Copy Cat's Story

One of the pedestrians didn't scatter with the rest, though, even though the truck landed mere feet away from where she stood. Instead she trailed her eyes over the entire scene, resting on the suited man then following his gaze into the shop. A frown tugged at the edges of her lips and she casually began to stroll towards the store entrance, her posture unassuming. She gently pushed the door in and her eyes fell upon the golden glow, frown deepening slightly. "I see we've found ourselves in a mess, haven't we?" she questioned with a steady, calm voice. "Shall we talk it over?" Her gaze went between both figures involved, obviously directed her statements to both of them.

It was once again that the Iron Knight watched the scene before his very eyes and with a running start and an impressive leap from the rooftop of the 10th story all the way down to the ground floor and onto the concrete sidewalk that cushioned his fall. Adair Foux grimaced slightly as he looked upon the floating Prof. Asp and someone new and rather insane from the looks of things as she simply approached the situation with a calm that most other civilians did not have. This woman was one of several things and Adair was certain that sanity was not on her top priority list.

"Miss, please get out of there, I am not sure about you but I do not think that negotiations are going to be well received here." The Iron Knight looked between the three that were before him but looked at the professor and began to wonder what his story was in comparison to this meta human.

Darien looked behind him to see the other vigilante from last night approaching the scene along with some random by stander. He grimaced in his helmet and waved his hand in a dismissive manner. This was the last thing he had hoped to happen.

"Listen! This situation is more dangerous than you know! He's-" Darien said, but was interrupted by a shrill scream. He whipped back around to see that Hogun had released control of the woman he had been possessing and was currently trying to slip up through the ceiling, his incorporeal form leaving burn marks as he passed through the solid matter.

"Dammit! I can't lose him!" Darien shouted before floating back out of the shop and rising up to the upper floors, trying to spot where the maniacal hobo had slipped off to.

The woman barely glanced at the other suited man to approach, her attention obviously taken up mostly by the glowing aura. "I'm a therapist. You'd be surprised the things I've solved with mere conversation," she mumbled, grimacing as the glow shot up and away. She sprinted to the woman's form and surveyed her without touching before staring up and lifting off the ground. In a single motion she pushed her hands up through the ceiling and pushed aside everything enough for her to fly up through. She spun around, eyes taking in everything quickly as she also began to track the golden form via the burn marks. Obviously, by the first suited man's demeanor, time was of the absolute essence.

"A therapist, well I'll be damned, there is a profession I have not heard of in awhile." Adair muttered to himself as he watched the other two move after the glowing figure that shot itself straight through the ceiling of the building. With a few steps outside and with relative ease the young hero leaped into action jumping high up into the air after the two in hopes of catching a glimpse of what was going on.

Darien didn't have time for small talk. He finally spotted the vagrant, ethereal man on the sixth floor, trying to rifle through somebody's belongings for valuables and the like. Unfortunately, his ethereal hands simply burned whatever they touched, so his frustration was quite audible. What was also audible was the repetitive thumping sound as Copy Cat smashed her way up through the building. As she too emerged on to the sixth floor, Hogun reared around and snarled at her.

"Watch out!" Darien shouted. He aimed his dart launcher at Hogun and fired, but the razor sharp syringes flew straight through his ghostly form. With a loud roar, the homeless ghost surged towards Copy Cat, threatening to try and take over her body...

Copy Cat flew up and landed on the floor, finally sighing as her eyes landed upon her goal. Her frown tugged up slightly as he turned to meet her. And she didn't even pay attention to the man with dart guns, instead slowly opening her arms as if in embrace. "That's right, come here," she called softly, waiting for the moment his ethereal energy came in contact with her. In that instant, her own body burst forth with golden energy and a catty grin spread across her face as she moved to grab onto him with the hope that a matching energy signature might be able to interact with him. "Hold still!" she commanded.

