"Where the hell have you been?" Helga asked shortly once they found Carlson.
"They're already here." Carlson stated quickly before anymore questions could be asked. "Bruce just tried to make me leave before the bloodbath."
Helga cussed under her breath. She'd hoped that they'd have a little more time to get familiar with their surroundings and possibly find out just what the hell was going on. "We need to find Phoebe and the boys."
"Red, have you been crying?" Carlson asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
"Now isn't the time, Carlson." Eden stated shortly.
Unlike Keith, Carlson quit before things escalated beyond the point of no return. And Eden was right. Now was definitely not the time.
Helga gently jabbed Eden's shoulder to get her attention, nodding in the direction she wanted her to look. Carlson followed in suit and they all froze. Eden pressed one of the devices that Brainy had given to them. It would send an untraceable signal to the others, vibrating like a cellphone, the signal that it was time.
"We need to go and get dressed." Eden whispered.
"Most definitely." Helga agreed.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Thank you so much for coming tonight!" Rhonda mused, her arm linked around Harold's, who was doing his best to act natural and charming, but it wasn't as easy as his wife made it look. There were so many people to remember and so many names he didn't know. It was all mind boggling, really.
"I'm afraid I have to offer my belated wishes to the happy couple." The man said, his voice smooth as butter. "I couldn't be there for your wedding, I'm afraid."
"Oh that's alright." Rhonda insisted. "Are you a friend of my father's?"
He smirked and shook his head. "My sweet Rhonda, I'm a bit insulted that you don't recognize me. And after all of that time we've spent together."
His tone made Harold uneasy and Rhonda's smile faltered. "I'm so sorry, I'm normally great with names and faces, but yours has escaped me."
The man laughed.
It made Harold's blood run cold. Rhonda opened her mouth to speak again, but Harold's abruptly firm grip stopped her.
"You didn't honestly think I was gone for good, Rhonda?" He snickered.
Horror and realization flooded Rhonda's features. "Curly?" She could see it now. How couldn't see have seen it before?
"It's Grayson now." With a sickening smile he pulled a gun from his jacket and fixed it on Harold's forehead. Guests started gasping, gaping, and reaching for their phones to call the police. "Now, Rhonda, you're going to come with me."
"Over my dead body!" Harold declared, gently pushing his wife behind him and leering at the smaller man.
Curly smiled and cocked the pistol. "That can be arranged."
"No!" Rhonda declared, jumping between them. "No, no, I'll go with you, just don't hurt Harold!"
He yanked Rhonda into his arms and rested the barrel of the gun against her temple. "I knew you'd see reason.
Outside, red and blue lights flashed while sirens sang. Rhonda smiled. "You're going to prison."
His laugh sent ice down her spine. "Oh my dear sweet Rhonda." He caressed her cheek. "You don't really think I'm that stupid, do you? You're a part of the spoils, yes, but there's much more to this than meets the eye."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Where are the girls?" Gerald asked as he situated a red gray mask over his face, trying to avoid Arnold as he shimmied into his outfit. Arnold and Gerald definitely got the most generic of the costumes. They hadn't really had time to come up with something as detailed and good as everyone else's. Even Phoebe had a better persona then they did, and it went excellently with the katana, her weapon of choice. Gerald and Arnold, though, seemed to just be guys in skintight outfits wearing masks.
"I don't know." Arnold mumbled as he tried to get as comfortable as he could be in black rubber. Brainy had gone on for almost half an hour explaining what it actually was, but to Arnold it felt like rubber. He was grateful that he and Gerald at least had bulletproof material where the others didn't, but no matter what was said or done he still felt like a tire. He and Gerald had spent hours trying to come up with good names for themselves, but to no avail. It almost felt unfair. Brainy was The Enigma, Helga was Cat Scratch, Carlson was Motley, Eden was Venom, Phoebe was The Shadow Samurai. The only other person who didn't have a cool nickname was Keith, and he was making it a point of staying out of the fighting as much as possible. Carlson had tried teaching him, but he couldn't even fire a gun straight. He'd chosen to do what he was best at instead: gather useful data.
Outside there was a loud crash and a chorus of screams. Arnold and Gerald glanced at each other before they finished getting dressed and burst from their hiding place.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
The man hanging from where the giant crystal chandelier in the center of the room had been laughed manically at the chaos below. He was a pale shade of blue and wearing a suit made of metal with a thick, glass dome over his head.
From the shadows, Motley, Venom, and Catscratched watched as his touch froze the chain he was upon.
"Doctor Rayvik." Eden muttered.
"His weak spot is the glass on his face." Helga observed, causing the other two to nod in agreement.
"I'll take him out." Motley volunteered.
Their attention went to the ballroom where more of Curly's minions were rounding up the guests, ziptying their hands together. From afar they were easy to recognize from the meeting Carlson had insisted they have about a week before. Hayley Dawson, half of her face scarred beyond repair, laughed coyly as she teased an older guest at the point of her gun. Ash Fox, donned in a mask of rough fabric was jumping at some of the women and cackling gleefully at their fear. There were other guests being tormented by what looked like a thick pile of mud. They hadn't killed anyone, not yet, but they hadn't ruled out tormenting the innocents.
Carlson's gaze fell upon Curly, who was seated comfortably at one of the tables, one of his arms draped across Rhonda's waist, keeping her firmly next to him. Rhonda had been crying, but if he took any notice of it he didn't act like he had. Helga noted how dark her expression had become and couldn't help but smile slightly. "You know, Motley, I can probably take care of the ice pack." Carlson looked at Helga, whose smile had widened. "I think you should go and take care of Curly's favorite hostage."
