Chapter XIII
"So you think that you could just dump every bit of telepathic energy into my brain an save me... really?" Mind-freak said. He got up from the floor of the cell and walked to the three girls. He held out his hands to help them up. Celeste and Mindie took his hands and Phoebe took Celete's hand. The sisters walked around the cell looking for exits.
"How did we end up in here? We were focusing on the pleasure center of his... er your mind." Celeste said.
"Well my dear that is because you are in his newly re-designed pleasure center. As you can see we have an iron maiden to the right, and meat hooks to the left, and God only knows what else is in here. I do hope you have another plan. So far I haven't been able to break my restraints." Mind-freak said. He shook the shackle around his ankle. "And it is resistant to my telepathy. So i would guess that your telepathy will fail as well."
"Maybe not, we have a friend on the outside who is also telepath, and a ghost, he specializes in possession." Phoebe said. "Maybe we can get a message out to him, we have a safe word, all we would need to do is get this dougebag to say it. After that the cavalry should rush in to save us." Phoebe turned and looked around for signs of escape or ways to send for help. "Do you have any idea how we could get said message out?"
Mind-freak pinched the bridge of his nose and thought. "Yes I do. You ladies have a telepathic hive mind. You each have your own desires, but when together you could over-rule a sister with a two to one decision. If we could possibly force him into your hive mentality then you could gain enough control of my body to get your message out."
"And what part would you play in this scheme?" the Cuckoos said in unison.
"My dear young ladies I will be the distraction you will need to pull this plan off." Mind-freak said. He turned toward the darkness and walked into it. His body starting to morph into a young preteen girl, enveloped in flame.
Pixie sat on the couch in the safe house. She flipped through channels, until she found that there was nothing on the 214 channels that she wanted to watch. She went out to the balcony and watched Bling!, who was passing the time with target practice. Pixie walked outside and sat at the table. "You want a moving target to practice with?"
"Sure if you think you can make em. Won't it screw with the security charms you have up?" Bling! said, firing a shard of crystal at through the wood of the sparing target.
"Nah it shouldn't, so long as the targets don't cross the perimeter." Megan said. She pulled out a small journal from the inside of her coat, and looked through it for a spell to make illusions. "Here we are." Megan fluttered her wings and gathered up the dust that fell on the ground. She tossed it into the air and chanted the spell "Visus Daemn Alatus".
At first Bling! Figured the spell would be another of Megan's duds but then the air started to shimmer. The shimmers were taking on shapes of demonic warriors or winged gargoyles. They moved around in the air with a quick agility that reminded Bling! of Mr. Wagner. They didn't attack though.
"Cool… Nothing blew up, all ten toes and fingers, no one ended up in Limbo. So far no side effects. Try it out!" Megan said.
Bling! closed her eyes and waited. She heard Megan shifting back and forth by the waiting to watch. "Girl you might want to go inside and watch from behind the bullet proof glass… don't you think?"
"Oh… Ok!"
Bling! started to concentrate again. Then with all the precision Mr. LeBou could teach her added to natural talent she let fly the first shard of crystalline death. She opened her eyes in time to see her target evade the crystal. Bling! sent five more out in a sweeping arc. All connected this time, the crystals dissolved on impact and the demons fade out.
"Pixie… What happens if one of those things touches me?" Bling! said over her shoulder. She hadn't been expecting to get her answer so soon but she it came in the form of her leather jacket being dissolved. One of the gargoyles had tried to grab her from above. "Sonova…."
"Look at it this way like you are in the Danger Room on extreme." Pixie said. She didn't look worried but she was. And she was also looking for a counter spell.
Caleb hadn't really felt bad pain in a long time. Not many thing could hurt him. And when it damage him, well he had a very high threshold for pain. Or so he thought until he came up against this man. He just wouldn't let up. Caleb could feel his skin constantly being peeled back. The only thing keeping him sane was knowing that Alex wasn't here, trying to fight this monster. Caleb knew he couldn't completely let go. As much as he wanted to go full demon, not just the wings and fire, but lose his inhibitions, and control and take down this bastard. The inner demon couldn't stand that Mind-freak or Scarecrow thought he was stronger than he was. But Caleb couldn't let go, not in such close quarters with Vic and Wail and the Cuckoos bodies, people who could stand that kind of heat. So he would just have to take it like he was and hope everybody else was fairing just as well.
Wail was being forced upwards into the ceiling. It hurt like hell, add to that the constant emotional and chemical changes in his body from Mind-freaks pheromones.
Anole felt like his blood was on fire, and his body was bent at such an odd angle it felt like he might break in two. Vic almost wished he was back in Limbo. But so far no one had died. They just need the Cuckoos to hurry and the other dude in control of this body.
Laura knew she could handle this. It was nothing compared to the things she had endured at Facility. But she was worried about what the team could endure. She didn't know where Ghost was but he wasn't showing himself to the enemy so they had one trick up their sleeve still, as Logan would say.
Wire couldn't move damn inch. Worse, Scarecrow was making sure she couldn't use any of her wires. He couldn't force her back to skin form but she could attack or protect her friends either. He had left the Cuckoos alone for now at least.
Ghost couldn't stand it anymore; he was tired of sitting back in stealth and watching this ass torture his friends. They needed help, now. He wasn't using telepathy for some reason. He knew the monster could use it at any time to send one of the others off the deep end. But he hadn't.
Scarecrow had been having fun but now it was getting boring. Nobody was screaming in pain. He needed to up his game. Kids had gotten tough since his last days out in the real world. Sure that last one he killed was tough but, he just hadn't been expecting a high level pyrokinetic. And now he couldn't even use his telepathy cause of that little bitch, Mind-freak. Well he could make start fires and had extremely flammable pheromones. Scarecrow was about to set the green boy on fire when he saw her. The little pyrokinetic girl. She was right standing in front of him, body ablaze, waving and smiling, with one of her front teeth missing. "I don't believe in ghosts" he said. "You can't be real… Mind-freak what are planning. Ghost …"
There it was as clear as day, twice. Ghost had heard his name. Then Mind-freak fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. "Um…. Is that supposed to happen?" Ghost asked.
