Absolute chaos.
These were perhaps the two best words he could think to describe the utter
mess that their mission had become. Hand firmly gripping Sofia's even as the carnage of the strange monstrosity continued. Even as the many clones of, what had it been, Overrun, spread throughout the warehouse. A frown had knit his brow and it only deepened as Headhunter managed to take out what he presumed was the original Overrun, for the tide of clones did not cease in the slightest. Several times he opened his mouth only to find that he had nothing of value to add, even despite his power.
Then a tall clone approached them and something inexplicable happened, he found himself face-to-face with a devil as handsome as himself. Blinking twice, he squeezed Sofia's hand slightly, tapping a code out to his adoring fans.
One of them spoke through comms directly to Sofia,
"If you are separated from Chatterbox, the code to make sure it's the real him is 'Purple Venom.' If he responds with anything but 'Green Fever,' it's not the real Chatterbox." The message was then relayed to the other Jacks purely as a safety precaution. Taking several steps back, dragging Sofia with him as he did, the performer drew his gun once more as he felt what could only be the tug of his power.... How strange and disconcerting it was to be on the receiving end.
Taking a deep breath, despite the clash of titans, he raised his gun and aimed it directly at the tall Dean's head. If the heroes were fighting with lethal intent, then so could he. A smile worked its way onto his face as he fired the gun, aimed first at the knees—two shots—then at centermass. He would wait a moment before aiming at the head—provided he could do so from the Dean's new position—before firing.
Hopefully this would demanifest whatever his copy was. If not, his eyes would—for the briefest moment—fill with fear as he laid them upon his doppelganger, before becoming once more unreadable.
"You cannot be allowed to live," he would say regardless.
Fear continued to creep its way into his body, clawing at his mind. Meanwhile, several cars began making their way towards the facility, one from each cardinal direction. Anything that they could ram through to get onto the property, they did.
Each strike was an additional blow that she felt to her emotions. Tears began to run down her face behind the mask. She swallowed hard and wailed quietly with each strike. Then something far more painful than anything had any right to be burned through her mind before becoming a stinging discordant buzz. The world went white, her thoughts blanked out and she tried to scream, but couldn't. A hoarse squeak came out instead. Slowly, too slowly, she felt the pain recede and it was only then that she knew that her projection had demanifested...and that the clones had stopped hammering at her body. She ached everywhere, like that's all she was made of. She opened her eyes, and breathed in—both hurt. Slamming her eyes shut again, a booming voice rang out. It took her a whole five seconds to realize that it was Reynolds and—furthermore—that he had told her she had to get up.
Trying to push herself up, she winced and then cried out in a small yelp of pain, stifling the sound at the end as she clenched her jaw shut. Instinctually she reached out to her projection, its existence coming into focus for her. Its silver light surrounded her for the briefest moment...and then she recoiled as hot pain shot through her skull.
She blacked out for a few seconds, waking up again to Reynolds pulling her to her feet. She gripped his shoulder and managed to force words out.
"I...I can walk. Just, stay with me, okay?"The man nodded, face hard. He was clearly intent on getting all of them out of this safely. Using him as support, Evelyn managed to pick up her staff and use it as a crutch while they made their way from the warehouse.
Testing the link between herself and her projection, all she felt on the other end was a burning, electrical sensation. Her head throbbed as the memory of what her projection had done to Lillian resurfaced. She let out a quiet sob at the mental image and ceased trying to even guide her projection, withdrawing her mind from her link to the apparition. She didn't want to think about
it, she didn't want anything to do with it. She wished she could make it go away.
As she limped her way towards the warehouse's exit with Reynolds a deep numbness set in, the cold detached feeling only interrupted by the throbbing of her various wounds.
Two missions.
Two failures.
That was what she was, huh?
A failure.
A guilty, ugly, evil...
failure."Fuck," she swore quietly.
Gathering his wits, Outsider turned slightly, though it was not required for him to keep track of the cape's location due to his form's various senses. With Kyoshi's actions taken—and a car flung at some point apparently—Outsider moved. The small figure was falling down towards the building their ransacked HQ was in. Feeling irritation rush through him, then anger, for a moment, he very briefly considered outright ramming into the villain. However, hearing Kyoshi's words brought him back from that point. Instead, before he hit the villain he released a series of small, weak pulses as he extended a single tendril vertically upwards from his similarly vertical form—as he was flying straight up. The tendril passed the cape by and, upon releasing the pulses, rapidly slowed his fall. Then Outsider dodged to the side and used one of his arms to catch the villain, tightening his grip.
To decrease the chance that the cape could use his power, he began channeling energy into the hand that clutched the cape. However, before he could release the energy a small explosion buffered his shield and his fingers opened. The kid, while roughed up, was weirdly unblemished considering what had been—in some cases—quite literally thrown at him.
Then, another explosion rocked him, this time a bigger one, on his 'head.' The shield projected him from the heat and the pressure, but
fucking hell that was loud. Wincing internally, his body reacted, tendrils shooting out towards the kid, but he moved, propelling himself with explosions to reposition.
"Slippery, but not enough," his hollow voice said in a low roar. A brief flash of anger followed by realization hit him as he realized what it meant that the kid wasn't more thoroughly damaged.
He had some kind of resistance to damage...and for Outsider, that was more pro than con. Twisting in the air, tendrils splaying out in an instant, all four arms extending out to his side, he released pent up energy in a powerful shockwave. The kid was blown away and while normally he may have recovered swiftly and retaliated, he found himself unable as the massive alien serpant of the hero's second vessel slammed directly into his stomach.
Outsider noted the electrical signals from the cape's body alter, and similarly felt some of his momentum countered by what he could only describe as a series of micro explosions.
On striking the villainous cape, Outsider released an additional blast of force from his body, pulling up abruptly as he did so. The villain was thus blasted downwards at pavement at a particularly high speed.
Body hovering midair, several stories above the villain, Outsider kept his senses tuned onto the kid. He was definitely still alive, which was good. Hopefully he was out of commission though. He didn't want to do damage to any infastracture in fighting him after all.