Fearfest 2k15

[restingstitchface]

WHO: YOU!
WHERE: De Chima University; exhibition center and campus grounds.
WHEN: Saturday August 15th, 4.45pm start.
WHAT: A registration at the annual technology fair, with a fireworks display!
WARNINGS: Non-consensual use of fear toxin, disturbing mental images, cannibalism and violence. Characters are going to be a psychological mess.

"A kind of light spread out from her. And everything changed color. And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to. And there were no limits to anything. And the people of the world were good and handsome. And I was not afraid any more."
- John Steinbeck, East of Eden.


Disunity had been the aim of last month's game. Secrets and lies and truths in fiction. Suspicions in minds. Doubts on tongues. Gossip block-printed in rags. Newspapers, from tabloids to broadsheets, had carried the news; some left-leaning publications had made a greater dinner of the expose than others. Scandalous magazines and imPort celebrity weeklies showed versions of the same 'exclusive', and many daytime shows pandered to the demographic who believed there was nothing to worry about if you had nothing to hide.

The last swearing-in of the summer has people gathering in the Exhibition Center of De Chima University, where certain imPorts have worked before. Spread out over the campus, every imPort will rub shoulders with the local students and faculty of the School of Applied Technology. Inside they will see a staircase with an events banner strung over the atrium. Outside there are modern interpretations of classical statues, on square plinths, and inside there's metal sculptures of scientific and technological principles. Rules discovered by those who studied the world they lived in; procedures and concepts of both organic and inorganic forces. Next to them are standing banners flapping in the breeze, tied to weights, to which blue, purple and silver balloons have been tied with thin string.

The Exhibition Center, located next to the park, is hosting the annual highlights of scientific progress this Saturday evening. The spacious Exhibition Hall that occupies most of the interior space serves as the focal point for the annual technology fair, and expects a smart-casual dress code. The focus of this evening is on medical technology and the benefits imPort involvement can bring. People are free to wander in and out of the building as they wish. The forecast is for a warm, clear evening, with no coastal wind or rain to bring cool relief. People are also free to wander around the center to explore rooms and corridors not locked and bolted to the crowd. Everyone is free to investigate for troublemakers or to cut through the crowd - or to see what isn't locked down and there for thieving. But try not to be caught by the security cameras!

If you climb upstairs or catch a lift to the upper levels of the Center, you will be able to access the grand and expansive glass floor that gives you a bird's eye view of the Exhibition Hall far below - if you've got the guts! There's a stack of supplies stored behind a large exhibition banner attached to the far wall, and you may peek inside to check them out. There's nothing that seems suspicious. A couple of anti-flammable canisters, containing nothing more suspicious than foam. Just try to enjoy the sights beneath your feet.

MEDTEC - the National Exhibition for AMERICAN Medical Technology

With the minutes passing by, with hundreds of figures in the crowd moving between the Exhibition Hall and the various function rooms, the event seems to pass without celebration or accident. That is no promise the evening will be uneventful.


REGISTRATION - 4.45PM - 8PM

The doors are thrown open to the crowd, who are free to collect their passes in advance from any available kiosk, or by digital means; electronic tickets on their phones to hard passes collected from the mailman or the University's box office. For those last-minute registrations, passes are available just inside the doors. Feel free to arrive early or wander in ten minutes before closing. It's all good!


MEDTEC - 4.45PM - 8PM

Get out on the floor. You are free to watch any of the displays local companies and R+D have to offer. This is a good time to watch the crowds or to slip out for a visit to the rest of the center. If you wander upstairs, you'll find locked corridors and rooms. But feel free to wander towards the glass ceiling that's above the Exhibition Hall.

Companies who provide to both civilians and the military are here - though you'll notice a lack of high-level technology for the latter. There's a hexagonal stage at the back of the Exhibition Hall that's standing ready for the imPort displays coming later. Please do not touch the tech if signs say not to. But don't think that means you can't try.


IMPORT DISPLAYS - 6.30PM - 8PM

The stage is lit. You may want to head over if you wish to see what your fellow imPorts have cooked up - or even to put on your own show! You'll get an explanation about the cash prizes on offer, and the scholarships. Or you'll wonder why you're watching this ass-patting when there's hardly an inch of space anywhere around the stage.


