Listening intently as Ira addressed the villain, Evelyn--having donned her mask as well--nodded her head before shivering slightly as the nullifier activated. She turned her attention to their prisoner.
The prisoner, Love Craft, perked up upon the Wards entering their room. Their eyes locked with every single one of the junior heroes in turn, with a wicked gleam. Not wicked in the sense of mischief, but in a seductive sort of way. The shapeshifter seemed especially keen on Epsilon once she started speaking. Must have been something in her voice.
"Heh, do we all really need to gang up on little ol' me? I must admit that I've never been able to go family style before, but if that's what you all want..." So it seemed they would continue the parade of sexual indiscretions.
"If you think that my team almost killed those heroes, then you don't know anything. There was never any chance that they were going to die."After a brief second, the Wards' communication earpieces all rang with Decoy's voice.
"They're telling the truth.""What's with that seductive glare?" Ruben whispered as he watched the events unfold from behind the door. Nothing caused him alarm just yet, and the only shadows so far were those of Love Craft just shifting around, so he remained silent for the time being.
Narrowing her eyes slightly she couldn't help but be a bit disbelieving of Decoy's truth detector, or at least in regards to this...Lovecraft. Having followed Ira into the room and positioned herself leaning against a wall, arms crossed, she kept a close eye on the prisoner, not trusting them in the least, which was probably just as well.
"You say that, but can you prove it?"
The words slipped out of her mouth before she could catch herself and as a result her tone carried most, if not all, of the distrust and latent frustration that she was harboring. She swallowed hard and unconsciously shifted position, clenching and unclenching her fists every few moments. She really wished she had a stressball or something, it would help.
Alessa would admit, the young... person's... over-sexualised tone was a bit discomforting. But it wasn't like it was any worse than fighting some villains, right? Then again... could he have fooled whatever sensors Decoy was using to tell the truth? Probably not, since his powers were disabled, and he didn't seem to possess any form of Thinker abilities anyway.
'I think if they were lying, we'd be able to figure that out,' Alessa soothed Lyn, trying her best not to sound condescending. 'I trust Decoy's ability to sort that stuff out.'
Love Craft feigned a recoil from Tulpa's harsh words.
"My my, how forward. I suppose I can't prove it, but I'm happy to tell you why I know that. In exchange for certain..." The shifter looked the Wards up and down in turn, but focused the most on Margrave. They seemed to appreciate his strong physique that came with long hours of training as a kickboxer.
"Leniencies...""... do they mean sexual favors or body parts?" Ruben honestly couldn't put a finger on which thing they meant.
Quiet until now, Margrave -prompted by the suggestive glance of Love Craft, stepped forward. Something changed about him, something discreet and insignificant, but still perhaps recognizeable to his teammates. The ever-so-slightly exaggerated intake of breath denoted that the Eloquent Enigma was about to perform.
Keeping his eyes fixated on the captive's face, Margrave wiggled his eyebrows just a little. When he moved closer, it was with an almost tantalizing slowness. He gave Ira and her nullifier a wide berth, for an as-of-yet unknown purpose, but passed by Alessa. "Would you all kindly...turn away?" Once by her, he stretched out his arm to push her away, and gave a slight lean toward Love Craft. "You know," he whispered, his voice husky and low. "I've kept it bottled up a long time around these...these
stiffs." He gesticulated to his teammates. "But once in a blue moon I get
lucky, and someone like you pops along to turn my world upside down. You seem like the kind of person who can keep a secret, so I thought I'd share...."
"...I happen to have a very specific pair of fetishes."
A bashful grin crossed the Margrave's face. He glanced down at the floor, his cheeks reddening. Gingerly he raised his closed fist, making it clear that it held something he wanted Love Craft to have. "I know this is all very sudden, but this can't be your first rodeo, now can it?" The Margrave edged ever closer. He turned his fist upward and with the tantalizing slowness of a blossoming flower pulled back his fingers to reveal a small, black shape. "It'd make me so...so happy...if you were to...to..." the young man was breathless. One could practically feel the
thump-thump-thump of his heart. "
Eat this. Just...swallow it whole...make it a part of you...you crazy devil." Suddenly spurred to forcefulness by a fit of passion, he seized Love Craft's hand and deposited the oddly-shaped rubber thing inside it. Then the man swept away, hiding his giggling face behind the back of his hand.
"... what... I saw that twice and I couldn't understand it."Though most of the room had cut off all access to powers, special exception was made for Margrave, who stood just at the edge of the device's radius at all times. After all, he was known to carry any number of things in toy-form and to have him suddenly burdened with such weight would be... Problematic. Plus it meant he had to keep his distance from the others, which suited everyone just fine.
