Ch. 8: Kidnapped

There was a pause, Lexi's words ringing in the empty silence.

"He can't be." Duck finally said, his voice shaking from uncertainty. "I shook his hand the first time I saw him and I didn't lose my powers."

"Yeah,-Lexi,-you-sure-he-just-doesn't-sound-like- him?" Rev asked, an eye brow raised skepticly.

"I'm telling you guys that's Sypher." She insisted, never taking her glaring eyes off of the tall man in front of her.

"It's okay, Lexi, he's not." Tech assured her.

"LOOK AT HIM!"

Ace walked up to her and gently dragged her off to the side. "Ya need ta calm down, Lex." He whispered, his hands holding her shoulders which were shaking with rage. "Ya start'n ta see t'ings d'at aren't d'ere."

"Ace, I'm not going crazy. Look at his eyes. I know his voice, and if you add red to that mop of hair you'll see it too. That's him, I know it." She glared at her boyfriend, trying to will him to believe her. He looked from her to Stephon and then back at her.

"Well, if he is, how are we gonna prove it?" Ace asked, trying to humor her. The man couldn't be who she thought he was, he wasn't stealing their powers even though they were touching him. That should prove it right there, but Lexi obviously wasn't convinced.

"Ask him to take his belt off." She said sternly.

"What?"

"The metal belt around his waist, ask him to take it off. If he has nothing to hide he should have no problem doing it."

Ace shook his head. "Will it stop ya from brain blast'n him out d'a window?" she nodded. He sighed.

Marina apologized softly to her boyfriend. "I don't think she's been sleeping well lately." She whispered. Though what she didn't say was that she didn't blame her for thinking that. Erin had once shown her files on the villains they had fought over the years and she remembered seeing a photo of Sypher. She hadn't thought Stephon looked like him until Lexi had pointed it out. Now, she could kind of see it. Maybe he was a distant relation? But, still, the idea of him actually being Sypher, a bad villainous creep wasn't the kind of thing she wanted to discover about her boyfriend. Besides, now that she was staring at him, she couldn't really see it like she had thought she had a moment ago. Though, come to think of it, he looked different from normal anyhow. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it was his face or posture or maybe even his height or something like that that was definitely different.

"Hey, Stephon, I hate ta ask but could ya please remove ya belt?" Ace asked uncomfortably looking over at him. "Just humor us for a sec."

"I don't see why I should have to prove anything to any of you." Stephon said coolly. "I'm not this Sypher guy you seem to take me for. I've never seen you guys in my life except for Duck, and I just met him for the first time the other day. If my word isn't good enough then maybe you're not as great as I keep hearing you are."

"So, you're refusing?" Lexi asked.

"Yeah, I am."

"If you have nothing to hide then why?" she asked him coldly.

"It's the principle of the thing." He snapped, his arms crossed.

"Why do you want him to remove his belt, anyways? What exactly is that going to prove?" Marina asked. asked.

"He's used a cloaking belt before, so if he takes his belt off and he stays the same, there's no more to say and we humbly ask forgiveness." Tech explained, catching onto Lexi's test immediately. "I doubt that he is Sypher, but we can never be too careful."

"Do you treat all new people like this?"

"No, just the ones who are villains masquerading as friends." She countered.

"Lexi." Duck said.

"Come on Duck, even you can't be that thick." She said. "Look at his eyes, damn it. Listen to his voice. It's Sypher. Think of how he looked at you when he was choking you, don't you see it?"

Duck glanced at Stephon. He thought about the paranoia he felt whenever he was around him. He thought about the pure meanness in those tiny little eyes. It finally hit home.

"I thought I knew you." He said softly. "But that means…you've been dating my sister? YOU PRICK!"

"Hey, now you? Marina, no offense but these guys are nuts. What on earth did I do?"

"Nothing." She assured him. She glared at Duck. "Erin, what's the matter with you guys? Maybe you should go on vacation or something, you're obviously wound to tightly."

The others were looking at Lexi and Duck, trying to understand why they were so convinced that Stephon was Sypher.

"Please," Lexi begged them. "if Duck and I are both in agreement, you HAVE to know we're telling the truth."

"I don't care if they believe us or not." Growled Duck. "Marina, you're not going to see this jack ass again." He turned to said jack ass. "Get out."