DRINKS AND NETWORKING - 8PM - 9PM

The Exhibition Hall is closed. The function room next door is thrown open for imPort milling. Make friends around the tables and order free food and drinks from the bar. Sit back, throw your feet up and take a load off. Lighten up! You're here to let your hair down. Please listen out for the public address that announces the upcoming awards show in Conference Room 2, and the fireworks display that's scheduled at 9:10pm outside. You'll get a good view of it from the park.


UNIVERSITY GROUNDS - 8PM

To those exploring the grounds outside the center. Have fun. The balmy night is perfect for walking around without a jacket. Feel free to sling it over your shoulder and enjoy the hot summer air. How the hell is it this warm, anyway? Don't jump in the fountain by the park, kids. Don't put bubble-bath or soap in it, either. Go past it and check out the park, or not. 7You may like to step back into the city. Just be careful of the traffic.

You are free to avoid the main roads for smaller side-streets, but that won't help you. The trash bins hold too much litter. You may wish to investigate them, but will find nothing. But much of the urban area and parkland is turned to a new, sinister purpose. There are minute bombs hidden in drains, or in flower baskets. In every miniscule place in the corner of your eye that escapes your notice. Timed devices primed to detonate in sync with the green and yellow fireworks overhead.

At 9.30PM, the earth will seem to split open and rumble. People screech and shriek about a range of hallucinations; from finding their loved one's body in the city morgue, to being the meal for a pack of monsters, to a flock of crows diving from the railings and rooftops to rip them apart. Those terrified of spiders see nothing but; on the floor, in windows, crawling up the walls. Some folk cough and splutter. Unable to breathe, they suffer a heart attack and can die on the spot. Others are given to a frenzy by the gas, and some experience flashbacks to hideous crimes - except they are the lunatic responsible for murdering children, or the killer stalking people through the streets at night.

It smells of pollution. It smells of fireworks. It smells of street food. There's the sound of blaring horns due to the traffic. There's the smell of fire, caused by the delirious rioting, and blood spilled by those around them, whom they cannot see. The gas enters cars, apartments and buildings with their windows open; the chaos echoes indoors as much as out. Those driven to a murderous lunacy pursue other victims of the gas through a twisted, nightmare version of their neighborhood, and violently resist any calls to cease and desist.

The gas hangs heavy on the air and fills the campus, engulfing the streets, entering the university buildings and student apartments. People around you are panicking, violent, delirious. You might experience what they do. You might hear the screaming, the illegible yelling and see cowering people talking of spiders, ghosts and scarecrows. You might rush indoors to help. You might meet friends who you wish to kill. Or you might run off in a manic state - unable to realize you're running into open traffic. Oh dear.


AWARDS - 9PM

Celebration time. The University has arranged a judging panel that has deliberated on the technology imPorts put on offer - this is the hour where your contributions to local society are being noticed and celebrated. Between the floor and stage, to the assembled chairs and technological displays dotted around the vacant exhibition hall, there's little standing room. You're free to stare down from the glass ceiling high above, or to stand at the back of the crowd below, but don't crowd the doors.

At 9.30PM, with the judges leaving the hexagonal stage so the Head of Applied Technology can present the first award, you might hear a loud hiss of air. A gas leak! The particles are colorless till they meet the oxygen in the room and form a grey cloud that fills every inch of space, from the upper echelons of the ceiling above the glass, to the chairs and the floor down below.

It doesn't smell, and the effects are instantaneous. All noises and images will twist and warp. You might find the neon lights burn as hot as sun-fire. You might see the room on fire and hear the horrific screaming of those trapped and dying in the ruined building you now find yourself in. Perhaps you smell ashes. Or perhaps you smell saltwater and brine - you're drowning! Or you might be one of the few. The brave. The unaffected. Look around and you will see some in the crowd clawing their faces to oust whatever they think is wriggling beneath their skin. They scream and they cry. Others devour their own skin, suffering from hunger - or they eat the flesh of others. They turn on each other. They turn on you.

