Participants:
Also Featuring:
| Scene Title | Singularity/Plurality |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | When one man is unwilling to see a plan through, his counterpart through a mirror darkly is willing to make the sacrifice. |
| Date | February 28, 2011 |
Another box is pushed up onto the boat. It is pushed across the bow with a soft scraping sound, safely nestled on the tugboat.
Kleenex, chicken soup, as well as the usual supplies of toilet paper and all the other essentials. It's a routine run, one that Brian has helped out with before. One that Lynette has helped out with before. It's nothing new. Same song different verse. Speaking of songs..
"If you are who you say you are, have no fear, cause the camera's here…"
The lyrics may be wrong. They may be right. It's a catchy song, and one of the Brian present has it gliding off his lips as he moves through the darkness. It is well past curfew. The moon gently illuminating the tugboat attached to the single wooden plank leading away from the beach. Another box is dropped off in the small boat. The two Brian are dressed similarly. One in all black, with a flak jacket. He likes to give the appearance they are ready for combat, but they have done this so many times…
The other Brian has a heavy jacket, beanie pulled low. The two are moving quickly from the back of the truck on the trashy beach to the boat at the end of the makeshift dock. The cold causes haste, the two moving quickly to unload the truck fully.
Lynette is extra bundled against the cold. Nothing really gets a California girl ready for this kind of weather. But she's still working! And not complaining about the cold, either, which is something of a feet. She does stick to the lighter hauls, though, letting the Brians be manly and take the heavy ones. She, in contrast, does not look ready for combat, but she's a lover, not a fighter.
"If that gets stuck in my head, I'm going to give all of you a swift kick in the butt, as a warning," she says, but with a crooked smile that gives away that she isn't entirely serious.
Unfortunately Brian doesn't know much of the song. So a lot of it gets repeated. Over and over. "If you are who you say you are, then have no feaar~" Setting down another box, the Brian with the kevlar straightens up in the boat. Leaning back against the wheelhouse he goes to grab something in his pocket. A chocolate bar. Pulling it up, the wrapper is pulled down as he starts to eat it.
Brian over by the truck smirks at Lynette as one of the last boxes is grabbed. "You're outnumbered, sugar." Winters murmurs as he unloads the last box of essential items, making his way back to the boat.
"I've always liked a challenge," Lynette replies as she carts a box over to slide into the boat. Blankets, very essential. She even eyes the box a bit like she might just snag one for herself right now, but self control wins out and she jogs herself back over to the truck.
The crisp, cold air is refreshing, even if a damp chill today. There's little sign of anything happening in the air, a dark sky clear enough for there to be stars, were the light pollution in this area of the city not as bad. Under the yellow glow of one of the street lamps, wind-blown snow swept off of rooftops glitters like fairy-dust, powdery and thin. By the truck, Lynette can feel the crystals of it sting her cheek, feel the cold air practically bite through her.
It will be March, soon. It will probably be March before they make it back to Pollepel tonight and the weather is still struggling to try and make an impression like spring should. At the boat, both of the collective of Brian can clearly see Lynette under the yellow glow of the lamplight, and after the locks up the truck and makes sure nothing is being left behind, it'll be clear sailing out of the harbor and up the river towards the island.
The crackle of electricity over the lamp post has Brian's attention, a sputter-pop that has the bulb blowing out and casts the pier into darkness. By the back of the truck, Lynette can feel the electrical tingle in the air the way an atmokinetic can feel a manipulation of the weather. It sinks beneath her skin, carries like a current behind her eyes, and in the split seconds it takes her brain to receive those impulses, the dark night explodes into thunder and lightning.
The noise is a riotous one, a deafening clap of thunder like the kind Brian recalls Helena Dean being able to will up years ago, back before she dropped out of the terrorist rag. Lightning in a sphere bursts into being between Brian and Lynette, crackling tendrils of electricity dancing in the air and exploding outward from a central point where two black-clad figures in heavy body armor and visored helmets drop a foot, boots clapping down onto the ground, hydraulics whining.
The design is FRONTLINE, but heavier, newer, a more refined design of some sort. Both of them move quickly back to back, one marked with an 00-04 on his chestplate training a huge handgun on the direction of one of the Brian, the other holding out gauntleted hands towards Lynette. The trick of this is, and the worst part of it all, they're the ones at the disadvantage. It's why the element of surprise is so critical.