Marina looked shocked. In some small part of her being she knew that if Stephon wasn't Sypher he was at least a bad egg. Any moron who saw the evil in his eyes could tell you that. She also knew in a bigger part of her that Duck wasn't being mean, just looking out for her. But the major part of her eighteen year old mind was screaming injustice.

"You don't want to play nice, fine by me. Marina, let's get out of here." Stephon grabbed her hand.

"She's not going anywhere with you." Duck growled. He looked at his sister, a hint of uncertainty in his deep blue eyes. "Marina, Sypher has had it outfor me since the start. He doesn't care about you, he's trying to get to me and the team."

"You weren't even sure he WAS Sypher until Lexi said she thought he was." Marina shot at him. "Now all of a sudden he's guilty? No more to say about it?"

"We asked him to take the test, and he refused." Lexi backed Duck up.

"For the love of Warner!" she cried.

"Warner?" Rev asked.

"It was the first thing that came to mind." She snapped. "You guys have been in this business for too long. Not EVERYONE is out to get you!" She turned to Duck, her eyes boring into his. "And, you, Erin. I trusted you to NOT act like this. I knew my parents would, but you? You don't get to tell me who I can date or not. Even if he IS this bad ass creep, there's nothing you can do to prevent me from going out with him."

"I'm your brother." He shot at her.

"Don't make me laugh." She scoffed. She was loosing control of her words again and she was once again just letting them poor out, not meaning any of them. It had been the same with the arguments she had had with her parents after she looked Erin up. "You may be my biological brother, but you left me!" she was starting to throw her words at him, not because she wanted to hurt him, but because she wanted to try and defend her own arrogant ego. "You don't get to make any brotherly moves, you haven't earned them. You didn't have to listen to my parents all those years ago, but you did. You left me in the fricken dark, growing up with no sense of identity, no understanding of where I had come from. You know how many times I cried, thinking that I was a freak who's own family didn't want me? And I was right, wasn't I? Dad killed himself without a second thought of us and you just LET my parents push you away! You don't get to tell me what to do, you don't get to try and keep me safe. If you wanted to do that, then you should've stuck around! My parents were right. It was obviously a mistake seaking you out. You're nothing but a narrow minded, self centered jerk who only thinks of himself. I'm HAPPY with Stephon, ever think of that? Ever think that maybe he likes me for me and not because my brother is some big shot hero? NO! It's all about you! I bet you decided to leave me out of your life to make it easier for you, didn't-"

"(Marina-)" Slam began, looking more than a little startled. Duck was looking like he had just been slapped. His eyes were fixed on his sister, staring in disbelief, as if she had just turned into one of the Evil Kenevil Gang herself.

"Let the girl finish talking, Slammy." Stephon shot.

The others all looked at each other, Duck and Lexi looking satisfied, their arms crossed.

"You are Sypher." Ace said, disbelief on his face. It was quickly replaced by a look of fury.

"You don't know that!" shouted Marina. "I've seen pictures of Sypher and I can tell you that this is not him."

"Marina, Sypher's the only one who calls Slam, 'Slammy'." Lexi explained. "You just blew it buddy."

Marina looked uneasily at Stephon.

"Marina, you're not really goingto listen to these freaks are you? I mean, I'm beginning to see why they're called the Loonatics."

Marina bit her lip nervously. Everything in her was screaming that they were right, that she should take back her hand and her words and hide behind her older brother. Erin had been there for her always. He protected her from the anger between their parents when she was little, had tracked her down after he finally got adopted, and had agreed to leave her, keeping her in the dark her entire life about her real family in the belief that it was the best thing for her; letting her grow up with no dark memory scarring her past. But then again, she had been dating Stephon for two months now. Apart from the occasional curiosity of her brother being a super hero and wanting to meet him, Stephon really hadn't shown that much intrest in the team. He had been completely focused on her. She looked sadly at her brother and the others. No, she was feeling emensly guilty of what she had said, that was true. But at the same time, despite the urge to rush forward and beg forgiveness, she knew she'd never be able to patch things up unless she accepted what they were telling her. She couldn't do that. She was right. She knew him better than they did. They were just over stressed and it was taking it's toll was all.

"Erin, I'll call you tomorrow." She said. "Please trust that I have enough sense to pick out good guys to date. Come on Stephon, we'll be late for our reservations. See ya guys later." She was trying to sound apologetic, but it hadn't worked.

