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Post by Rachel Roth on May 14, 2012 22:20:40 GMT -5
Raven didn't like the way the Doctor's manner seemed to be changing, Raven's left eye twitched a little as it registered. It seemed more and more likely that there was more to this man than the bumbling fool who had attended her for the past weeks. How had she not seen before? Maybe she just hadn't been looking. He, however, didn't seem to see through her to her intentions. Just as well. He probably wouldn't be a fan.
Falling in behind him as he lead away to the room of his choice, Raven motioned for Serenity to walk next to her. Telepathically, it made no difference how close they were, but Raven didn't like venturing into the unknown by herself. Serenity was a little bit crazy, but brave too, and Raven could use that. "As soon as we get into the room, grab his shadow and hold him. I'll disable the cameras. I don't want to hurt him... yet. She added the last bit reluctantly. She hoped it wouldn't got that far. Hoped Serenity could restrain herself. "We just need to know what he knows. If he's innocent..." She trailed off mentally. If he were innocent, they could very well be damning themselves. But they would burn that bridge when they came to it.
Doctor Windsor reached the room of his choosing, and Raven walked in, eying him coldly as she did so. As soon as she was in, she had picked out both the cameras in the room, plus the computer which would have to be disabled in case of a build in web camera. As soon as everyone was in, she said out loud in her slow alto voice,
"Now."
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Post by Serenity Nashimura on May 15, 2012 9:16:52 GMT -5
Serenity didn't watch the doc walking but instead kept her eyes focused on the floor, on the shadows the danced. She stepped closer to Raven when motioned to and felt herself smirking at the instructions given. 'If he's innocent, then I'm the Queen of England,'[/i] she thought back to her friend. There was no way this guy wasn't about to pull something. He just gave off too much of creepy vibe.
As soon as they reached the room, Serenity had all the shadows within her control. She kept most on the wall, because rooms always looked rather off without the shadows and she didn't want to make him suspicious, if he wasn't already. But she kept her shadow and the ones from the hall around his feet, waiting for the right moment.
'Now!' Serenity mentally repeated Raven's words to herself. Her hands came up in her signature Ripped Shadow style and she captured his shadow in seconds. She wasn't about to use Ripped Shadow, seeing as how that was usually Kerry's thing and Serenity didn't enjoy using it, but it never hurt to be ready for anything. "Got 'im," she confirmed out loud.[/color]
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Post by Nathaniel Essex on May 15, 2012 23:52:07 GMT -5
Dr. Windsor lead them down a hall just before reaching the nurses station, and then a bit to the right. He opened up the door to a small operating room, complete with table, monitoring devices, surgical tools; the works. Everything he would need and more was right there. "After you, Doctor." He said courteously as he waved her in. Serenity immediately followed, which he was not pleased by. He had hoped it would just be Raven and him. He really did not like the idea of having an extra pair of eyes watching his every move--it would make it more difficult to do his experiment. Now he would have to be more than sneaky, he would need to be cautious.
~This experiment can still be done without blowing my cover. I will just need to be careful, casual, and calm.~[/color] He thought to himself, remembering his old rule to going undercover that he called the 3 Cs. However, once the door was shut things quickly took a turn for the worse, making it a bit hard to stay calm. "If you'll go ahead and lie dow-" Windsor said as he started toward his tools, but then suddenly froze, and not of his own will.
Sinister's eyes widened out of pure shock. ~What just happened?~[/color] His eyes darted around until finally falling on Serenity. ~A mutant...~ He said mentally as he stared at her with her arms raised. ~I should skin you for this, girl... No! Stay calm. Remember... You can still make this work.~ He was determined not to blow his cover. Since he had been working here as the hospital's go-to guy for mutant care he had gathered dozens of samples and a great deal of data on mutants. In fact, it was thanks to this position he had become better acquainted with the shadowmancer ability, and thus was able to recognize Serenity's powers in a matter of seconds. "What? What is the meaning of this?" He asked in a slight panic, looking back and forth between Raven to Serenity.
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Post by Rachel Roth on May 16, 2012 8:10:57 GMT -5
For a moment, Raven was afraid Serenity was going to use her Ripped Shadow ability. However, beyond holding the doctor steady, nothing happened and Raven let out an inaudible sigh. Her friend was still recovering from near insanity at the hands of Kerry, neither of them wanted to push it. It seemed they were in the clear for now, though.