By the time Brian's Company training has reflexively kicked in and guns are being drawn, a new flash of lightning joins the old already dissipating in the air. Lynette can't feel this electricity, not at first and not in the way she felt the other coming. It's a crimson bolt, blood red and sparkling on the edges with some sort of popping static. It hits her in the side, launches her into the back of the truck with the force of a baseball bat and sends her buckling onto her knees.
The blonde's blood feels like its boiling in her veins, but it doesn't burn the way electricity does. It burns deep, bone deep. Electricity crackles, splutters, and then fails entirely around Lynette, and that red lightning wielding man evokes all manner of familiar memories to Brian as he lifts his free hand up, red electricity leaping between his fingers as he tries to hone in on one of the Brian.
Memories of a life in the Company.
Memories of Veronica.
Memories of his first case.
Tyler Case.
"That's what all hot wannabe tough girls say." Brian mumbles as he makes his way back onto the small dock towards the boat. The box drops. Turning he grows deathly still at the lamp. Hands going completely quiet at his sides. Brows twitching downward, when the FRONTLINE are fully in sight, Winters starts to spring into action. The Brian on the boat is diving downward. There's a shotgun down there, and handguns aren't going to do anything but ping ping against these guys. If only he had his robot hunting equipment, he might be able to do some actual damage against these guys.
But that red fizzle.
Brian definitely knows what this is. But the handgun taken out on his body on the docks isn't pointed at the Armor wearing attackers. It's pointed up at his chin. Tyler Case. The only man who could make him fear his mortality. After all, being able to just make another one of you takes away the fear of death. But when that ability is threatened…
"Tyler. I saved you." Brian calls out. "I got you out of that hospital. We.. You don't have to do this. Please. Don't do this." He would pull the trigger. But Lynette. He can't just leave her. On the boat, Brian creeps up with shotgun in hand. Fire at that zappy hand!
KABLANG
"I'll take what compliment from that statement I can," Lynette says with a chuckle. But that electricity makes her turn, curious and even welcoming to a degree, as that crackling is as familiar as breathing for the woman. And while she doesn't fear the crack of lightning around them, those figures she does well enough to make up for it. She's frozen in place, eyes wide, long enough for that surprise to well and truly get the better of her.
When Lynette hits the truck and then the ground next to it, the woman does not recover well, but rather curls in on herself, shaking and just trying to breath as that burning sensation sinks in. Tears roll out of the corners of her eyes, less for sorrow and more for sudden and extreme pain. She isn't crying out, though, not giving him the satisfaction, as in her mind the bad guys are always looking for just such a reaction. And as soon as she can move, she slowly reaches a hand up to grab onto the truck to start to pull herself up to her feet.
The Horizon armor worn by the red lightning wielding menace blocks Lynette from the brunt of a shotgun blast, the buckshot shredding silvery scars across the matte black armor as it peels layers of enamel and paint away, jerking that hand away. The timing on the shot couldn't been any better, as an explosion of red lightning rockets up into the sky as the man ina rmor designation 00-00 stumbles away from the force of the blow.
The man he's with, however, moves in towards the altercation. Rushing away from his counterpart, 00-04 charges towards the boat with long, springing strides, then disappears in an explosion of electricity, leaving behind a smoking hole in the ground where he had been standing. An immediate thunderclap accompanies he re-emergence in the air above the tugboat, glowing hot pieces of sheared off concrete and asphalt falling from around his feet as he lands on the deck.
A gunshot erupts and the Brian with the shotgun falls back, struck in the body armor by the high caliber round. Swatting the barrel of the shotgun aside as it fires off another shell, 00-04 steps in and swings his free hand up and drives it against the side of Brian's neck. The impact feels like a crippling maneuver, something designed to drop him to his knees and twist muscles, but it isn't. There's a prick sensation in with the hit, and the feeling of something burning in his veins.
Brian manages to fire the shotgun point blank range, blasting 00-04 back and square over the side of the boat where he disappears in another blast of electricity and a clap of thunder. When he reappears crouched on the side of the pier, a smoking hole of the boat's railing was cut out by his disappearance. Brian's vision swims for a moment, but not from a sedative— he knows sedatives.