If that's not enough there's a different show in store. You might be unfortunate enough to be on the glass floor when it kicks off. Enjoy it or don't. It's all the same.

GOGO - 9.30PM - 10PM

At 9.30PM, you may think the metal warping around you is just another part of the hallucination. But it's real. The expo hall groans as the walls react to another power, and the displays twist as if a greater force is squeezing them and pulling.

Before too long, the smaller things rattle and jump back and forth across the room. Pens, instruments, small change, etc; even piercings will tug at the skin with increasing force until they may just rip out to join the rising storm of metal. You can stay and test your luck, dodging unpredictable attacks, or you can risk escaping into the night, out from underneath an increasingly unstable roof. Just pray the decoration in the hall doesn't crash into you as you flee.

At 10PM, the stress of the chaos is finally too much for the expo hall. The supports have twisted beyond recognition, the walls damaged by their own warping and displays crashing into them at force. There's a loud crack as one of the supports snaps under the weight of the glass ceiling and with a heavy shudder the whole network starts to unravel and sends the ceiling crashing down. Anyone on the second floor may be lucky enough to get out of the way before it drops, or perhaps they can grab hold of a railing that will creak under their weight.

Or maybe you are one of the unlucky ones who rides the glass from above, all the way to where it shatters across the floor.

FIREWORKS - 9PM

Ten minutes past the hour, as a loud bang echoes for each firework shot into the night, the sky over the park is filled with the sort of brilliance one would only see on the Fourth of July. You might ask what's a nighttime event without fireworks, anyway?

For that charming couple on their date, to the curious student, an extravagant display comes on the rocket-propelled tails of rockets and bombs and flares. Look to the sky and lose yourselves in the colors as they appear - crimson stars and butterflies, and the pink crackling comets that leave behind a tail of effects. A red geometric circle of lines and dots glitter and break apart into smaller circles, then scatter and disappear, their fuel and powder spent. Memories of the sight are left behind; the smoke barely visible overhead; the smoldering gunpowder - and the warm company of whoever you're with. Perhaps you're one of those unafraid to visit such events alone. Perhaps you have a brilliant memory and the sight has burned itself into your eyes. One display follows another till the last; the end of a 25 minute display mentioned over the public address and published in the brochure.

At 9.30PM, the fireworks fizzle out. The display is over. It should be over. Then there's one more show - a collection of rockets and flares colored in yellows and greens, the colors one associates with poison and sees in cornfields. The colors are sickly and nausea-inducing as they explode in the night sky. It's just another display, right? Then cracks appear in the sky itself! All the yellows and greens, blacks and blues run into the white, hollow emptiness.

Perhaps you believe those eyes in the firmament are real. Or you're part of the crowd who believes the entire sky is falling down. A stampede breaks out. The slow are trampled underfoot. Students, faculty and guests stand shock-still. Some are clawing at their eyes. Others cannot contain themselves and empty their lungs with unfocused wailing. From the sky fall shards of glass. A flood of color threatens a deluge, even as the smoke and particles of the toxic gas contained in those green and yellow fireworks are carried by the wind over the locality.


AFTERMATH - 12:30AM AND ON

There's a collection of police, emergency services and reporters in a boundary around the university area and affected streets. Safe on the edge of the gas cloud, they are evacuating the surrounding areas. Ambulances and stretchers are ready for the wounded; RISE and any relevant factions may be helping with the chaos - or caught up in it themselves.

You might be trapped within the gas, cowering in fear. You might irrationally run into the lights you see in the haze, not knowing what you are seeing or the faces that watch you scramble by, screaming illegibly. You might be directing others in the chaos. You might be one of the people driven manic by it all. You might emerge from the mist with blood on your hands. You might recall how it got there. You might not. But you won't forget this night, will you?

Comments

[maglevflash]

Just before 9:30:

[Not many care to notice the young woman propped up against a railing in the middle of the crowd, and those that have are eyeing her with wary concern. Noone actually saw her come in, but in an event like this, in the middle of a ceremony, who even was paying attention anyway?