As soon as the doctor was held, Raven strode around the back of the room, opening herself to the emotions in the room. Serenity felt eager, on a knife's edge, waiting to do something. The Doctor... was panicked. That she expected, but beyond that, he felt - determined? Focused? Not what she was expecting, and all the more proof that he was more than he let on. This was not his first time in a situation like she, she would wager.
Walking past the door, she passed a hand over it, hearing the sound of the lock falling into place. Then, she came to stand next to her friend, crossing her arms and saying clearly, "He's good, isn't he, S?" Her eyes never left the doctor before her, frozen almost comically in mid-motion. Taking one small step forward, she narrowed her eyes, glaring fiercely at the man, saying in an emotionless alto voice, "I want to know what you know, and how you know it. Then, in a darker tone, You've read my file, so you know at least a fraction of what I'm capable of. Not much is secret from me" She doubted the file held anything more than basic telepathy and telekinesis, but it would do for her purposes. Letting her eyes flash their customary menacing white glow, she intoned, "However, you should also know what side of the law I play on, so I won't be doing anything too dramatic." She let the second half of the sentence hang in the air. Serenity would have to decide her side of the law soon, but Raven would make no claims to control her until then. That would just be dumb.
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Post by Serenity Nashimura on May 16, 2012 17:59:12 GMT -5
Despite not having any abilities that allowed her to read the thoughts of others, Serenity was very in tune with Raven's. And she didn't meet the other girl's gaze as she stood in her Ripped Shadow pose. She knew what the smaller girl thought of the move. Hell, she didn't even like using it. But there was no point in fretting over every move she made. Ever since the fight with Kerry, Serenity had felt more in control of the shadows than in a long time. There wasn't even that familiar tugging sensation that she usually got, the feeling that told her Kerry was near or closing in. Kerry wasn't going anywhere are a long time.
Serenity watched Raven walked around the room, then speak to the doc in her intimidating, monotone voice. She couldn't help but smirk at how almost comical it was; Raven glaring at the man a foot taller than her, demanding and dark. At the question directed to her, Serenity laughed. "Yeah, but we're better."
She caught Raven's unspoken message in the last of her words. It was something that made her quietly sigh. She knew as soon as they got out of this, they were going to have a talk, one that Serenity wasn't looking forward to at all.
"I can't make the same promise," she said, once Raven mentioned dramatics. Serenity couldn't help but let the shadows creep up the wall, messing with the lighting in the room. It sure felt like old times, albeit their pranks/interrogations were never in a hospital, with a doctor or with quite the same amount of tension in the air.
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Post by Nathaniel Essex on May 18, 2012 12:50:58 GMT -5
Sinister took their words calmly on the inside, but on the outside he seemed worried. He had to maintain this human front until he knew there was no other choice but to fight. Until then, however, he would play the role of Dr. Windsor, and continue to try and get them to trust him. This was proving to be a rather difficult task--more so than he had anticipated.
"And you mutants, superhuman, whatever you want to call yourselves, wonder why doctors don't want to treat you. You curse us for disrespecting you, treating you like lower life forms, and looking at you with contempt. But are you not partly to blame?" His voice was colored with fear and anger, though on the inside he was cool and collected. "Perhaps physicians wouldn't treat you like mad animals if you didn't act like animals! I tried to show you some respect, treat you with decency, and this is how I am repaid. It's because of superhumans like you that the rest of them are treated like dirt."
He was trying to appeal to their conscience for their race, and was fairly certain it would work on at least Raven. Then again, would they care if the man they were dealing with was not a mere doctor but in fact a villain? Did that make his words any less true, though? Hopefully they would see the truth in his preaching, and let him go.
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Post by Rachel Roth on May 18, 2012 16:37:25 GMT -5
The Doctor's furious rant struck Raven like a punch in the gut. Physically, she flinched slightly, stepping back from the man, putting Serenity ever so slightly between them. Though she never looked away from him, now her expressionless face seemed to drain of what color it might have had, a deep sort of hurt surfacing for just a second before flitting away again. She swallowed and her breath was shaky.
