One Bad Move After Another

It was only a bit over an hour later that Psyis was landing silently on the roof of one of the facilities buildings after scouting the area around the industrial lot. Steven having already subdued the goons who'd been left guarding the gate. Just a few of The Quiz's gang called Students who'd been quickly and silently dispatched by the well-trained sidekick of Dark Night. Of course, Dark Squire had been following her direction from above as she led him through the entrance of the facility through the easiest route, so it had only been those few goons.

Now standing and looking down across filtration tanks and down into the complex Psyis waited on the familiar sound of a grappling hook. The sound arriving as she had expected, Steven arriving and walking up while still detaching the excess cable to reload another grapple. Tossing the detached end aside while holstering the grappling gun, Steven crouched alongside Psyis.

"Those are the Students so The Quiz is already at work providing the security here." Dark Squire felt the slits for his eyes narrow as his cowl adjusted to match his expression. Recalling that there were a few steps he'd skipped in the Cavern, to preoccupied with thinking about what might happen after. Now Steven was looking down at the small gathering of goons down below, unsure about where to move from here.

"And those are full of FearForm's toxin but where's the actual work crew?" Psyis simply nodded finishing Dark Squires useless recap of everything his mentor had expected him to cover in the cavern. Glad Steven was having a bit of a come-to moment so she could explain her plan, "Thats not nearly enough toxin, we need to clear out... hold on get down"

Beginning to point at a few guards before pulling her hand and Steven down, the loud screaming thoughts of terrified human below warning her that something was coming. Psyis quickly waved Dark Squire down as he tried to peek, she sensed absolute fear not the fake kind induced by toxin. This was the kind that meant someones life was truly about to end.

Quickly waving Dark Squire to follow as she crept along the roof to a better area, glancing down towards one of the scaffolds where a goon was soon to face FearForm. The man being dragged by his hair as FearForm stomped along, his exo-skeleton coughing out clouds of thick yellow smoke while various tubes and hoses injected the toxin directly. The connections thankfully concealled under the tattered bits of cloth that were tied about the villains infected and boiled body. With a twisting jerk FearForm brought the man before him releasing him with a toss, sprawled the goon lay trembling across the ground.

"I'm telling you boss, the whole batch! It's just GONE! I swear I've got no clue... oh god-" The tiny figure in front of the disfigured villain tried to plead, utterly terrified, and hopelessly silenced by FearForm who had removed his mask to enjoy this personally. The man's voice stopping as a thick cloud of yellow washed over the two.

The disfigured man turning as his suit vented bits of yellow fumes, the toxins cycling back into the tanks. Psyis getting a clear mental picture of FearForm's actual face for a brief moment under the effects of the toxin. White teeth turning to twisted yellowing fangs and fair skin blistering, burning and bursting with pustules.

FearForm pulled out a pistol, the man's mind gone from the addition of the toxins festering in actual fear for his own life. Now the villain was actually bored, his victim was essentially brain-dead. Just to satisfy his own need for attention FearForm decided to bring a bit of noise to the near silent death. The crisp echo of a gun cut of any other excuses from down below as FearForm turned the twisted remains of the goon's face contorting further under the exo-skeleton's strength as he roared out orders.

"Find my toxin or I will watch your filthy bodies spin cycle in the oxygenation tanks!!" The unstable mans almost sleepy visage snapping just as the dead mans skull did, his contentment at killing the goon instantly warping back to rage all over again.

A few goons ran off as they connected the demand to the threat of drowning helplessly in the dangerous water. The rest still struggling with their failed Voltham educations. FearForm's eyes twisting in rage so deep he could feel the thin I.V. Needles that supplied his own mental drugs working loose.

"NOW!" FearForm screamed at those left, who were practically all his own.. were his own hires that dumb? Drops of yellow joining the infected red that had begun to leak from a face twisted from toxin abuse quickly settling on shooting another goon in the head just to motivate the lot, at least that one was The Quiz's.