Gogo's clearly unwell, breath coming in short gasps, struggling to stay standing as she tries to make sense of what was going on. Her face is dirty and tear streaked, her wrists rubbed raw and bloodied from captivity, and there is similar bruising around her neck. She's helpless against the jostling of the people around her, she's aware of that, at least, but she has to...has to move. Has to warn...

Her skin is buzzing almost unbearably. It was everything she could do to hold on and not let her power loose; not grab all the metal around her and throw it against the walls. Anything to make it stop. But she can't do that. There were so...so many people.

She needs help, needs to find someone. Anyone. Tell them...god, tell them what? It itches at the back of her mind, but words won't form on her tongue. She awkwardly pushes away from the rail, stumbling right into another person and using them as support as she tries to make her legs work the way she wants them to. She's shaking so badly...

The railing she left behind has clear handprints in the metal where she'd been gripping.]

Murkrow uses Fear Gas!:

[She watches the gas rise with dread settling in her stomach. She doesn't even try to get away, her muscles too twitchy to fight the crowds and without any idea where the doors even are she'd be lost in two seconds. If she'd been struggling to breathe before, then now she's just about hyperventilating. Metal creaks around her, small trinkets rattling and displays starting to shake in their cases. She can't hold it anymore, she's not strong enough.

Gogo'd tried to find an island in the midst of the crowd to cling to, but someone crashes into her anyway in their panic, and she falls to the floor. Everything warps as her fear spikes, heart thumping in her chest as she covers her face as someone else trips over her. It's too dark in her mind; no one notices her as if she's invisible; alone. A third person steps on her, then reaches down to grab her and something inside her mind snaps. The display above her reaches out like it has a mind of its own and grabs the offender, pulling them in and wrapping around their body until something crunches. Her victim screams and Gogo takes the opportunity to try and bolt. Get away, run, before you hurt someone else...

Adrenaline gives her strength and she climbs through the seating in an effort to get away from the crowd. The chairs twist under her hands, any metal she comes in contact with warping and screeching across the floor, and the magnetism only gets stronger the worse her fear gets.]

The sky is falling!

[The toxin is brutal and ever second under its influence is another second that Gogo's heart races faster and faster. By ten her mind is nothing but fear, to the point where she's starting to see enemies in her friends. Her instincts realize that running away at this point is no option and now she's little more than a cornered animal lashing out. There's metal floating in the air around her, though pieces still crash through the room at random, and at any sign of 'attack' she will throw her weight into retaliation. Her control is weak, yet, so the metal has no precision, but see if that's any consolation with the sheer amount of metal in the room to throw...

But there's another danger. She reaches out for a support and yanks the column out from under the ceiling and the room shudders from the unbalanced weight. The glass in the ceiling starts to fracture with increased pressure, and then with only a crack as warning, the glass comes raining down in sheets to the ground. Several poor souls who were too distracted in their own heads to realize the danger were crushed underneath a particularly large pane that promptly shatters around their bodies.

Gogo screams in pain as glass gets past her poor shielding to cut and embed into her skin, and her power explodes outward, launching metal to the far ends of the room and bending the walls as if the building itself were trying to flee; weakening an already hazardous structure...]

[microbrobotics]

[ This is the worst swear-in ever. His nervousness at the expo doesn't compare to this cacophony, but it does mean that Hiro hasn't really had a good moment at all tonight - just a chain of terrible. Now he's rushing through the hall, trying to find people while nursing a bullet in his shoulder. He's lucky - however badly the bullet might be wedged, it hasn't nicked any major veins or arteries. So his blood loss, while alarming, is not bad enough to keep him from moving around. He just wishes it didn't feel like his shoulder is on fire...

And then the ceiling shatters. He yelps, managing to find shelter from the worst of it. But he hears a familiar voice belonging to someone who wasn't so lucky. Is that - ]

Gogo? Gogo, are you okay?

[ He lurches towards her. All the metal around him is moving, including his comm and his toolbot, dragging him forward. Including that damn bullet lodged in his shoulder. He cries out again as it starts jerking around in there, trying to come out. ]

Gogo!