She was not a monster, she was not an animal, she never hurt innocent people. She protected them. But she knew he was right. He had to be right. He had seen it all. What if he was innocent. What had she done. No amount of hospitals would ever be enough to clean her ledger of blood. She was stained, marked, damned. She had done it to herself. Would the doctor before not stop talking? His accusation went on and on, it seemed to Raven, beating her with the truth of his words. Whereas before, she had used her authority to make her slight frame appear grander, now she seemed to deflate. She had lost control and wondered if she could break eye contact with the doctor if she wanted to. What had happened?
Raven could not stand the hatred she was faced with, the disgust, the... she stopped suddenly. Reaching out with her empathy, she stretched towards the man, trying to find the emotion behind the words directed at her... and found nothing. Cold, calm, cool, collected. His words were just that... words. Carefully aimed to hit were they would hurt the most. She peeked at Serenity under lidded eyes, and found that her friend had not been as effected as she. Probably a pro of her time against the law. She had come to terms with that side of her. And the Doctor. The full reality of the situation became clear to Raven and she swept up in a righteous fury. Drawing shadows about her, her hair whipping in an invisible wind and eyes glowing white, she spoke in a voice like distant thunder,
"A fine act, but too well played, I think. You did a good job, but you knew too well what would hurt me. You knew, because you have, yourself, faced some similar words, have you not? She swept in close to him, feet no longer touching the floor, and placed a hand cold as ice against the side of his face. Her voice was a whisper, yet amplified by power and he could not move away from her. "You have given yourself away, and will pay dearly for it. Who are you? Then, in case the threat of her hand was not enough, said "I will find out."
Raven did not look back at Serenity, did not want to risk it. She was in control... mostly. And did not want to see what her friend thought, either of her sudden weakness against the Doctor's tirade, or against her response to his hypocrisy. She would burn that bridge later.
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Post by Serenity Nashimura on May 19, 2012 12:55:05 GMT -5
When the Doctor started preaching back, Serenity narrowed her eyes. Not at the words, since they didn't affect her one bit. She knew what she was and she knew how she affected people's view of mutants. Frankly, she didn't care. She'd lived with that crap all her life and at this point, it was just empty air they were throwing at her. But she was mad at the Doctor's words because of what it was doing to Raven. Her friend literally shrunk, deflated, looked defeated. Serenity nearly saw red. No one said stuff like that to her friend.
For a brief moment, Serenity was willing to pull her hands apart, hear the doc scream as his shadow was ripped apart but stopped herself. It wasn't Kerry telling her to hurt the man; no, it was her own sick mind. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, her face was harsh and glaring but she had pushed back her instinct.
"You talk way too much," Serenity said. She saw that, thankfully, Raven had snapped out of the depression she had quickly fallen into. "You're gonna regret those words," she taunted. Raven swept herself up with power, looking like a furious god of some sort, come to strike down anyone who spoke against them. It made Serenity's mouth drop a bit at how strange it was to see her friend like this, but then she smirked a bit. Serves the guy right for saying all those things.
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Post by Nathaniel Essex on May 20, 2012 1:25:26 GMT -5
The villain grinned internally as he watched Raven actually cringe in pain at his words. He had chosen his words well. She was seeing the truth in what he had said, and it was causing her to sink down into sorrow. His plan was working marvelously, but then Serenity interjected saying that he talked too much. He ignored her, keeping his focus on Rachel.
It wasn't too long before her attitude changed yet again. She was furious, and her friend was still as confident as ever. Had the time come for Windsor to show his true colors?
Raven's words struck true, and made Nathaniel reconsider whether or not he should continue this act. ~What now, Sinister?~[/color] He asked himself.
When the woman placed a hand on his face he closed his eyes tightly and turned away a bit, still playing the part of a frightened Dr. Windsor. ~No. The play has ended. The role of Dr. Windsor is no longer needed.~[/color] The villain thought to himself. A spine chilling grin abruptly twisted his face, and then his eyes shot open as he looked at Raven with shining red eyes.