Love Craft breathed in a husky manner as Margrave approached and got so... Close. The androgynous shifter gave him a wink as he went on about his special "fetishes." In the back of their mind, Frankie couldn't believe it. This Ward was trying to honey trap them. Really? Did they think a honey trap would honestly work? Well, it's not like they were in much of a position to argue, were they? Might as well play along. Lovely took the small rubber item and did as was asked, swallowing the whole thing very suggestively. They even licked their lips afterward.
They were no fool. Love Craft was a scientist and wanted to experiment on the nature of powers. The Wards and what they could do was all highly publicized. This was an opportunity to study the toy-man's ability in a most personal way, and the reward outweighed the risk. At least in their derranged mind.
Ruben was pretty calm and collected until he saw the shadow of Love Craft... expand. Margrave was doing something else entirely that Ruben was not concerned with, but what was going on with Love Craft really alerted Ruben. The thinker pulled over a passerby and asked to borrow their earpiece, to which they let him borrow and Ruben immediately spoke to Decoy.
"Hey Decoy. Something's about to happen right... now.""Then I suggest we keep watch," the tinker responded quickly in the borrowed ear piece.
An abrupt silence took hold of the Margrave, who looked back over his shoulder. In the flattest of tones possible, he said, "Goodness gracious. By your sensual compliance I am titilated. You can't imagine how pleased I am." The antihero's leer from behind his mask of a hand was pointed. He took one step farther away, and a distinct pressure began to build in Love Craft's stomach. It was as if a solid object was growing inside him, stretching his organ in a manner that, though still slight, was nothing short of excrutiating. "Come on now. Even if you didn't buy it, a miserable fuckup like you should've known better than to do that. That's right!" He spun in place, flourishing his longcoat with unadultured bravado. "It was all a ruse! I have no fetish for things being swallowed, none at all!" His cheeks were still red, but not from excitement; rather, it was embarassment. He glanced back at Love Craft. "Though, the other one I mentioned was a bit more on the mark. I really love proving to self-righteous morons that I'm not some two-bit goody-goody possessed by pathetic ideas of comic-book heroism. So, 'Love Craft', you're going to answer each question these fools have to offer to the letter, without any of your autistic desperation for attention, or your organs are gonna rupture bit by bit."
The Margrave took another step back, increasing the pressure. "Of course, I'm sure any good shapeshifter can modify the shape of your insides. Whew! Takes a lot of pressure off me. I can count on you to keep things interesting for however many hours it takes. Call it a learning experience for all of us!" He chuckled, and crossed his arms before staring up at the ceiling. "Ladies, feel free to begin the interrogation."
Love Craft groaned, feeling sick and queesy at first. The groan escalated in a crescendo of pain, becoming a small wail. The shifter tried to compensate for the pain, tried to shift their organs around, increase their elasticity, but found their power to be completely unresponsive. Completely and utterly unresponsive. The villain was overwhelmed with a sudden terror, like they'd lost a dear friend. Yet they couldn't help but be fascinated. What caused this? None of the Wards were known to be trumps. Well, maybe the new girl. She was brand new, so the public didn't know a lot about her yet. Was this Tulpa's doing?
Evelyn hadn't turned away, though she had covered her eyes in a facepalm of sorts, barely managing to make it look somewhat convincing. Of course, when Margrave had finished his little act and she removed her hand she found herself...both disgusted and gratified. The clever bastard had slipped Lovecraft something and now the poor shapeshifter had expanded somewhat. Her hand fell to her side and she glanced at Margrave as he spun and mocked the villain. She knew that this...wasn't very hero-like behavior, but then why did she feel so gratified by it, she wondered.
Beneath her mask she grinned a little, a good portion of her brain quite pleased with the discomfort that the shifter must be feeling. He deserved it for what he'd done.
...
Right?
Clearing her throat, she stepped up and circled Lovecraft, gazing at him. She didn't care if he did try to use his disgusting innuendos to disarm her, it wouldn't work. He was scum, as all villains were. He didn't deserve her consideration, "So, how about that explanation, hmm?" She said, smiling beneath her mask, though her eyes were cold, her tone almost flat. "Perhaps Margrave will provide some leniency to your organs, mmm?"
As she said it she felt her heart jump a bit, she hadn't realized how exhilirating this was...to hold power over others. Still though, she only felt that way because Lovecraft was a villain, because he was
evil. It wasn't because there was something wrong with her, she was fine, totally logical, in her right mind.
This was right.
She hoped.
"Aaaargh," Love Craft doubled over in pain, then tried to stand straight again.
"You're into... Kinkier stuff than I thought." They smirked through the experience. All they could do was grin and bear it.