"I don't think so…" Wire said. She was walking away from her restraining spot on the wall. Wail had fallen to floor and landed gracefully on both feet. Caleb fell from his wall to a knee, and rested, waiting for his wounds to heal. Anole was the only one who didn't get up. He was still in the same bent position, unconscious.
"Ghost get in there and help them, we need to get the Cuckoos and Anole back to the jet now, before he wakes back up!" Wire said.
Ghost jumped into the body and into the mind of their torturer. What he landed in was not the prettiest of sights. He thought it had been bad enough seeing his friends tortured by this madman in the real world, which had nothing on what he was doing to the Cuckoos, and Mind-freak. Scarecrow had run small hooks through their skin. It was like a Pinhead movie.
"Oh goodie a new friend. One of yours right girls?" he drawled.
Ghost immediately whipped out with a telepathic wave, throwing Scarecrow back, into the darkness. Ghost forced all of his energy, and sapped some from the Cuckoos, into building bubble over them. "Now let's get you down." Ghost said. Ghost moved to the girls first phasing them from their hooks, then to Mind-freak. Ghost tried to phase the hooks through Mind-freak's skin but for some reason it wasn't working.
"That's not going to work, you need to get Tuesday. She is somewhere in here." Mind-freak said, as if out of breath.
"How do we find her?" Ghost.
"She is in the darkness, go. If you find him, don't fight, run." Mind-freak said.
Ghost and the Cuckoos ran out of the bubble and into the darkness, in search of a mystery woman, who was supposed to help them win this fight with Scarecrow. Someone, who as far as Ghost was concerned was just as if not more dangerous than the Phoenix.
They had been running for what seemed like days but was probably only minutes. They couldn't even see the light from the torture chamber anymore, they were just blindly running now. That is until the giant floating head appeared out of nowhere.
"You know it would be much easier to find you if you weren't constantly moving." Tuesday said clearly annoyed with the four X-Men.
"I could say the same to you. We should trying get rid of that monster, but instead we have been looking for you!" Ghost said.
"Mind your tongue boy; now I have a plan to put Mind-freak back in control, I can't tell you, he might hear, so you will just have go with it." Tuesday said.
"So long as no one dies…" Ghost said, looking to the Cuckoos for support. They nodded in agreement, and turned back toward the light.
Bling! had enlisted the help of the with long range abilities. Once she had gotten done to the last target, it multiplied, by 40, so now the alarm was going off, and of course it pissed off Miss Mahn.
Pixie finally found the counter spell in her book and ran outside. She ducked under the slashing claws of a gargoyle and hopped over the low blow of a demonic sword. Finally finding a clearing, she gathered her pixie dust and threw it into the air. "Monstra cessare et desistere!" she chanted. Little by little the pink dusty illusions faded out of existence.
"Thank You! Now Pixie and Bling! get to clean up this mess, and explain to Warren why his penthouse is missing half of its wall." Karma said staring through a hole out onto the balcony.
Mind-freak was hold Scarecrow down. He had gotten down from the hooks, and now the confrontation had devolved into knock down drag out fight. Or that's what he wanted Scarecrow to think. The Cuckoos were only inches away from Scarecrow, they finally knew Tuesdays plan, and thought that it might work. It still hinged on them forcing him into their hive mind but nothing in life was easy.
All three grasped Scarecrow's head and began forcing him into their hive. Tuesday enveloped the four in her shadows bring them closer, and moving toward the cell door. But before she could get to it she and the Cuckoos stripped of their energies.
Scarecrow had absorbed the four into himself. He felt so much stronger, like he could take on the very world in one night and win. He moved toward Mind-freak, noticing how the scenery now changed to his nature without him even trying. It was like he exuded his personality outward onto the rest of the world.
"Don't you get it? You've lost, you're beat, your body is mine. And there isn't a damn thing you can do about it!" Scarecrow said. He grabbed Mind-freak by the throat and lifted from the floor, choking him.
"Why is it everyone always forgets me?" Ghost said. He charged Scarecrow and tackled him to the ground.
"You could have waited your turn, or said please." Scarecrow said. He flipped his weight and put Ghost under him. He started to hit Ghost in the face repeatedly. "But if you must die first then I will be more than happy to accommodate you." Scarecrow said.
"I don't know if you know this but I am a ghost, an actual body possessing, soul snatching ghost! And you really pissed me off!" Ghost said. He let a burst of telepathic energy loose, blowing Scarecrow up and away from him.
"Don't do what I think you're going to do." Mind-freak shouted. He watched as Ghosted straight up and merged into Scarecrow.
Ghost could feel his psyche blending with the madman's, he felt the other's desires, and needs. He force himself and Scarecrow toward the cell doors.
"Get em open NOW!" Ghost screamed.
Mind-freak ran and opened the doors waiting for his chance to grab the ghost and let Scarecrow fly back into his cell. He waited until they just past him then grabbed the white part of the energy ball the two had become.
"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Scarecrow screamed as he flew back into the cell. The doors slammed shut behind him. He heard the locks close in their housings. "YOU BITCH! I WILL GET OUT! AND I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU!"
X was flying the jet back to the mansion when the Cuckoos and Mind-freak got up. "Restrain him now!" X said.
"No need he is in control of his body, Ghost is staying in his mind to help fortifying the barriers to keep that monster in side. How long much longer?" Celeste asked.
"We will be home about 30 minutes." Demon said.