"I dare you, Raven." He said in a much less pleasant voice--no, it was downright creepy. "Go on, look inside the place where nightmares go to breed. Look and see what Hell holds for you..." He said in a most sinister tone, and then in only a couple seconds his entire form had changed. He had grown significantly, which he hoped would be enough to break Serenity's hold on his shadow, but if not he also sent a light telepathic attack to her mind to help free him. His skin had also become freakishly pale, a red gem was on his forehead, and he was now clothed in a dark, tight-fitting costume with a bizarre cape. His massive hand lashed out to grab Raven's sweater and pull her near. "See what I hold for you."
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Post by Rachel Roth on May 21, 2012 21:54:21 GMT -5
The victory Raven felt when the guise of Dr. Windsor fall away was sadly short-lived. It was soon replaced by shock and a nibbling emotion that might, just might, be concern. She had expected some meta-human, or mutant as the case may be, driven underground and turned to shadier pastimes to make a living. Information, perhaps, or cover-up for the larger gangs in town. His job as a doctor would help him greatly there. What she saw, however, was nothing that she had expected. He had loomed over her before, but now she was dwarfed. Besides which, his clothing could only be that of someone who played the super-game. Hero or villain, the dark girl had a pretty good idea which. The voice in which he spoke while he shifted forms only served to cement Raven's worry. Not fear. Not yet. She hoped. A quick glance at Serenity showed her apprehensions.
She had to stop it, had to clog up his transformation before it could be completed. Against her better judgement, she used the contact of her hand against his face to try to force her way into his mind -- only to find it blocked by meticulously constructed walls. He was strong, a telepath, she tried to get further and found herself matched. This was not going well. She opened her mouth, to tell Serenity that they had to get out, when everything happened at once.
The man before her pulled free of Serenity's grip, something no one had ever been able to do. Raven cried out, both in surprise, and in worry for her friend. Before she could do any more, though, he had grabbed her by the front of her sweater, lifting her up. The threat was clear, through his actions and his words, and Raven went on autopilot.
Swinging one leg up, she smashed a foot into his face. The steel toes hidden in her custom slippers made a sickening noise when they made contact. She didn't hope to do much damage, but prayed that it would surprise. Telepaths sometimes made the mistake of forgetting their physical bodies. Raven tried not to. Rolling with her kick she simultaneously phased out of her sweater, landing in a crouch wearing only her long-sleeved T-shirt, the hoodie hanging limply in the man's hand. Leaping backward next to her friend, Raven looked worriedly at her. "Serenity," She said, not bothering to be secretive now. "How did he do that? Break free? Are you okay?" If he had done something to her friend... Raven's eyes glowed white again, and she cast her eyes upon their foe.
"Or, not." She said in answer to the man's final words. It was a lame comeback, she knew, but banter was never her forte. They needed to keep him occupied until they knew what they were up against. Rolling her eyes in Serenity's direction, Raven prayed she would get the signal and pick up the conversation. Serenity would talk him to death and turn his ears blue in the process. Raven just... glared.
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Post by Serenity Nashimura on May 21, 2012 23:56:53 GMT -5
Serenity could honestly say she had seen a lot in her somewhat short life. If not in person, than through the memories of others. There wasn't much that could surprise her at this point. But when the whimpering doctor suddenly opened blood red eyes and gave a downright creepy grin, Serenity could claim to be, in that moment, surprised.
And when, somehow, her hold on his shadow was broken, she was having trouble keeping her jaw from dropping. That might had have to do with the headache that suddenly pierced her. She gave a small cry and her concentration was cut, making the shadows in the room go back to their original positions. Serenity brought up a hand to her temple, as if that would cause the headache to go away. She shook her head and glared up at the doc, figuring that he was to blame for the pain. That, or Kerry was breaking out, but she would rather go with an option that she could end by punching someone.
Raven got out of the pale-skinned doctor's hand and appeared at Serenity's side. At her question, Serenity huffed. "I'm fine," she said, answering the last question first. "Headache and pissed, but fine." She went back to glaring at the tall man. 'And I don't know how he broke my hold. But I've got a feeling we're in for a rough fight,'[/i] she thought to Raven. She wasn't about to admit out loud that this guy made her want to bolt. Maybe it was the creepy grin that made her feel like she was looking in a mirror, maybe it was that he broke out of the shadow control, but Serenity could just feel that something big was about to go down.