[maglevflash]

[Okay is so far from the truth it literally hurts. She's soaked with blood from a dozen different wounds, glass stuck in her arms shifting and cutting deeper every time she moves. That first scream had been the worst, her voice choking on air as she tries to draw it back into her lungs between sobs.

Her hallucinations are mild now, as reality itself is turning into her worst nightmare. What she does see, however, are the dead collapsed around her. Unfortunate civilians crushed by debris and pulled screaming into metal fixtures that carried them across them to be impaled against the walls. The real count is much, MUCH lower, but she sees bodies everywhere; some of them her friends.

She chokes again trying to breathe, trying to pull in on herself, protect herself, and the metal comes with.]

[microbrobotics]

[ Hiro cries out in pain again as the metal bullet again tries to drag itself out of his shoulder. It's caught somewhere in there, against a bone maybe, and it's excruciating every time she tugs at it. He's forced forward a few steps too as the toolbot on his back lurches forward.

Clearly not okay. Definitely not okay. He can see her injuries now - and guess at the fear gas. ]

G-Gogo, it's me! It's Hiro! C-calm down!

[maglevflash]

[She shakes her head roughly, covering her ears with her hands, hearing him and not hearing him in turns.

Gogo, how could you?!

She can hear him in pain; knows it's her fault. Except when she opens her eyes to try and warn him to stay away she doesn't see him, sees only a monster in the dark coming closer. She can feel the metal bullet, feel the toolbot as if it's a part of him, and with one motion of her hands tries to throw him away from her.]

Get away!

[microbrobotics]

[ Both the toolbot and the bullet pull him back; he's forced a couple steps backwards before he manages to kick his technokinesis into gear and oppose her magnetism. It ... kind of works. Mostly he's not used to having any interference when he's doing this trick, so running into any at all is winding him a bit. Time to call in backup.

A small swarm of microbots come floating out of the back of his toolbot. He coils them around himself, particularly his good arm, and throws out a leash of them to keep him tethered where he is. Another set heads out in Gogo's direction, to try and lock down her wrists. Everybody just needs to stop for a while. ]

Like hell I am! You need help!

[pobrecisco]

[ Cisco's been milling around, impatient for the awards to be announced, when he spots Gogo. He'd been worried about her all week, and seeing her look sick strikes immediate panic into him, and he rushes over, catching her as she stumbles into him. ]

Gogo! Hey, where have you been? Are— Okay, no, you're clearly not okay. What's—

[ He glances around for someone to call help, but spots the handprint in the metal instead. ]

...Gogo, what's going on...

[maglevflash]

[She clutches at him, stuck between needing the help to stay standing and wanting to recoil away from whoever it is recognizing her. It takes her a moment to realize it's Cisco, and she opens her mouth to try and answer, desperate, but the sound that comes out is more of a garbled mess than actual words.

It's probably clear to him of all people that she's on something. And not just on it, but on way WAY too much of it. Upon closer inspection there needle marks on her neck and arm. Most of them professional and barely noticeable but one on her arm was ragged from struggle.

If her grip is any indication she is NOT strong enough to have bent the metal on her own, though it's clearly her handprint.]

[pobrecisco]

[ When he spots the needle marks, he deeply wishes, and not for the first time, that Caitlin were here. Whatever Gogo's been drugged with, he doesn't know how to deal with it. He's not a doctor, and medical stuff has never been his forte. But that's not gonna stop him trying to help. ]

Okay. Okay, we're going to get you out of here. Whatever happened, we're gonna fix it, okay? Come on, just hang onto me, I've got you.

[ He's staying surprisingly calm for the fact that he's absolutely panicked. ]

[maglevflash]

[She shakes her head in sharp, jerky movements, leaning heavily into him and nearly falling over backwards as she tries to overcompensate.]

N-n-no...

[She's not the one in danger, everyone else is. Gotta...gotta get everyone out before she can't hold on anymore. The whole building sings to her senses. Metal. Metal everywhere.

The railing rattles a little in place and with a slight creak it bends about fifteen degrees towards them.]

C-ca-ca-...

[She chokes a little on air trying to get the words out. What was she saying? God, her head felt like cotton and the buzzing was getting worse.]

