Someone to Watch Over Me

[Spectre]

Leaving the motel she and Veronica had checked into, 'Sylvia' pulled some sporty shades over her eyes to block out the last blaze of sunset over the coast. It was unforgiving, the light. Illuminating things that would rather remain hidden. Stinging the eyes of those who would rather find a nice spot in the shade.

Shaking out her silky blond hair, she scampered down the cement stairs, the skirts of her sundress swishing around her legs. After walking to the bus stop, she waiting for almost twenty minutes before catching a ride headed toward the city.

As the hulking beast rambled on, she watched the scene change from beach front, to suburbs, to inner city. That was her destination. The driver gave her a curious glance when she started to leave, as if to say 'You sure, lady?', but he didn't really care. He just wanted to be done with his route, and go home to his frozen tv dinner and whatever was on ESPN tonight.

Walking passed a rather loud version of a Tattoo shop, one that was blazing something that sounded suspiciously like Mexican...polka, she stopped and perused the spray-painted wall of the building, running her fingers across particular symbol. One that had grown in frequency as the bus had gotten closer to this part of the city. A rabid dog, foaming at the mouth with a spiked collar. Whoever the symbol belonged to, this was their turf.. for certain.

"Hey.. you looking for something in particular, lady?", two guys from inside the shop were already coming out to investigate. She definitely did not look like the usual neighborhood chica. It was like on Sesame Street as a kid, 'One of these things doesn't belong here...'

"Yes, please. I am Sylvia Argentum, new to the neighborhood, you could say. I was wondering if you could tell me who paints these signs? My Dad was shot by a guy who had this tattooed on him and I am trying to track him down. I just want to know why? It's part of my twelve step program.. Forgiveness."

It was not much later that the courteous gentlemen offered the girl their assistance. They invited her inside the shop, telling her to see the guy in the back and no sooner had she followed their direction, then she was cracked over the back of the head and all went blissfully dark.

[Void]

It had been months now, since he'd started out down the west coast. The plan was to blaze a trail from the northern states to the south, stirring up mutant activism and bringing together militant cells wherever there was enough anger to push mutants to violence. So far, it had been a mixed bag of success. Up north, thinking had a tendency to be a little too progressive. Humans and mutants were living, if not in harmony, then at least in some state of equilibrium. It was sickening. Void had better hopes for California.

Already aflame with gang warfare, it wouldn't take much to gather up support for the Brotherhood amongst the impoverished neighborhoods of Los Santos. The sun was finally down and it was time to go out, to scope out the streets and find some potential recruits...

[Spectre]

The first thing her mind wrapped around when she opened her eyes was that her head hurt like hell. Not just a random pain in the ass headache like she got when she'd been using her abilities too frequently, this was like someone had cracked her skull. They very well may have.

The next sensation was her stomach, it felt as if she'd been thrown, none too gently over a shoulder and then they'd gone for a run together. She sworn she could almost feel the imprint of shoulder bone embedded in her abdomen.

Wherever she was now, it was dark and she was bound. Disappearing wouldn't do her any good, as she was still trussed up. Besides, the point of this game had been to get caught. There were voices, and as long as they kept talking, she would keep listening. learning as much about the South Side Locos as she could, all the easier to take them down later and repay them for the headache.

[Void]

The trouble with gangs was that they were short-sighted. Their days were spent embroiled in small-scale turf wars, fighting over run-down scraps of land that weren't worth the price of the bullets fired on their account. Still, in every great war force there was a need for those soldiers who could be counted on for mindless obedience, to whom the ultimate goal wasn't quite so important as the moment, the immediate present and the battle.

Typically it would have taken a while for someone new to the scene to earn the respect of the locals. Lacking patience yet possessing an undeniable gift to make a lasting first impression, Void walked through the back wall of a bar into what was supposed to be a secret poker game being conducted by high-ranking members of two Los Santos gangs. Some trigger happy idiot squeezed off two shots but the bullets sailed right through Void and thudded into the wall he'd emerged from.

This was always how it started. For some reason, people took the fact that he wasn't bleeding as a sign that they should keep shooting until he finally did collapse or they found themselves unconscious. Someone, with a little more presence of mind, charged towards him with a chair swinging for the head – but only succeeded in crashing into a wall, pushed on by his own wild momentum. Everyone else was a flurry of panicked movement save for Void, who walked calmly through people and furniture alike, towards a safe squatting in the corner of the room. It wasn't the contents of the lockbox that interested him, but rather the man who was taking cover behind it: Cezar Izquierdo, ring-leader and coward.

[Spectre]

The whole thing had been a great plan, right up until the time the clods all started speaking Spanish. Spectre did not hablas Espanol, not at all. As she sat there, bound and gagged, she tried to pick some names out from the rapid fire speech of the men guarding her, the little blond captive.

It was beginning to seem like a wasted effort, her attempt at getting into their 'inside' as quickly as possible. She couldn't even say what they had planned for her, though she had a few guesses. Most of them lewd and violent and ending with a bullet between her green eyes.

Of course, before that eventuality, she would have seized hold of a mind or two and freed herself, leaving them behind before they could wonder what had happened, but happily, it wasn't necessary.