Psyis took a few steps back as these new details came in, turning to look at Dark Squire while she stayed crouched. She had tried to look through FearForm's mind quickly but he was still using those chemicals. It should have been impossible to think coherently on them but the man was a villain for a reason. It was like he could experience every emotion but fear now and had chosen to stick to the worst of them.

Instead, she had resorted to checking his workers and had discovered the entire batch of toxin that they had prepared for tonight's attack was gone. Not just the toxin but the entire chemical trailers they had been hauled in. The trucks were still parked where they had been preparing to offload the liquid but their load had just vanished.

"What was that?" Dark Squire looked back towards the scene a bit shaken as he caught the two villains seemingly fall apart, FearForm shooting both his own and The Quiz's goons indiscriminately. His eyes having been drawn to the view of the preoccupied psychic next to him, her crouched form having just the right curves.

"The toxin is missing." Psyis blinked a few times wondering if the death had shocked Steven that much or if he had just missed the conversation entirely because he had been ogling her. Psyis nodded forwards sending Steven first this time, as both crept back towards the edge of the roof more yelling was beginning to take place.

"The pumping units too?!" FearForm threw a walkies-talkie still crackling with bad news at the wall below them, shattering it. Calmly looking up at the sky as he blamed the only person he could think of, "Dark Night I"ll kill you!!"

The Quiz walked over, the prim professor's outfit he'd turned into his villain's attire swishing with the added starch. Reaching out with zero fear and complete confidence that the chemically addled brain of his fellow villain had failed completely. What was in that thick yellow fluid that had made FearForm blame the caped man for tonight's issues. To anyone of above average intellect it was obvious there was some other busy body here who'd cheated them. Ruining their chance to correct the grevious errors of Voltham's misguided populace.

"Call Crusher we've got a problem and it's not punching anyone," The Quiz yanked on FearForm's mask, the metal and I.V.'s creaking in protest as the delicately gloved hand pulled the insane man down to a sensible level, "so it can't be Dark Night you idiot."

Psyis and Dark Squire both looked at one another as they realized what The Quiz said made sense. They hadn't really done a single thing beyond knocking out a couple goons at the gate, the toxin and pumps had been taken away by someone else.

"You don't think?" Dark Squire tensed as both of them thought of their third-party member from the previous night, had they misjudged the situation?

"Give me a sec" Psyis sent a gentle pulse downwards, trying to repeat it quickly several times in a row to get a clearly resolved image. Quickly going over the complicated 3d map that began to render in her mind to see if it had beaten them to the punch. Tracing through the various images that had been brought into her mind looking for that void, the odd thing out. She was just a bit to slow in comparison to the goons who had run down to check, psychic powers apparently no match for the threat of immediate execution.

The sounds of gunfire breaking out as muzzle flashes began to illuminate the gaps between the pipes far below. A brief silence followed before the entire row of water filtration tanks was rocked with a brighter flash and the sound of an explosion.

"Get Crusher here NOW!" FearForm spat at his partner in crime as his walkie-talkie began to scream with sounds of fire and even more excuses, "Its a blank check I'll make all the synth-roids that freakish fuck wants."

Stomping over to the rails FearForm leaned over, glancing around into the brief explosions of gunfire and silencing darkness that broke out down below for a moment before calling out to those below. The answer he'd received apparently not satisfying him as his next bellow echoed around the plant.

"What do you mean, it's a fucking bird!" FearForm was beginning to lose the little grip on sanity he bothered trying to keep as he roared down into the complex. FearFrom smashed his hands on the rails rattling the gangway before turning back and stomping over to The Quiz, demanding to know. "HOW... how the hell does a bird take four entire semi-trucks full of toxin?"

"It's impossible..." The Quiz shoved his glassed further onto his nose as he considered the completely illogical question. Only posing the inquiry out of sheer curiosity with no intention to help those below, "what kind of bird?"

