[X] "Call me... 'Figment'."
Erie, Pennsylvania- July 11, 13:12 EDT
The motel room is among the scarier dwellings you have seen. Sets of strange clay masks cover the walls, mocking the faces of superheroes and supervillains you recognize. A wide variety of creepy, tribal looking sticks fill a small basket. The one table is covered with a creepy scrap book of things like hair, nail clippings, drops of blood, and photographs.
It is amazing how it barely bothers you after a shower and reheated leftovers for lunch.
"Cozy," You remark, gesturing at the paraphernalia.
"You should see my last apartment." He waves his hand. "I used to have far less savory items, but a stint in prison here, a breakout there, a trashed storage locker, and you end up needing to economize."
"What is it you
do, exactly? As a supervillain." He shrugs.
"I go wherever the wind takes me. There is always work for someone who has questionable ethics and esoteric skills. Currently I am working on a personal project in a place called Ravenswood. If you can avoid capture the life can afford long stretches of downtime. If I find what I am looking for in Ravenswood I could expect to retire happily for my few remaining years." You frown.
"You don't look
that old, and surely you can find a way to keep on going as a, well, wizard." He shakes his head.
"I die on February 1st, 2013. Not a thing I can do to stop
that. My soul will do what the soul of a magician who made a number of bad decisions does if Death has mercy on me. Better to burn out than to fade away." You shake your head.
"That has never been my philosophy." He laughs.
"I really should stop being so morbid. Now, Figment, interesting choice of a name. Perhaps a bit pretentious, but that is our right. Now there are several..." He suddenly freezes up. "You were followed."
"How
do you do that?" You ask curiously.
"I am
afraid in just the right way. Nothing else to it besides talking to the air." He gets up. "I am told you can fight." He examines a strange looking staff.
"What are we dealing with?" He frowns. "That is a harder question. Dangerous people, but..." He starts looking frantic. "Buy me some time and I can finish this! Try to keep them outside."
You leave the motel room, wondering what your chances are of actually getting assistance.
The man who falls from the sky is
big. Not inhumanly big, but tall and wide and strong. He lands on the ground of the parking lot, looking very angry.
He is wearing an "early League classic" hoodie in dark colors. It's a subtle costume, dressed for winter with gloves and a bulky utility belt. It could have just been someone sneaking around if he hadn't fallen from the sky. Dark makeup or grease takes the place of a mask around his upper face, splashed around in purposeful looking designs.
"Got a name?" He asks with a scowl.
"I just settled on Figment. Like it?" He shrugs. "I've heard better."
"What about you?" He shakes his head. "I've got some ideas."
Oh no. He
wanted you to keep talking.
"There's no chance you're just going to let me walk out of here, is there?"
"You attacked my daughter." You step back.
That's bad.
He crouches and leaps forward at incredible speed, right through the illusion standing several feet to your side. He laughs at that and spins with a surprising grace.
You could
not let this guy near you. The attempt to turn his clothes into burning clothes fails to do anything. Transmuting around him seems difficult given how quickly he moves, how strong he seems to be, how much control he has.
Where does the League
find these people?
You maintain an illusion of invisibility. The brick smiles again, and throws himself in another of those bullet like moves across the parking lot. If he hit you with one of those it would be
bad.
"I thought you weren't allowed to kill?" You ask him through another illusion.
"You almost killed my daughter," He answers with a growl, and throws himself again.
Calm down. The League wouldn't kill, not over this. They wouldn't send a killer. He was just scaring you. If he couldn't control those leaps he wouldn't be using them.
The fight would be over if he got his hands on you either way...
You drop your illusion for a second and raise a wall between the two of you. You go right, your illusionary clone goes left. The superhero jumps over the wall in another of those bursts, slightly slowed. But does it mean he doesn't want to smash it, or can't?
You liquify the ground beneath his feet, and he sinks down to his knees. He swings around in the new pool, unable to move properly.
"And that's that." The hard object against your back is
very disconcerting. The quiet, female voice sounds satisfied.
"I guess this is where I surrender," You state. You could melt the object, but someone who could sneak up on you that easily with unknown powers and equipment would probably knock you out if you resisted from here.
"It is." She presses harder, a hand on your shoulder. "Let my husband go."
Then the pressure is gone, but why? There's a white blur around where Jim is for a second, and then it is gone.
"And now we run." The voice is Cameron's. Twirling around you see the wizard wearing one of those clay masks and a shirt that looks like Icicle Junior's. His walk is different and he looks a good deal happier.
"What exactly is this?" You ask.
"Chaos, love. Chaos. Now please keep the brute in that hole, but don't
kill him. That kind of thing really does get too much heat even for us."
"I can't keep him there long. Where did the other one go?" He frowns. "She disappeared when I..."
The flash bang goes off. When you know where you are again the woman is holding a long pole against the wizard's throat and Jim has vanished. She has a full head mask that looks like a fencer's and a white costume. Her own utility belt is distinctive and appears color coded for tools.
"Now dearie, I am sure we can work this all
out!" the accent changes from British to American in a second and there is a blast of ice that covers her feet. The shake behind you is far more worrying, with a strong set of arms lifting you up.
"Let her go." The superhero growls. He smiles of sweat and oil and dirt, his arm pressing against your throat.
"I can't!" The whine is very much Cameron's. "I can make ice, but not manipulate it," The British voice explains.
"Take off the mask, Ethan, and we can talk."
Ethan, interesting.
"If you were to turn off your own brutish powers I would be more than happy to. As it is
no!" The voice changes with the last word again. Ethan raises a wall of ice between them. The hero crouches yet again and the two of you land behind the wall. You swing uncomfortable from one arm as he lunges, delivering a blow to the Ethan illusion's head. The real Ethan nods at you as the angry superhero picks the illusion up and throws him over his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" He asks his wife, who is still frozen to the ground. She nods, wincing a bit.
The man finds the half of his body carrying "Ethan" covered in ice a moment later. He breaks free, growling and spinning for an enemy he can't see. When his foot goes down next it sinks into another liquefied hole in the ground. He doesn't let go, and you hit your head against his shoulder for your trouble.
"Stop!" Cameron's voice hits you both, and Ethan is standing near the superheroine, pointing at her.
"Trade?" The superhero asks slowly after a moment of the two standing, with Ethan glaring and it feeling like your captor was as well.
"Let's." He nods and with a kick from the villain the ice shatters around the woman's feet, while the hero's arm lets go of you and he leaps away. Ethan has his hands raised, sliding on ice and moving back towards you as the brute lands next to his wife.
"Got any bright ideas, love?"
[X] "We run." You whisper. Just leave and hide, wait for it to blow over. "You said that before. Got a plan?" He shrugs. "Not a good one..."
[X] "Attack," You say. This problem will not solve itself, you need to take them down.
-[X] Figment's Attack Plan (Write in)
[X] "Follow my lead." Ethan nods. You have a plan to talk your way out of this.
-[X] Figment's Negotiation/Social Combat Plan (Write in)