Currently Listening To: Britney Spears - Inside Out

"Phase one of plan is complete. The machine is fully functional."

"Best news I've had all week."

"It's only going to get better, Syndrome. I guarantee it."

Mirage had had better mornings. Less guilt-ridden ones for sure. Less disappointing ones, most definitely.

Buddy had vanished while she'd been asleep without so much as a goodbye. While Mirage had come to expect this kind of behavior from him, it hadn't made her feel any better. The shower had sucked, and her coffee hadn't tasted all that great. Regardless, she'd gone to work just the same as always, passing by her co-workers in the hall with a pleasant smile and wave. They didn't need to know about it and she wasn't about to give them any hints. Mirage paused outside of the door to the office she shared with him, taking a breath. Just forget it.

"Good...morning?" Mirage opened the door, instantly stopped by what she saw. There was no Syndrome to be found, but several NSA officials were scattered around the office in his place. Her eyebrows furrowed as Rick Dickers turned away from her computer screen with a look that could only be described as thoroughly miffed. Mr. Incredible was among them as well, shaking his head.

"Syndrome has been missing for the past four hours. We've been attempting to track him via the chip in his arm, but someone or something has been jamming the scanners. Do you know anything about this?" He asked Mirage with a dead serious expression. She cursed at herself internally for being too late to discover what he'd been up to. She did nothing but shake her head negatively. Mirage moved quickly over towards her desk, shooing the officials away from it and pulling up Syndrome's last known coordinates; several blocks from the NSA office. From there the information became fuzzy and disjointed, and as she attempted to get a reading now, found that Dickers had told the truth. Syndrome was gone.

"Just blow him up already." Mr. Incredible spoke. Mirage peered at the button she held in her possession, their last resort if he'd decided to do anything crazy. Unfortunately for Mr. Incredible, he seemed to be the only person in the room besides Dickers who agreed with the sentiment. Syndrome had been on his best behavior since he'd arrived there, been perfectly pleasant, and given nobody any reason to think ill of him. Even Violet, who had just entered the room, nodded plaintively.

"It could just be faulty equipment, Dad. We shouldn't jump the gun on someone who doesn't deserve it."

"Oh, he deserves it alright." The strong man muttered.

"And besides. He's right there." Violet sighed, clicking on the large screen television. The entire room turned their attention towards the screen, eyes focused upon the happenings as the news crew filmed it. Syndrome was in the middle of a downtown street, and Viral stood not far off. They appeared to be having some kind of conversation, but the microphones weren't picking it up. All they could see was Syndrome taking several steps backwards as the street suddenly flooded with mechanical spiders, then taking to the sky as they launched themselves at him. Just like that the area had gone into a panic and the battle royal had begun.

"There's no way he can take that guy by himself. I'll be back." Violet muttered, sprinting out the door. Mr. Incredible opened his mouth to call her back, but instead turned his attention back to the screen with a suspicious glare. Something wasn't right about this. He ran out the door as well, leaving Mirage and the NSA officials to watch the game play out. Syndrome's only advantage was flight but even that didn't seem to be doing him much good because Viral was making himself incredibly difficult to get a good shot on without getting in his spiders' grabbing range. Thankfully most of Syndrome's flying practice had paid off, and a few good maneuvers had him within zero-point range. Viral had run for it, narrowly avoiding several blasts with a gleeful laugh. Wait a minute. Gleeful? Mirage leaned in close, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Then it began to make sense.

"We need to get down there. Now!" Mirage yelled, leaping out of her chair and sprinting after the long-gone supers, completely ignorant to the cup of coffee that had spilled all over the floor. The NSA crew looked confused for a moment, but followed their orders. Mirage had barely been able to pick up her phone as she raced towards downtown; it was Rick.

"What's going on, Mirage."

"I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner," She apologized quickly, taking a hard right into the exit ramp. "The jig's up, it's a staged fight."

"Staged? What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Syndrome's contract with us is terminated."

"Bob was right..."

"We'll argue over who the correct one was after a bomb squad is called down here. We need to set up a perimeter and evacuate the civilians ASAP."

"And the bomb?"

"Don't bother, it's not going to work." Mirage hung up the phone angrily, screeching to a stop as the news-covered fight finally came into sight. She stepped out of the car to get a better look, eyes falling upon Violet who was a block ahead of her and running towards the scene. Mirage attempted to call her, but she was already well out of hearing range with all the extra noise. Mirage gulped nervously, starting on her way there as well. Syndrome loved big entrances and even bigger exits, and all she could do was pray that this one wasn't nearly as bad as she was expecting it to be.

Meanwhile, Violet had finally arrived at the scene only to hit the ground as Syndrome flew low over her head at a speed she couldn't even determine. He was headed straight towards viral who narrowly avoided Syndrome's well-aimed shots time and time again. The crazed spider-man cackled manically, causing Violet to pause as she scrambled back to her feet.

"I'd always imagined you'd be a good fight, but never in my life had I expected this! Absolutely impressive, hah!" Syndrome took the compliment well, smirking to himself as his shots aimed closer and closer to the villain. A slip-up on Viral's part gave Syndrome the perfect opportunity which he took, exploding the area underneath Viral's feet. The older man went flying and Syndrome banked a hard left, catching the other villain up in his zero-point energy and slamming him unceremoniously into the ground. Before Viral could fight his way back to his feet Syndrome was upon him, one hand around his neck and looking entirely too malicious. The smile upon his face was almost.. frightening.

"So now that you've done what I wanted, give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you and get your ass off my payroll."

"You'd kill the man responsible for your rescue?" Viral raised an eyebrow.

"Not yet." Syndrome smirked. A charge lit up on the glove that didn't hold Viral down, and for a moment the spider keeper thought he might be sweating.

"Syndrome!" Violet's voice broke the moment apart, distracting Syndrome's attention from his prey. Those few seconds had been all Viral had needed to make his escape. Violet gasped as Syndrome had been blown several feet back before he could blink. He landed hard into the side of a parked car, head hitting the metal hard enough to put stars in his eyes. The raven-haired girl had been just about to run over towards him, but the reappearance of Viral's spiders had stopped her dead. Instead of attacking her however, they surrounded Syndrome. Viral took several steps towards him, smiling pleasantly.

"You started this little nightmare, Syndrome, and I intend to be here long enough to finish it. We've still got a very long way to go."

At that moment, Rick had turned his attention towards the tracking screen of Mirage's computer; Syndrome had appeared again and while it hadn't been needed, his location was again pinpointed. His eyes fell on the button that would blow the man to pieces, contemplating its use. A good number of people were within the blast radius of the object, including Mirage. Without proper warning, he wasn't sure if Violet would put up a shield in time. The phone ringing at his side distracted the decision temporarily until he heard the voice on the other end. Mirage's voice was cracked, but her orders were clear.

"Hit it."

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, Buddy.