[pobrecisco]

Okay, we can stay. Just try and breathe, okay?

[ He eyes the railing warily, not sure what exactly is going on, but that reeeeeally doesn't look like a good sign. ]

What? What do you need?

murkrow - open to other participants also!

[superposition]

[Qubit's on his feet as soon as he notices the gas pouring into the room. But instead of heading for the exit with the rest of the panicking crowd, he pushes further into the room, covering his nose and mouth with a sleeve as he tries to find the source. Fire? No, it's odorless. A chemical agent? His eyeballs aren't melting, which is kind of a good sign, but not very. Either way, he needs to not be in it, but first priority is getting everyone else out.

He opens a teleportal nearby and starts ushering people through -] Stay calm! Just get through the portal, you'll be fine!

[But something else is wrong. He notices it first when his watch starts tugging at his arm, trying to move on its own, and the numbers are off, like there's some kind of electrical interference - oh and then a metal display physically picks someone up and crushes them. Thanks to the toxin he's more unsettled by that than he should be. Who's doing this? Where?!

He spots the source from behind, though, as she's climbing over the seats, and as they're deforming unnaturally around her - and with a start he realizes he knows her, it's the girl from next door. What was her name?] Gogo?

[Yeah, that's definitely where the tug on his watch is coming from. Like a sensible person, he runs in closer.] Gogo! What are you doing? You're going to get someone killed!

[maglevflash]

[She struggles for breath, heading for the stage as the one place clear of people. Things were bending towards and away from her in equal turns, creaking in protest as her power tugs and pushes at the same time.

She turns at his voice, vaguely recognizing him as someone familiar, but the gas is taking hold and she doesn't know his face. Just sees another victim.]

No please, y-you....you have to get a-away!

[superposition]

Calm down! I'm not going to hurt you.

[Calm down, calm down - yeah okay now if only his heart would do the same, it's pounding - but he can still power through it for the moment. He steps closer. What's her power, anyway? Metal manipulation? Magnetism? Whatever it is, she's clearly got no control over it right now. He extends a hand to her, the one that isn't wearing anything metallic.]

I can get you out of here. You're going to be all right, Gogo.

[maglevflash]

[The first row of chairs next to them gets thrown as if a great invisible hand sweeps them across the room. Gogo hugs herself, desperate to cling to the frayed edges.]

I'm going to hurt YOU.

[It wasn't a threat, more like a matter of fact. She'd love to get out of here, away from the buzzing and the weight, but there were so many people between here and there...]

[superposition]

[Qubit ducks instinctively, even though none of the chairs were headed directly at him. Yeah, no, she's not wrong, she is going to hurt him - if he's not careful. But he's an old hand at this, he knows what he's doing.]

No you're not. Don't worry about that.

[While he talks, his eyes glow a fierce greenish-blue as he reaches out with his technokinesis - itself a lot flashier than someone like Hiro's. At least there's no shortage of materials for him to work with here (sorry to whoever's science project he just cannibalized, though). The parts are warping and weaving themselves together even before they reach him, almost as if alive. It's more difficult with Gogo's power yanking this way and that at the metal, but his mental grip is strong enough to overcome it, and the force field generator completes itself in his hands. Start to finish: about five seconds. He doesn't activate it yet, but at least he has the option.]

The sky is falling

[glitchinthesystem]

[ Glitch knew things were bad when everything was literally descending into chaos. This is what he gets for taking a chance on science. Gas was filling the room and he was making quit exits where he could for any of the innocent citizens about. Smashing windows open, tossing broken and locked doors loose to allow for escape. To add to the mayhem of bodies falling everywhere either from injury or the gas, there was this storm of metal being thrown around the room.

Glitch was trying to keep his senses about him, keep himself from breathing anything and keeping metal from touching him. It's then he see's her in the crowd. Gogo. She's screaming and flailing about, completely erratic. He goes to run to her to get her out when he see's it, feels it hit him. That electrical force. He knows this, used it himself. She's causing it. This mayhem, at least, with the metal.

