppet. Whatever Vigil was saying, it made sense. He was telling the truth, at least about that part. So much of Rin's memories were simply... missing. "Eventually Zola's mad cloning science created that body there that looks like you... is you, created from your mutant DNA and refined to maximum potentials. He was using your body's amplified powers even as he supressed and erased your mind further. Your powers to induce dream states in people served HYDRA's espionage well in the 1950s, even as they burned your body out and forced Zola to clone another one, further genetically refined." Vigil pauses before continuing, reaching a hand to comfort Rin but retracting it in caution so as to not startle Rin while he held the gun. "In the early 1960s, HYDRA began working on a device they called 'the Hypnoporter,' based in part on Zola's mind control machines. It, in theory, could create a totally physical projection of a person's mind, and teleport it anywhere in the world, to act in the physical world with little threat of being captured. Agents captured could simply be awakened from the machine, and their projections would disappear into dust." Vigil decides that his least threatening posture would be to sit on the floor, and so he does. as he continues his story. "That is where we came in. The Paladin Institute is dedicated to defending the Earth from extradimensional threats and artifacts and technologies from lost civilizations from well before recorded human history. We've been at it, as an organization, for well over 400 years. One of our investigations into a 9th Century Spanish sorcerer and alchemist, Estaban Corazon De Ablo, better known as 'Diablo,' led us to find that some of his notes had been acquired by the Nazis and turned over to Zola and others in their advanced research efforts. Our discovery of the Nazi Hypnoporter prototype came somewhat haphazardly, chasing a rabbit trail to try to find a way to overcome the effects of Hitler's possession of the 'Spear of Destiny' which prevented magically and extradimensionally empowered superhumans from entering Nazi-occupied territory without falling under that mad hate monger's control. On the superhuman front, the Allies could only send mutants, altered humans, aliens, and robots into the war against the Nazis. Given the magical and / or extradimensional nature of the most powerful of the superhuman community at the time, this put the Allies at a severe disadvantage. Any superhuman captured by the Nazis was sure to have his... or her powers studied to see if they could be enhanced and duplicated in others." Vigil clasps his hands in his lap and bows his head sadly. "We had discovered that the barriers between Earth and other dimensions were becoming tattered by the war. Specifically by the Nazis' Hypnoporter experiments. There is a dimension where the dreams of all who dream come from. The Hypnoporter possibly creates physical reality from astral matter directly from this dimension somehow. Being that your mutant powers are refined upon induction of dream states, clones of your body were considered an even more powerful 'battery' for the Hypnoporter device than the various alchemical and thaumaturgical potions derived from Diablo's notes. With you, the Hypnoporter could manipulate reality itself. It was a threat the Paladin Institute would not allow to happen. Again. If it did. It gets confusing sometimes. Extradimensional reality shifts. Timeline wipes. Quite a crisis. We all have a reason to be insane for peeking behind the curtain. Or at least those of us who can't help but see it do." "The seven in the gurneys around the central one are... also you. Or rather, incomplete clones of you. The 'lot' of you were going to 'fuel' a reality manipulation weapon based on Zola's Hypnoporter designs built by HYDRA in the 1960s. We recovered... as many of you as we could from the destruction of that particular device, but have found no way to awake any of the clones. Despite being virtually incapable of physically aging, many have died over the years. They dream they are eating food, and their bodies are nourished. It's a rather fascinating phenomenon, but not nearly as fascinating as when... one of you manifest themselves as a physical projection in the world. I have to say it's really good to see you again, Rin. You really shouldn't withdraw into your mind so much. Forty years is a long time to wait between conversations." Vigil smiles a friendly smile, and Rin does vaguely recognize the truth of his words. "We believe someone has constructed a new Hypnoporter device and is using it to foment crime wars and chaos and confusion, which is at the same time tearing up the fabric of the barriers between Earth and a particularly nasty place called the Fomorexian Dimension. So far, their projections are temporary and impermanent, unlike the ones you've naturally created for yourself, er, selves. We don't know how you do it, or why you never manifest as powerful as your genetics suggest you could, but certainly you must recognize the truth of what I say."
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Post by Dead Sidekick on Nov 29, 2010 2:49:21 GMT -5
Vigil pauses for a while, the unsettled look on Rin's face told him enough. Still he wanted to tell Rin more.
"It's been theorized that your solid, interactive form... the 'you' holding that very real gun there... is a psionic force so powerful it can surpress even perceptions. Only the strongest minds can resist your efforts to be... temporarily forgotten. A potent ability, but not so useful against robots and automated defenses. But then again, killer robots and drone weapons weren't exactly rolling off the shelf to fight the Nazis in those days."
Vigil gets to his feet, but maintains a non-threatening stance as he holds his palm out for a handshake.
"If you shoot me, I will die and then those that review the security logs later will see a boy who looks like those there in the gurneys killing me. You can stand there and make those who come to investigate fall asleep or forget who they're looking for or looking at, but eventually one of the Institute's stronger minds will see the illusion for what it is and shut it down. You are, after all, still comatose in a bed. Killing me would eventually be pointless. Please, give me the gun."
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