Serenity caught Raven's eye roll signal and decided to more than roll with it. If there was one thing that Serenity loved, it was being a sarcastic annoyance. Going back to the doc's sinister words, Serenity raised an eyebrow. "Where nightmares breed? Look, been there, done that. Not that bad. Hell? PUH-lease. I went and they spat me back out. Who knew lawyers couldn't take a joke?" While rambling, Serenity looked around, getting control of the shadows in the room again. They came together and formed her familiar gun in her hand. She raised the shadow gun at the creepy doc and grinned hugely.[/color] "So, bring on the hellish nightmares. Don't say I didn't warn you though."
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Post by Nathaniel Essex on May 22, 2012 1:36:20 GMT -5
The supervillain's red eyes shined into Raven's white ones, and then suddenly he felt a light knock against his head that caught him a little by surprise. Rachel had actually kicked him; a ridiculous choice of attack considering this was a man who had battled with Colossus and held his own. It did, however, give her the chance to get away, leaving Sinister with only a piece of her wardrobe in his grasp.
The madman chuckled darkly at her, pretty much unfazed by the strike. "You have spirit, Raven... But spirit will not save you, and neither will your piddly strength." He spread his arms, showing off his huge muscles and dropping the sweater. "Do you think this massive body is just for show?" He asked mockingly, and actually gave the young woman a chance to reply before going ahead with an attack, but instead she consulted with her friend. "How did he do that?" She asked, and Essex merely grinned widely. ~How? Foolish girls... Do you have any idea who you are confronting?~ "Hmph."[/color] He scoffed quietly. ~You get thrown into prison for a few years and everyone forgets you... How very sad.~[/color] He thought in a half-joking manner.
In wasn't long before the other girl, the shadowmancer, started yammering. ~What an annoying wretch.~[/color] Nate thought to himself, casting a slightly agitated glance in Serenity's direction. "You think you have seen Hell, shadowmancer?" Mister Sinister turned his giant form toward the girl, his shadow falling behind him. "Let us put that to the test, and an end to your babbling!"
The attack he unleashed on Serenity after his outburst was not a pitiful headache like before--this one was a full-on assault on the mind. He projected images of war, death, gruesome experiments being performed by Sinister on mutants, people and mutants alike being dissected, and the carnage of the attacks on the Morlocks by Sinister's Marauders. If these images, memories from Nathaniel's own life, had no effect on her perhaps she really had glimpsed Hell.
~I will nigh cripple your mind before I let you take lightly the name and image of Mister Sinister.~
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Post by Rachel Roth on May 22, 2012 17:16:03 GMT -5
Piddly? Admittedly, Raven had never been as skilled or as strong as some other heroes, but no one had called her that. She ran enough rounds beating up thugs in her city to keep her in fine condition. That her attack shouldn't bother him at all... she swallowed. How strong was he? Raven nodded at Serenity's answer to her query, sending some light healing waves towards her friend. It was not as good as a full healing, but the short girl could not afford to turn her focus her energy away from the man before them. "I know it." She answered Serenity mentally. "How soon do you think it might be before you can portal us out of here? Do you think he can follow us?"
As they conferred, the red eyed giant before them was still speaking to them. She shuddered to hear that voice say their names. He made them sound... dirty. She wanted to wipe that grin off his face. For the first time in year, she remembered why she had been a hero for all that time with the Titans. She remembered how much she hated people like this. Narrowing her eyes with his words, she felt the attack coming before it struck her friend.
In a split second there was a barrier of steel and dreams around her friend's mind, blocking as much of the attack as she could. "you will not." She stated firmly, brow furrowed in concentration. She saw the images and pictures with cool calculating eyes. Raven didn't know all of Serenity's story, and maybe the other girl could handle it, but the girl didn't want to risk her friend. Raven actually had been to Hell. Literally. The daughter of a demon had been sent there for penance once and the memories remained strong. This man's crimes were terrible, but she could handle them. As she saw the innocents, though, and the atrocities, fury rose within her and she began making hand signs of a nature known only to the monks of Azarath.
"You said I had spirit," She said, a vindictive grin in her voice, "but I'm afraid you were a little off. To be correct, I've got Soul." With this she made the final hand sign and her shadow lifted off the floor, taking on the form of a massive bird and encompassing the man before them. The soul self was Raven's own soul, leaving her body momentarily and entering another. This forced the body's original owner into the furthest crevice of their mind -- some people never came back out. Raven hoped this would be the case.