He's not sure why but something in his gut tells him it's not her doing, at least, not her choice. The gas maybe? People seemed to start going wonky with it the moment it showed up.

Whatever the case he needed to contain what she was doing. He runs over, and stops about ten feet away before he starts yelling: ]

STRIPE, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! YOU'RE GONNA KILL SOMEONE! [ His hands are up, as if in surrender but they're ready. Ready to start catching what she throws and to try and get this metallic storm into some kind of control. ]

[maglevflash]

[The shout gets her attention, but the words have shifted somewhere in the air between his mouth and her ears. She's killed someone. She's killed several someones. She knew that, but to hear it confirmed right in her face...

There's blood dripping steadily off her arms and she's panting, looking around the room. The pain has muted the fear just a little, though the monstrous form of the Blue Beetle still rests burned at the front of her mind. It could come back any second...looking for meta humans.

She opens her mouth to try and respond, to beg for him to get away, or help, or something, when she happens to see Tadashi on the other side of the room. She can't see Magicman, or the protective armor, so the pipe through his shoulder and the glass that had rained down were perfectly clear as they impale through his body. She sees him fall to the ground, and then she's staring at the front of a different expo hall, from an entirely different world. She can see the fire, feel its heat, and the horror of what she'd done hits her all at once.

She didn't just kill anyone, she just killed Tadashi. Like a prophecy come true. The hallucination is too strong, she can't focus on...who? Who is it that just ran up? Whoever it was, she's a danger to them. She can't be around them.]

You have to...have to run!

[Everything hurts and she can't breathe with the panic holding tight to her chest.

A metal display shoots across the room, at an angle to just miss both of them as it passes, and crashes into one of the walls; splintering into smaller pieces and getting swept back in the direction they came from.]

[glitchinthesystem]

FUCK! [ Glitch covers his head with his hands when he see's the display flying past them, unable to really catch it in time and unsure if it would hit them. Thank god it doesn't but it gets pulled back into the storm beginning to surround them. The room is just flying pieces of death at this moment and Glitch's only got one option:

Try and contain it to just him and Gogo.

He raises his hands up and they begin to tense and shake as he feels the air for metal. He feels the whirl of cascading death around them, how wild it runs around the room and he clenches his hands into fists. He pulls at it, beckoning it to him and her and wild flailing of metal is drawn towards them, but spirals about between the two.

He edges closer, but he's straining, straining hard to try and call more of the flying pieces to them and to contain it in this one little storm. ]

STRIPE! GOGO! YOU GOTTA LISTEN TO ME! CLOSE YOUR EYES, STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS SHIT! YOU'RE GONNA MAKE IT WORSE IF YOU DO!

[maglevflash]

[The pressure increases around her, the air becoming thick and choking. She gasps desperately.

You're gonna make it worse. What's wrong with you?!

She clutches at her head, closing her eyes tightly.]

Stop it! Please...

[glitchinthesystem]

[ He's inching closer now, his hands shaking just to try and hold onto what he can, but it's all just slipping from his fingers. It's jerked movements. Suddenly things stop but then they go again.

He needs to grab, Gogo. The sad thing is he may just have to taze her into unconsciousness. Not something he wants to do but if she can't hold this together she's going to kill people. He reaches out a hand as he steps closer and closer, going to try and grab her wrist. ]

The sky is falling!

[iamtetsuo]

[The ceiling caves down hard, taking Tetsuo with it down into the fog and horror below; if it wasn't for his telekinesis and decent reflexes, the fall alone would have severely hurt him instead of only sort of hurt. It takes him a moment to emerge from the rubble, an expanding field of energy tearing and vaporizing bits of ceiling until it's just him, a crater, and everything swirling around in his head, nebulous and looming...

Through all the horror, all the swirling nightmare around him, Tetsuo really has only one goal. It's simple. Simple's easy to follow. Which is good, because simple's the only kind of plan he can make.

He's going to find whatever took out the ceiling, and tear it apart. Find whatever started this nightmare, whatever attacked him, and make them pay until he no longer feels anything; they want to mess with him? He's DONE being helpless! He's done being afraid! His back's still searing from glass shards, leg stinging from a slash earlier, but they're nothing compared to the fire in his head. Even that's still nothing compared to the rage that's been building for ... who knows how long now, harmonizing with terror into a fever pitch that drowns out his own consciousness. He can't even see what he's seeing now; for the moment, there's no one home.