Adair leaped a bit higher and grabbed onto a ledge only to pull himself up and watch the exchange that happened in mere seconds. This woman was very much the same as the others but extremely different from abilities and powers. "This is not good." the Iron Knight muttered as he forced his way onto the floor from the outside and held his ground watching what appeared to now be a power struggle.

"Wait! You don't-" Darien shouted as Hogun tried to merge with the woman. He was somewhat shocked, however, to see her somehow grasping his ethereal form as if it was tangible, then beginning to glow with power herself. Granted, the carpet under her feet began to catch on fire, but for the moment, Hogun was reigned in.

"Uh..." Darien said, opening the window from the outside and landing softly in the room. "Be careful..." Darien said softly, disarming his dart launcher and holding his hands up in a non-threatening gesture.


"Gerroff 'o me ya slimy witch!" Hogun howled, trying to slam his burning, ghostly fists into Copy Cat's face. He seemed to be having trouble moving, though, and his blows seemed limp and softened.

Copy Cat scoffed and pulled back slightly, using one hand to catch his fist and staring directly into his incorporeal eyes. "Calm down! Calm. Down. I feel your anger and pain, but this isn't fruitful," she stated carefully and forcefully. She began to pant a little, her arms shaking and her eyes alight with anger as well. She quickly glanced at the other two before settling on the first man she'd noticed. "You. Do you have the power to undo this?" she asked, swallowing hard. "Or did you have no plan?" It almost came out as a hiss.

Adair looked at the professor questioningly from beneath his own helm. The woman did indeed pose a question that actually brought upon something else. What was the connection between Prof. Asp and this poor man who was teaming with anger and glowing like a fucking radioactive isotope.

Darien didn't like the fact that all of the attention was on himself, suddenly. This was not how things were supposed to go. He turned and looked over his shoulder at the other armored man, then back at the other two grappling metahumans. It was almost enough to make him doubt in his fervent life mission. Almost.

"I apologize for nothing! This man was nobody, a dreg. Cast aside by society and forgotten! Look! See how I have made him matter!" Darien shouted, flinging his hand towards the now perplexed and dour Hogun.

"All citizens of the realms should have access to this kind of power. All of them should be able to sleep safely at night, knowing that when the time comes, they can defend themselves. Because it will!" Professor Asp shouted, his voice modulation making his shouts a garbled roar.

There was a moment of silence as Darien debated what to do. He knew that the fall into becoming a super villain was started with an easy slip. He musn't lose hold of his ethics...

With a sigh, he continued.

"Yes, I can reverse the-" he was cut off as sirens blared from below. A man shouted on a loud speaker. WCPD, obviously.

"Freeze! All of you stay where you are! We have the building surrounded and are prepared to take lethal measures!" the officer shouted. Hogun grew wide eyed and thrashed and screamed.

"NO! NOOOOO! I won't go back to the big house! No!" he said, finally thrashing free of Copy Cat's grip. With a roar, he surged towards Darien. The last thing he remembered was a flash of fire that felt like it was in his head. Externally though, there came a hissing noise as the metals of Professor Asp's suit heated up. In the next instant, there came a clicking whir as Asp's poison dart launchers were armed and pointed at Copy Cat and Iron Knight.

Kchakkchakkchakkchak

A quick salvo was fired at both of them before Asp rocketed past Iron Knight, drawing fire from the police below...

Copy Cat growled and surged forward to try and regain her grip, but the golden aura was too quick. She frowned and let the dart phase right through her as she clung to the incorporeal form. "Dammit!" she yelled, fear flashing in her eyes as she looked at the source of the sirens. Control was slipping away and she was panting before she tore off after the suited man. "Get out of him, he can still help you!" she screamed after him, glancing back at the other man to see if he suffered any from the barrage.

Adair brought both of his arms up allowing the darts to harmlessly deflect off the surface of his armor only to curse under his breath a little as this was something he was worried about. The Iron Knight heard the sirens and then looked at the woman who was standing next to him. "We have to stop him, the both of them, as the other guy in the suit just admitted to experimenting on that guy. Can I ask for your help?" With a few steps Adair looked over the edge of the building and grimaced a little as his suits on board computer began to run like clockwork on finding all if any information on the man in question who was fleeing away.