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Post by Serenity Nashimura on May 22, 2012 18:09:31 GMT -5
Serenity breathed a silent sigh of relief when Raven used her healing to take away the headache. Now she could really focus. 'It depends.'[/i] she thought back to Raven. 'Outside of the hospital? About a minute. A couple miles away? Five to seven minutes. And if he's as fast as I'm hoping he's not, then, yeah, he'd probably be able to follow. It's about a 50/50 shot if I can close the portal in time or not.'[/i] Based on the low percentages, it seemed a portal was out. They would have to fight their way out.
Now, when Serenity rambled in her annoying way to a foe, she tried to say things that would anger them, get them unfocused. So, when the man turned to glare at her, Serenity made sure to be on the defensive. She could almost see the attack as it flew at her. And even with Raven's shield, when it hit her, she felt her breath get knocked out of her.
It was only glimpses but all the memories that hit her were coated red with spilled blood, made screams echo in her head and she could almost smell the death that hung in the air. Her mind automatically started sorting through the pieces of memories that rattled her, making sure that she didn't fall off of the knife's edge and plummet into insanity. She knew that if Raven hadn't blocked most of the attack, she would be reduced to an insane, babbling maniac right then.
As it was, her body was frozen as if she was a statue, eyes wide, mind stopped, breath caught. She had seen death in memories before. Having collected the memories of some war veterans, it was almost a casual sort of thing to her. So, it wasn't the gore that affected her. The thing she was unprepared for was how bone-chilling familiar the memories felt. She had never seen them before, had never been at any of the happenings, but the intense blood-lust that radiated from the memories was much too much like the feeling Kerry gave her. It scared her deeply.
'Remember to breathe,'[/i] Serenity mentally reminded herself. Her lungs expanded and suddenly she could think again. The memories were still being sorted but she was no longer frozen from the effect of the sheer amount of death and evil that leaked from the glimpses. She swallowed and felt her body shake from breathing. Gathering herself, angry that the attack had actually managed to hit a weakness of hers, she looked up to see Raven fly her soul bird into the fake doctor, or Mr. Sinister as Serenity now knew his name to be. She hoped Raven's plan worked. Deciding that it was worth a shot, Serenity began making a shadow portal, one that would lead them about a mile away, hopefully giving them a good head-start if they got through it without being followed. 'Three minutes,' she thought to herself, counting down when the portal would be complete.[/color]
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Post by Nathaniel Essex on May 23, 2012 5:43:44 GMT -5
Sinister's focus shifted slightly when he heard Raven's voice once more, and also felt another power interfering with his attack. Dr. Roth was trying to protect her little friend. How cute... But also foolish. Serenity was still feeling the effects of Nate's telepathic assault, and Raven was also occupied now by the same attack. However, it didn't take the supervillain long to realize she was not pained by it like her shadowmancer ally. ~So, it is true what they say about you... You do know Hell.~[/color] He thought as he looked over at Rachel.
He ceased his attack on Ripped Shadow, figuring she would be disabled temporarily, and he would need to focus on the more interesting and more experienced Raven. ~And what...do you have in store for me now, Doctor?~
Mr. Sinister watched closely as the woman created a massive dark bird in the room, one she no doubt intended to strike him with. "Your very soul... How marvelous." He uttered in admiration for the form her soul did take.
As the bird formed and came at Sinister, the red-eyed fiend noticed another dark entity forming. Serenity was readying a portal, but Essex was not going to give up so easily. He could have probably guarded against the attack with a strong telepathic and telekinetic shield, but that would take time, and time was not on his side at the moment. That portal would soon be fully formed, and he would likely be unable to prevent them from passing through it if he chose to try and force the soul of Raven back. So, what were his choices? He couldn't jump out of the way--there was no room to do so. He couldn't fire at Serenity and use the necessary power to guard against and defeat Raven's attack. So, what could he do?
The bird came upon him, and an expression of fear washed over Mister Sinister's face before that face was no more. The hulking body that was once Dr. Windsor turned Sinister exploded into dozens of little blue stones, which fell mostly near Serenity. The stones then turned to sand, appearing completely harmless.
So, what could he do? He could die...
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