"What kind of bird?!" FearForm's suit billowed out fumes of yellow as he stomped over to the rail yelling down demanding an answer. A muffled yell coming from below within the pipe maze as FearForm stomped back deeply regretting destroying the walkies-talkie, "A raven"

The two Villains stood there dumbly for a moment while their goons attempted to do the henching they'd ever done against an incredibly irritating raven that just didn't seem to care about their guns, or grenades. It had given a second glance at the one rpg the two teams had managed to scrounge up before the whole plan had kicked off. They'd only had the one though, neither villain being much in the way of supplying their hires.

"I'll get Crusher, you flood the entire lower complex with that toxin." The Quiz directed, at least wanting to destabilize whatever plans had snuck under his nose by doing the completely unexpected. Willing to risk any and all down below in his play to punish their goons and catch the thief, "Let them kill each other and the damned thing, If they'd kept the area secure maybe I'd have given them a passing grade, but death is the price of such abject failure."

"Agreed." FearForm slammed the button on his suit, the yellow vapors pouring out as the twin cylinders on his back began fabricating mass amounts of the toxin. The hoses along the arms shaking a bit as the gas sputtered inside and began to condense into a thick sludge. Not nearly as fast acting as synth-roid but with none of its immediate withdraw effects.

FearForm was beginning to ramp up, prepared to fight for the entire night. Flexing his fist as the series of vicious needles jumped out. The serrations designed to keep them embedded while the attached vials emptied their load. FearForm cackled manically as he approached the rail to the lower level.

Slamming a fresh series of four injections of adrenaline fueling terror into his veins, the hoses could wait. Kicking away the metal with ease before leaping down, no care for the still rampant gunfire. The sounds of his heavily armored and modified suit crashing down below, already so enraptured in fear that he felt none in the face of the fall.

"Call Dark Night now." Dark Squire directed the still scanning psychic, already leaping from the side of the building. Steven's mind blank aside from thoughts about doing his duty. The fact the duty Steven was thinking about completing was showing off and catching the interloper didn't slip though.

Psyis almost asking for an explanation, instead there was the flood of white noise coming through. Worries that things were getting out of hand, how Steven intended to do his job, finding out exactly what was going on below. How they couldn't just trust FearForm's word that all the toxin was gone. Psyis glancing down to where the villains had just willingly separated. Now was the prime time to move on at least one before the third showed. Now was the time to move, and get the job done.

If it wasn't down there! Psyis finally clarifying that the void was in-fact the 'raven' FearForm had inquired about. The soft pssh of a grapple being fired to aid Steven's decent the last argument Psyis heard from him as red eyes snapped over to catch the sudden movement. Watching mouth still hanging open while Steven ignored any sense or rationality and decided to just jump down, sneaking off into the plant to see just what was what.

Something she could do from here, had done from here, and 'it' was down there. Steven being too impatient for her to clearly track the fast-moving thing through the mess of pipes, just darting off while she played 7D chess with a void in her mind. Psyis sending out more of her own little scans tracking the situation below, her breath catching when she saw it. Psyis inhaled slowly kicking herself for missing it again and letting Steven run off.

Psyis deciding she'd let Steven go with just as much explanation, she hadn't honestly expected there to be two voids. Looking out across the plant she could almost see it, the nothing looked like a little yellow dot on top of the farthest water storage tank. At least a half mile of the tops of tanks and filters separating her from it. Psyis slowly stood, watching that yellow dot grow just a bit as well mimicking her. It was watching her copying her movements, mirroring her locations. Playing two moves ahead again.

This time she had it in her sights. Tensing her legs a bit she prepared to strike, nearly releasing her gathered power to charge when that yellow just... vanished.

Psyis stumbling forwards for a few steps before she reached down towards the device she'd pocketed on her suit, quickly deciding that Steven's advice was right. While for the wrong reason at the time, now it was definitely the right move now. If it had stayed topside, they could have both handled at least one of the voids, now both of them were down below and might corner Steven in the thick clouds of fear toxin.

Psyis hoping Dark Night arrived before Steven got too banged up, just slow enough that his Squire would learn a lesson. Let alone jumping in ahead of everyone and ruining the plan, he'd left before she could even ask for one of those fancy air filtration mouthpieces. Now she was left uselessly topside while that thing seemed like it could be careless about the toxin.