"They weren't in danger because... Our sniper... Is a thinker."Love Craft stopped talking, but it wasn't clear if that was due to the pain, or because they were waiting. Either way, after a brief pause Decoy chimed in the ear pieces once again.
"Truth."Ira frowned, concerned about how this was unfolding. Although she could appreciete how well it was going, it still almost felt like they were torturing the villain. She was all for the bad people being punished, but justice wasn't built on retribution. Still the information that these tactics had provided were invaluable. Thinking about it now, whether right or wrong, this was the perfect situation to torture someone in. Instantly verifiable information
was the only useful information that could be attained by torture, and Decoy was making all information provided exactly that.
She opened her mouth to speak, but decided better and didn't. She eyed her other teammates warily, trying her best to meet each of their eyes in turn. It occured to her that she had misjudged the radius of the field, as Elliot was perfectly able to use his power. That, or deactivation of a previously applied effect wasn't disabled by her field. though that seemed unlikely.
Tulpa said nothing, instead she continued to circle the villain, almost predatory as she did so. Only about ten seconds after Decoy confirmed the legitimacy of the villain's words did she speak, her tone low. "I see. How about you tell us about this ability." it wasn't a question, it was a statement, almost an order. She felt a small shiver pass through her body and she swallowed, feeling like everyone in the room could hear it, even though she knew better.
Man this was crazy, and exciting, and awesome. Did the Protectorate capes feel like this all the time?
'Holy shit,' she thought as she finished circling him and walked away, turning her back on him blatantly, her actions saying she was in a position of power more than her words had--even if they had been somewhat commanding in her own right.
She felt herself beginning to slip into the act, into what she felt could very well become her as
Tulpa. She gave Margrave a small companionable smile as she walked away from Lovecraft, acknowledging him, really seeing him for the first time. He really was pretty valuable to the team. Though he was a bit of an asshat at times.
Finishing her walk near the far wall, she took up a position, leaning against said wall, arms crossed under her chest, directing attention, distracting slightly from the danger--even if she didn't like the idea of this creep staring at her she figured people would do it anyways. "So? Out with it," she said, before falling silent. Waiting.
'There's no need to be forceful, Tulpa,' Alessa reminded her ally, holding a hand up to suggest she calm down. 'I'm sure Love Craft knows exactly what will happen to them if they lie...' In truth, Margrave's sudden ruthlessness was a tad shocking, and perhaps a squeamish topic to think about, but ultimately a beneficial measure if it helped get the villain to speak up more quickly. By contrast... did Evelyn seem to be acting a tad ruthlessly herself, she wondered? And would that be helpful? For the time being, she felt not, hence her move to calm Evelyn down.
'Just so we're clear, though, Love Craft,' she continued, 'the sooner you tell us about your teammates - all of them - the sooner we'll be able to help get
that out of your stomach.' Knowing their sniper was a Thinker was a great start, but they needed all the information they could get. Speaking of which, she quickly added 'And that includes the name your team goes by, incidentally' to her request. The sooner they had names, the better.
Love Craft moved their eyes between the two girls as each one spoke to them in turn. As eager as they were to experience Margrave's power first hand, they weren't
that eager, especially without their shifting to mitigate the pain.
"Most of that is all easy. We named ourselves the Jacks just last night. That sniper? He's called Headhunter, and a very sexy man. His power guides his aim, so he can't miss whatever target he wants. That's how I know those Protectorates weren't in any trouble. He was specifically shooting to disable. I better be getting a sweet plea deal out of this." Well, this little villain was suddenly becoming quite cooperative, weren't they?
"Then there was Arsenal, the little man with a big sombrero and an attitude problem. He's a tinker and specializes in offensive bionics. That's weaponized cyborg kinda stuff, for any of you that are too slow. Then the charming man in the gaudy green is Chatterbox. He's some kind of Master with a magic voice, but he was dodgy on how it actually works. Then finally there's So-Ah, ooh, I almost made a booboo." Love Craft held a hand up in front of their mouth as though they had just made some serious social faux pas.
"The, uh, young girl has no cape name, and taking advantage of civilian identities is against the rules, isn't it? Hahaha. Well she doesn't talk much, real bland fade-into-the-wall kind of girl. Stranger abilities that let's her make things intangible, but she has to close her eyes."There was a brief pause, shortly followed by Decoy's voice in the earpieces.
"All one hundred percent truthful.""There's one more, too. Put the team together and pays stupid well, but he explicitly didn't want anybody knowing he was involved. Calls himself Br-uuuugh. Brogigigigi. Guuuuh." Like a shorted out fuse, trying to spark to life, Love Craft suddenly found themself unable to speak. They tried a couple times, but all that came out was a gurgling mess. Then the gurgling mess repeated like a broken record. Finally the young villain's eyes rolled up in the back of their head and they slumped over. A small bit of blood trickled out from both ears. A quick check would show that they were not dead, but the situation was very serious all the same.