He also knows what he's been hit with.
Lynette can feel electricity coursing back thorugh her body again, her temporarily displaced ability starting to come back in tingling pops and sparks in her fingertips. 00-00 turns his back on Brian, staring down Lynette through the copper-tinted visor of his helmet. Red lighting crackles in one black gauntleted hand again, this time however the element of surprise isn't on his side.
"Wh..Fggh."
Slapping against the deck of the boat, Brian twitches before going completely still. His eyes no longer seeing the rest of the boat. Instead they hone in on memories distant past glazing over his gaze. He lays there slumped as distant events rise back into the forefront of his mind.
On the deck, Brian brings his gun down from his chin. It would be so much safer to just shoot himself in the head. Get away from Tyler Case and his stupid ability. But Lynette is here. Damnit Lynette. Winters stares dead ahead at the man in Horizon armor. Another memory dances over his mind. Though this one is not pleasant. The Ruins of Midtown. Peter Petrelli. Brian made the mistake of using his ability, giving Peter the easiest pickings of multiple targets.
Since then Brian has grown. He has learned. He's learned to get creative as well. His handgun comes out and forward blasting at the back of 00-00's helmet. At the same time his hand outstretches, and two naked Brian's slide into existence. Right out of the gate, the two naked replicates are sprinting. Down the plank towards Lynette and the truck. But they employ a strange tactic. While running, Brian reaches out to grab the other him by the shoulder. Absorbing him. Then a Brian pops out on the other side, absorbing the first one. The naked Brian's pop in and out of existence rapidly as the running replication strategy is employed. A crapshoot as to where Brian is going to be, one second he's at that spot, the next, he is simply gone and replicated on a different side and then.. gone. He's on his way to Lynette.
And Lynette stares back at that visor, her hands curling to fists. She's not hiding the fact that she's scared, nor the fact that she's angry, but she's not backing down, either. By the snarl on her face, she's inches away from a growl at this point.
And the moment that electricity pops back into her control, her bright white bolts light up the area, mixing with the red as she pushes a hand out toward Mister 00-00 and lets loose whatever of that power she has in her. While she's got it.
It is possible she's missed the disappearing-reappearing naked Brians, but she's just trying her best to not be a completely helpless female!
Electricity is the bane of Horizon armor from one era to the next, a powerful electrical jolt from Lynette sending 00-00 backwards with jittering limbs and flash-frying circuitry. The hydraulics seize, the fluid metal inside of the soft components of the armor hardens from the electrical charge and refuses to soften up again, turning one of the two Institute FRONTLINE operatives into the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz.
As the Brians blur past in a strange fluidic movement of loping bodies and indiscernable placement, 00-04 hefts up his handgun, taking a pot-shot at the running figures. The gunfire punches into the truck, blowing out one of the windows and missing the Brian entirely. An empty syringe is discarded with the flick of a hand, blue luminous fluid speckling the asphalt. The sight of Refrain has Lynette's heart lurching in her chest, for all the memories associated with the drug.
Struggling to move, 00-00 lifts up one arm to his shoulder, but can't quite reach the emergency release latches to disengage the seized hydraulics. Instead, his fingers curl closed, another crackling blast of red electricity forms in his palm, then crackles out over the edge of his fingers like spilled glitter. A moment later, a corona of vibrant red light shines like an aura around his armor, followed by an upwards arcing bolt leaping into the air and coming down to strike Lynette in the back, throwing her to the ground again. The conduit of energy snaps and pops, then leaps out from her like some sort of chained lightning, hitting one of the approaching Brian through the chest with a serpentine accuracy. The moment that Brian is struck, another Brian is launched out of him by the shock, landing naked on his back on the street. There's a buzz of confusion, swimming dizziness from the Refrain running through his networked consciousness.
Then— singularity.
The chain of red light shatters and sends the Brians scattering back and away from the bolt in different directions, sends Lynette stumbling but not down this time. But then the blonde's heel hooks on something behind herself, and she trips head over heels, crashing down onto the asphalt, even as she feels something trip and fall over her back.
It's paradoxical. Lynette is cold, bare and on her knees on the ground, and she saw someone— blonde— trip and fall over her. In the same moment she recalls tripping backwards and falling over someone who wasn't there before. When she turns her heads to look at the subject of each confusion, Lynette Rowan finds herself staring into her own eyes.