Carlson beamed.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Shouldn't there be like a signal or something, man?" Gerald asked Brainy as they hid under the table. He didn't know where Phoebe was, Keith was nowhere to be found, and they hadn't heard from the other girls since they'd sent out the signal.
"Shut up!" Brainy hissed. "You'll know when to go when the time comes."
Reluctantly, Gerald obeyed and scowled at the scene he could make out through the tablecloth. They should have been doing something. He glanced at Arnold, who tried to offer him a sympathetic smile and failed.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Why are you doing this?" Rhonda sobbed as a badly scarred woman waved a gun in her parents' faces. Nearby her husband was being compressed into a living mound of mud. Rhonda knew she hadn't always been the kindest person. She'd been the biggest bitch alive back in high school and she wasn't generous with her money as far as the poor had been concerned, but she never thought that she'd done something so bad that she would deserve what was happening to her.
Curly smiled but before he could answer, something else caught his attention.
"Hey muffin!" A harsh voice declared loudly. "Lights out!"
Before Rhonda could comprehend what had happened what she thought was a massive hammer slammed into Curly's shoulder, knocking him off of his seat and onto the ground. And away from Rhonda. She scrambled onto her feet to get away from him, but when she saw his attacker she screamed. Rhonda had never liked clowns and now there was a very angry one standing in front of her. She moved to run, towards Curly because she felt that there was no where else to go, and the clown grabbed her wrist and held her still. With a quick twist, the clown had Rhonda's hands out of her zipties and was ushering her away. "Get outta here."
Rhonda stopped moving the instant the girl stopped pushing her away. "No! You're one of them!"
Motley took her arm, harder than she'd intended and kept moving her away. "Trust me, toots, of all the goons up in here, I'm the least of your problems."
"No!" Curly was back on his feet and clutching his bleeding shoulder. "Motley you bitch!"
Rhonda watched in awe as Motley's hammer became a compact machine gun with a quick twist. "I'm not gunna let you do to her what you did to those other girls! You're a psychotic freak and I won't stop until in bars or dead!"
Curly chuckled. "You couldn't kill me if you tried."
Moving like a dance, Motly twisted her body around and the gum became a hammer once more, which she used to knock him off his feet. "Don't push your luck, muffin." She snarled.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Hey big guy!"
Doctor Reyvik looked up and scowled at the young woman he saw, hanging upside down above him on the chain with a smile on her face. "It is long way to fall. And the ice is slippery. Why not come down so you do not break neck?" His accent was thick and Russian, which took Helga by surprise, but not by much.
She smiled playfully and shrugged, "I don't think I'm going to break my neck. I was thinking about trying on your helmet. It looks….cool." The smile was off of his face in an instant. "In fact, I'm pretty sure that you're a really…ice guy."
He forced a thick laugh through his lips. "You are funny girl."
She shrugged, "I'll be here all night."
Reyvik raised his hand, a massive freeze ray in his hand. "Didn't your mother tell you? Keep making that face and it will freeze like that?"
Helga's smile was gone. "Uh oh."
He laughed full heartedly. "Yes, is right. Uh oh."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"I found your blushing bride to be." Brainy whispered as Phoebe burst from the shadows, clad in black leather with a lightweight samurai helmet covering her face and saving her identity. "Let's go!"
They burst from under the table, Arnold punching one of Curly's grunts and bring him down as Gerald took his years of high school football to good use and plowed down grunt after grunt. Brainy did well to avoid any scuffles, but with the help of his cane, which had so many features that Arnold couldn't even remember them all, he'd managed to do to most of the grunts what he had done to them the first night they had met, leaving them to spasm, bound to the floor by their own minds.
"You look absurd." Hayley sniggered, moving to strike Phoebe with a hot fire poker she'd claimed from the hearth.
"Look who's talking." Phoebe retorted coolly.
This lit a fire in the former attorney and she manically swung. Phoebe blocked the blow with her katana expertly before rebounding another one, using her offensive training to tire out her opponent before taking her out.
Arnold ran towards Alexander Wu, who truly looking like nothing more than a blob of mud. Someone in Wu's clutched screamed and reached out for Arnold and he grasped their hand, pulling as hard as he could. He didn't even notice that mud had gathered and hardened around his ankles until it was too late. With a yelp, he tried to move out of his prison and a deep throaty laugh sent chills down his spine. It was too late. He'd gone from being the hero to being the damsel in a matter of seconds.
The ground cracked and just as Arnold was giving up, a thick root sprung from Wu's mass, bringing Arnold and a few hostages with it. He took a short knife from his glove and started cutting off zipties before ordering the people to run. Eden was at his side and helping, dressed in her boots and leotard again, her skin back to its pale green hue and her locks bright and fiery red once more.
"Thanks for that." He panted once they'd finished with the hostages.
"Don't mention it. Take care of the other people." She insisted, taking a bold step towards Wu. "I'll take care of Mud Man."
Arnold glanced between her and Wu. He hadn't even been truly affected by the root. Now he only looked angry. "How exactly are you going to do that?"
"I don't know yet, just go!" she insisted, shoving him away.
*removes rock and crawls out of hole* I'm sorry I've been dead, but I hope this'll make up for it a little. And I'm sorry I didn't exactly finish this sequence, but it's really really long. So…yeah, I'm sorry. Please review if you like it and would like to chide me for being gone so long. I know, I've been gone really long, but either way I hope I did a good thing. Kinda, maybe sorta.