A sudden commotion from a few rooms away claimed her attention, the sound of gun shots, screams and curses. Most of those she had no trouble translating..

"He's a fuckin' ghost man!"

"No shit. They just keep going right through him!"

"Son of a bitch is made of air!"

What did it mean? It meant.. that someone was here. Someone she hadn't counted on, but was nonetheless thrilled to find. Despite her gagged state, she smiled as best she could. Her head tilted toward the direction of the door, her mind breaking through the physical, reaching out..

Hello, Void. You always did make a hell of an entrance..

[Void]

Izquierdo had a 9mm semi-automatic clutched in his sweaty palms. As Void's shadow fell over him, he whipped the gun into the air and with a surprisingly steady aim targeted the stranger's head.

“You get the fuck away from me!” he snarled. Void simply smiled and covered the barrel of the gun with one hand. When Cezar pulled the trigger, the bullet exploded through his palm, its upwards trajectory taking it through the mutant's chest and lungs before it burst out of his back. Or at least, it might have done, had he not appeared as insubstantial as mist on a cold night.

When the shot didn't have the desired effect, Izquierdo panicked and sprung to his feet, but as he tried to make to run through the stranger, Void became substantial again and caught Izquierdo by the collar, hurling him across the room.

That voice in his head... Spectre was somewhere nearby; he'd heard her as if she'd whispered in his ear. Now it was just a matter of combing the place until he found where she was. It didn't occur to him to ponder perhaps the more important question why she was there.

[Spectre]

By her calculation, there were two of them left in the room with her. Both of them were about ready to wet themselves. Some of their best guys were running out of there like Jason Voorhees was after them with a cleaver, and they were as vulnerable as skinny dippers fresh from a lake. It was all rather amusing. She could feel their panic, their minds were not staying focused on any solid plans for defense, or attack. As far as they cared, she could just stay in her corner and get killed by whatever madman was loose in the building, they just wanted to get out.

Open the door.. She whispered to the mind of one, while holding the others mind calm and still, comforted...

Say.. 'We're in here.' and then step away from the door.

Her puppet plaything did as he was told, leaving the door wide open.

[Void]

Amongst all the chaos, Cezar Izquierdo had managed to get himself shot. Whoever was supposed to take control in his place had evidently fled the scene, or was to be counted amongst the three others who lay unconscious on the backroom floor. Looking down at the 9mm which had flown from Izquierdo's hand, Void shook his head faintly. Guns... useless.

“We're in here.”

A distant voice, and yet it was there nonetheless. For a moment Void thought it was Spectre brushing against his thoughts once again, but no. He followed the sound to a darkened doorway, where two guards stood paralyzed. Behind them, bound and gagged, was a familiar figure. Without a pause, Void strode through the catatonic guards.

Of all the bars in all the towns in all of the states, she was here. It was not in his nature to believe in luck or fate, but it was rather convenient to find her all tied up and waiting like some particularly inviting birthday surprise.

The guards continued to stand and do nothing as Void silently removed first the gag and then the bindings which locked Spectre's limbs in place.

[Spectre]

The first solid words out of her parched lips were said with no small amount of amusement. "A birthday present, am I?"

She smirked, obviously feeling no remorse whatsoever about poking around in this one's mind. Actually, in the past she had no end of fun doing that very thing. Her lips twisted into a grin.

As soon as she was untied, she slid her hands into his, accepting the help up, gratefully. Her legs had been starting to cramp from being locked in the same position, for who knew how long. Once she was to her feet, she remained right as she was for a moment, pressed up against a very substantial Void.

"What shall we do with them..?", she nodded toward the still stupefied guards. She'd prefer deal with them sooner, rather than later. They could continue their happy reunion soon enough..

[Void]

Of the two of them, Spectre's mutation was the most dangerous. Void, he could survive just about anything by passing through it, or allowing it to pass through him – but she could turn a mans mind inside out, twist it in upon itself and make a prison of it. She could have trapped him inside his own thoughts if she'd wanted to, left him catatonic in psychosis for the rest of his life.

Fortunately, they were on the same side – something which could not be said for the guards.

“Lock them up and throw away the key.”

[Spectre]

She nodded. "Serves them right."

Her head was still spinning from the knock to her skull earlier. There was probably a massive bump back there, but she wasn't brave enough to find out right now. Headaches were not Spectre's friend.. Any prolonged use of her abilities left her with one, and considering that she already had one at the start of the night.. She was not going to be in top form. It was really lucky for her that had Void put in an appearance..

Walking up to her two silent play things, she grumbled on about her head for another minute, while deciding what tedious purgatory she could leave them in, and decided that she would leave them as they were. Wherever they were, whatever mental hospital or prison they wound up in, nothing would shake them from their stupor, save for the intervention of another telepathic mutant, or the latest in brain wave retrieval from their buddies at the Jericho facility.. Until then, they would suffer under the delusion that they were still guarding the bound woman in this room, waiting to hear from their gang buddies down the hall who would never come. Time would be an unending paradox for them, until they died.

"Ok, we're done here. Bye-bye boys...". she smiled and tucked her arm into Void's, just in case they needed to phase out through any walls to avoid being shot, of course...