«We need to go,» the figure in the 00-04 armor blurts out, leaping down to where 00-00 is crouched and ineffective in his seized armor. «We need to go now!» While the gun-toting teleporter is moving back towards the man that can only be Tyler Case, Brian finds himself shattered like a plate thrown angrily to the ground.
All of his minds are unlinked, each one independantly experiencing the ravages of Refrain and the one directly injected feeling the worst of it. It's wrong though, it's all wrong because that dose was too big. Brian has touched tbe 'blue fairy' before, he knows what it feels like, and this dizziness, confusion and disorientation spread now across who knows how many disconnected minds is an overdose.
On the boat, Brian is completely paralyzed by the amount of Refrain coursing through his body. His arm starting to twitch as he starts to undergo typical convulsions one would associate with an overdose. Saliva flicking wildly and uncontrollably out of his mouth. The BoatBrian cannot move, trapped in an endless reverie.
On the dock, Brian drops to his knees, gun slapping down plainly on the dock. His eyes starting to glaze over. The amount of refrain injected through his link now ravaging his own brain. His hands raise up to his head as he falls backward, thumping against the dock. A light groan escapes his lips.
The naked Brian lets out a healthy grunt before his back collapses against the wet ground. But there's not much he can do. The amount of blue fairy ravaging his ripped up mind rendering him useless.
Lynette's moment of triumph — as she does love watching those suits lock up — is sadly short lived. The sight of Refrain tends to throw her mood all over the place on a good day and this is far from. Equal parts desire and disgust war in the moment she recognizes that blue glow. And she's staring in that direction, keeping herself from running over to the first drops of her drug of choice she's seen in months. Two months. it's been a long two months.
So that red lightning hits her like a ton of bricks, and she does let out a cry this time as she's thrown to the ground and, more importantly, as her ability leaves her again. But as she also stumbles back, there's a moment of confusion that stretches out as she feels warmth in her winter clothes and cold against the asphalt, as she looks over at herself. As she feels herself thinking in stereo.
And it's giving her a headache.
She unbuttons her coat, leaving one her in a sweater and scarf as she hands her naked self her coat and gloves. Not they'll both be sort of cold. But maybe neither will freeze. Because lord knows she has no idea how to get there to be just one. It's the more clothed version that ends up rushing over to NakedBrian, as much as she can 'rush' after being tossed around and fried up and so forth. But she ends up kneeling next to him, a string of curses falling out of her for that glazed look. But the other Lynette joins her, and they both lift him off the ground — carefully! — and get him over to the boat. And she does pull out one of those blankets to cover him up with. "I swear to god if you die on me before we fix this, I will give you the most embarrassing burial I can think of."
Humor is a fairly decent defense mechanism, and it's what she employs as she goes to grab the Brian on the dock to carry him into the boat as well. It is going to be a long ride home.
Retreating back towards his partner, Eldridge in his 00-04 armor loops an arm around his seized companion's shoulders, gun sweeping back and forth between the Brian and Lynettes. Confusion paints across his face behind his visor, eyes wide at the display of Tyler's power much more evident here than in the other two attacks. «We're done, I don't care what's left to do. We're out of here!» Unable to hear communication shouted behind a muffled, silenced helmet from 00-00, Eldridge drags his boss back, then begins to spark and crackle with electricity again as a beep from his wrist-mounted theromstat chimes the first alert for external temperature.
Eldridge's body is surrounded by a crackling sphere of electricity, and in a flash of lightning and clap of thunder, he and 00-00 are transported away with a swirl of electrical energy spiraling in their wake at the center of a glowing hot bowl depression in the asphalt. Smoke wafts up from the crater left behind by their departure, twists in the cold air, and reaches up into the starless night sky.
The idiling noise of thre truck's engine and the gasping, breathless noises of each Brian trapped in a flashback of Refrain overdose is all that can keep her company, aside from herself.
Attackers gone but their mark made, Lynette Rowan and Brian Winters have just become the next victims in a line of individuals manipulated in order to subtly steer the course of history.
For tonight, though, they can worry more about surviving to daybreak in their conditions.
Sirens are coming.