Oh, this was too good. Alessa was already fantasizing about how much good would be done by developing countermeasures to every one of the Jacks' powers - that is, if Ira's ability to negate powers outright somehow wasn't sufficient. Whatever they'd done with the parahuman they'd kidnapped, Gamble... if the Protectorate dealt with them quickly, they'd not get a chance to do it again. They even knew who the one setting the team up to begin with-!
And then they appeared to die of a stroke. After half a second of processing, Alessa squealed just slightly out of shock, before forcing herself to stow her emotions for a moment. It was just a little bit of blood, right? But out of the ears... but wouldn't the eardrums...? Hell, she wasn't a doctor. Maybe she should start aiming to become one in her spare time, though, since that now made two incidents where somebody suffered what seemed to be horrific injuries, with no realistic way for her to assist. In any case, the pulse at Love Craft's neck suggested that he
was still pumping blood, at least, which meant...
'We need a doctor in here!' she called out, assuming (or at least hoping) that she could be heard by Decoy, if nobody else. There was no reason to assume Director Kens and Protean hadn't heard, though...
"Oh..." Ruben gagged slightly at Love Craft failing to finish his... her... xer's words. The blood made it all the more unsettling. Ruben's immediate reaction to this situation was to think that Margrave had something to do with it, mainly because of the rubber, but he doubted that it did anything else besides whateverthefuck that shit was. He'd have to wait and see, he guessed.
Intrigued initially, Evelyn had eaten up every word, memorizing what she could of the descriptions of the villains...and their powers. Then, right as the villain was about to tell them who their employer was, something terrible happened. They stumbled on their words, then they seemed to almost seize. Her eyes widened and she started moving towards Lovecraft, then stopped halfway, realizing she didn't know what to do. Frozen by indecision. A villain didn't deserve death, that just wasn't civil, it wasn't right. Wait, hadn't this been a bit too convenient??
Her eyes narrowed and she looked around a moment, though her mind was still going through the motions. When she looked back at the villain, there were lines of blood dripping down from their ears. She winced and bit her lip a bit, backing up.
Alessa checked their pulse and then, smartly, called for a doctor. Evelyn just kind of stared. Part of her didn't want to run, but another part of her--the more normal, civilian part of her--wanted to bolt.
She didn't like this. It felt...staged somehow. But how could you stage something like this?
It was in that moment that, in her fear and internal turmoil, she decided that whoever led these so called "Jacks," needed to be dealt with. They were dangerous.
Very...
very dangerous.
The young tinker hung on every word, surprised at how much information they were being provided. He didn't even ask for a lawyer, things were looking good. Then Lovecraft started... Ira couldn't really describe it, but it was strange. He seemed to be having an adverse reaction to
something but it was impossible to tell what it was. Reeling, she quickly turned off the field, hoping someone could fix what she could only assume was their mistake.
"Did you do something Margrave?" She asked, sounding concerned.
Her face was pale, though you couldn't tell under her mask. She glanced at the glass, though it was double pointless she realized. Decoy not only wasn't in the room but was a hologram in there, and she didn't know if fake decoy had moved. She often forgot that what she was seeing wasn't actually Decoy, though she assumed a lot of people made that mistake. She shifted from foot to foot nervously, knowing they might be reprimanded for this, or worse Lovecraft would get away.
Her mind went back to the powers mentioned, instinctively. It was almost her safe zone, thinking about powers calmed her down, they always ended up making sense. Arsenal, a cowboy with the flare for the dramatic. His weapon was guns, more than likely a terrible way to express an elegant and beautiful power. Chatterbox, he had a silver tongue and didn’t explain his power fully. Made sense.
Headhunter was a beautiful way to express a terrible power. She couldn’t understand why his power was what it was though. Her inherent understanding of powers didn’t line up with a power like that. She reached at her power, and it didn’t respond. Not enough information, more of those beautifully intricate details were needed. Next was “So-” who’s power was a stranger, who could ignore things when she closed her eyes. That was interesting, though a bit too specific for general usage.
She went back over the details, trying to force her power to add more details, give her countermeasures,
anything, truly anything that would help, but no. Her power felt as dead as she imagined her partners did with the nullification field on. It was frustrating, it made her feel... Not quite impotent, but something close.
Margrave's eyes narrowed. All of a sudden, the whole situation had turned very troublesome. Whatever was he going to do!? If Love Craft wasn't conscious, he couldn't throw up the desk chair, which meant that the Margrave had to stick around and do nothing for who knew how many hours. "Just when things were looking up." Rolling his eyes, the antihero pulled out his phone and got busy surfing the web.