After spending some time wandering aimlessly - a couple encounters later - something large hurtles towards him. Tetsuo flinches backwards, narrowly catching it in a telekinetic field - something metal, maybe; he can't make out a shape when it keeps changing - and trying to force it away.

But this time, something's wrong. It's not as easy as lifting something or stopping it. It's like there's an active force there, somehow, still trying to drive it towards him. He snarls, lowering his head, ignoring the increasing pressure in his brain as he pours more effort into shoving the beam to the side. It whirls off past him as he starts resolutely walking towards its origin.

This. Stops. Now.]

[maglevflash]

[Her fight with Hiro broke whatever strength she had left. She's blind panic and tears and her head is pounding. She's lightheaded from blood loss and the press of metal beating down over her skin. There's so much of it all around her. Thick, weighted pieces and thin thorn-like javelins and balls of deadly spikes shifting in response to vibrations in the air.

There's no direction. Some pieces are just hanging overhead like a Sword of Damocles, others are slowly floating in an arc, and many more besides are being tossed to and fro, ever changing, from one end of the room to the other. The hall resembles nothing less than a war zone now. What had once been a pinnacle of scientific evolution now melted together into chaotic amalgamation of her pain.]

She doesn't notice Tetsuo across the room. She's sitting in glass, huddled into a ball, half covering her head with torn and bloodied arms. She's too unfocused, too lost in her nightmares to even register anyone new. Instead she sees a repeating reel of Tadashi being crushed under the weight of glass and bursting into flames; of Hiro being crushed and held together by microbots, a technological undead form being speared by a hundred thin spikes. Of that poor man from earlier who'd gotten pulled into one of the displays and slowly pressed until he broke.]

[iamtetsuo]

[Tetsuo slowly walks forward, mouth slack but eyes focused with absolute intent on the figure across the room. He doesn't see anything else; he doesn't hear anything else.

Except.. he does. Flashes of things from his past, from somewhere else, from all kinds of things he's trying hard to pretend he doesn't see lurk just outside his vision if he dares to look at it. But he doesn't. He focuses it all on that one figure, over there, telling himself if he can just get to her, it will all end. He can't stand the fear anymore. He can't stand anything anymore. So if he can take control back...

It's a fiction he's told himself over and over and over throughout his entire life; one he's convinced that one day, one day he won't be on the receiving end anymore. He doesn't have to be messed with, he's got powers now, he can feel the energy sting through his veins and tug at the corners of his mind until everything feels bright and raw. Tetsuo can't even tell if the distortion is in his own head, or the world around him... but it doesn't matter. He can see the one thing he needs to.

Closer, closer...]

Found you...

[And he tenses his whole body, lashing out with a line of energy aimed towards Gogo. She's almost out of range; he's not planning this out as well as he could have, but all he cares about is if he hits her, not how hard.]

[maglevflash]

[The energy crashes into a shifting weight of metal that just happened to float in the way, and it easily carries it off course. The edge of the metal just catches Gogo on the side of her head as it flies past, and she starts to refocus in shock, fresh blood spilling down to her shoulder.

She looks up, and to her Tetsuo looks like a particularly horrifying black monster. The bottom drops right out of her stomach as the room around her shifts to reflect Bart's dreamscape; the great underwater ship with their torture tanks.

No, no he's here for Impulse. She can't let him have...where is Impulse? He was here earlier, she remembered seeing him, didn't she? Gogo glances to either side as if the speedster would be right there ready to fight with her, but sees nothing. He has to be safe, she has to believe that, and she can't let the Black Beetle have him. She'd rather die first, and she refuses to go down easily.]

You c-can't...you can't have us. We will...always fight.

[She struggles to her feet, leaning against the jagged wall to keep herself up. Her arms had gone numb minutes, maybe an hour ago. She can't keep track of time anymore. She's at the edge of her rope, but she refuses to surrender.]