Meanwhile, there was panic in the streets. Even among the police officers. With loud snapping sounds, Asp's bladed gauntlets bust out of their holsters, and as he landed on top of the police barricade, he immediately impaled two of the officers. The smell of burning flesh followed him wherever he went, and a faint smoke rose from his suit.

"I'll never give this guy up! Not while I can still cause him pain!" Hogun shouted in Darien's modulated voice. Despite having only recently taken over Darien's body, Hogun was frighteningly proficient with Asp's weaponry. As he drew his dripping blades from the two fresh corpses, a hail of gunfire ricocheted off of his smooth armor, causing small scratches and dents. With a loud hissing noise, a cloud of poisonous gas burst out of vents in Asp's backpack, causing most of the police within a fifteen foot radius to begin choking uncontrollably and clutching at their eyes.

Asp Hogun yanked the keys to a cruiser off of a dying cop and dashed towards a nearby hover-cruiser, trying to make a getaway...

"I'll do what I can, but don't count on me," Copy Cat muttered before shooting off towards Asp. She cursed softly as she saw the police force being decimated and stopped briefly to see if she could help, but there wasn't much she could offer in her current state. Instead, she kept herself pinpointed on Asp. "Can you destroy that armor if I can stop him long enough?" she called behind her. She needed to stop the rampaging force somehow...But she didn't have the luxury of a body or car to keep up with him, really. "If we can slow him down, I might be able to force the other guy out!" She didn't realize that she'd been giggling softly ever since she'd begun the chase again.

The Iron Knight leaped right behind the Copy Cat only to smile as it was some kind of plan that he could get done. "Ya the armor should not be much of a problem!" Adair shouted as he drew two heavy energy pistols from his holsters and began to open fire at Asp Hogun while still in mid flight down to the police infested ground bellow. Once he landed safely on the ground he would tumble out of it and keep his momentum going only to fire a few more shots but this time at the police vehicle in question. "Prof. Asp, you sonofabitch, hang in there alright! I am just going to destroy that armor you are wearing so beating you to a pulp will come a lot easier."

"Agh!"

The back left section of the hover-cruiser was blown to smithereens by Iron Knight's fission powered pistols, causing the entire vehicle to skid and then tumble end over end three times before finally slamming to a halt about thirty yards down the avenue. There was a moment that passed before the door to the vehicle was kicked open and Asp crawled his way out. One of the venom tubes that attached to his left gauntlet had been severed, and his helmet had been dented heavily on the top. Fumbling, he flung the helmet to the side revealing a grisly image.

Now that Hogun had been in Darien for so long, the degenerative effects of his energy form had taken a serious toll on Darien's face. The flesh was burnt and withered, his hair was all but burned to a char. His eyes had become a milky green, and his lips were burned away, revealing the long, natural fangs that resided in Asp's mouth in a permanent snarl.

"Rrrrrraaaaaagghh!" he roared, sending a blast of poison darts in Copy Cat and Iron Knight's general direction. Despite being in control of Darien's mind, Hogun clearly was not invulnerable to the physical effects of what was undoubtedly a concussion...

Copy Cat continued her chase, no longer being hampered by and physical matter in her way. She closed her eyes in thanks for a moment as the car came to a screeching halt giving her the time to catch up. She grimaced at the state of Asp's then smiled widely, bubbly laughter pouring from her mouth and she threw herself at him. It was a wild tackle, phasing right past the darts again as she attempted to use herself to push Hogun through and out of Asp in a single motion. "Get out!!" she screamed, a hint of hysteria in her tone.

The Iron Knight came to a screeching halt as he slide a couple of feet just to bring his arms up defensively once again to guard against the attacks and it was more out of instinct than it was any kind of fear. "Did you get him!"