"Why should I even care?" Duck asked bitterly. "I'm not your brother."

She felt a rush of tears spring to her eyes, but she blinked them away, knowing she had deserved that.

Duck watched hopelessly as Sypher put an arm around his sister and the two of them walked out, Sypher turning his face over his shoulder to give them all an evil grin, unnoticed by Marina. Ducks eyes glowed orange.

"(I'll go after them.)"

Slam said softly, a hand on Duck's shoulder to hold him back. "(She wont want to listen to you right now.)"

"You can't go alone." Ace said quickly. "What if this whole show was to trap Duck? If you go and get caught…take me or Rev with ya, big guy. I can help fight, Rev can help you and Marina escape."

"(It's only Sypher.)" Slam argued. "(And if it was a trap, don't you think they'd have attacked once he was in our home? Or have attacked us out in the open? There's better ways that Mastermind can come up with to get Duck out of HQ than trying to bate him to follow his sister and Sypher. This is just a bad coincidence, it has to be.)"

The others looked uneasily at each other.

"Well, Duck shouldn't go, that's agreed." Lexi said. "But seriously, take one of us with you, Slam."

"Excuse me, but why can't I go? That's my little sister!" shouted Duck.

"Exactly." Tech explained. "You don't want to drive her away do you? She'll be more pissed at the one who drags her away from prince charming, do you want to really lose her again because of a fight? She's already got one foot out the door as it were, don't give her any more reason to walk away for good."

Duck stopped in mid breath, his bill open in a response. He thought about what Tech had said. Marina had confessed to him that she didn't want her parents to know because she knew they wouldn't have approved of Stephon, but she was comfortable introducing him to Duck because she knew Duck wouldn't object. He had done just what she had been afraid her parents would've done. He felt guilty.

"Don't feel bad, Duck." Ace said, reading the malard's expression. "You're her older bro'da, we'd'a she likes it or not, ya did d'a right t'ing in tell'n her he was bad news."

"(I'll be back. If I hurry I can get them before they reach the restaurant.)" Slam said and ran out before the others could appoint someone to join him.

"Stephon, why didn't you just take the belt off?" Marina asked angrily. "It's not like asking you to prove that you can fly or something. It was a reasonable request. Humiliating maybe, but just to keep the peace you could've obliged. It's not like you are Sypher or anything so why didn't you?"

They were walking down the street and she had half a mind to cancel their dinner plans and run back to try and save whatever she could between her and Erin. She had never flet so low in her whole life. This must be how it feels to be a total bitch, she thought self loathingly.

"Maybe because I did have something to hide." He said softly. She looked behind her, staring at him. He had stopped walking and she was a few paces in front of him.

"What do you mean?" she asked, looking at his face. His eyes were gleaming a strange light and his smile was definitely not friendly and inviting.

"You are Sypher." She whispered, horror filling her. She knew they had been right. She had known that Stephon was bad news since day one but that hadn't stopped her. What the hell was wrong with her? She needed a hug, a huge hug from her brother. She wanted to apologize and say how stupid she'd been. But before she could go too far, Stephon grabbed her and turned her so that she was facing him.

"You're not going anywhere, little duckling." He snarled through gritted teeth. "We've waited too long, and now that it appears the cat's out of the bag, I suppose I'll take action now."

Slam arrived just in time to see Marina kick Sypher in the soft spot.

She looked up and saw him coming down. "Slam!" she shouted, tears starting to well up in her eyes. "You guys were right. He IS Sypher." She reached her arm up to take his hand, wanting him to just fly her away back to the others. But just as he took her hand, Sypher grabbed her, teeth gritted in pain, and used her to pull the devil out of the sky.

"Sypher, what's taking so long?" a voice rang out from a communicator worked into his watch. "You weren't suppose to have taken this long with those animals." Mastermind's voice scolded.

"I would've been out of there faster if they hadn't been trying to figure out if I was a baddy or not." He grunted, trying to wrestle Slam to the ground and steal his powers. Slam however was doing a great job avoiding him. He was still holding onto Marina, who was doing all she could to keep Sypher at bay, while he twisted and swerved Sypher's lunges.

"I told you they would recognize you, you dolt." She spat into the speaker. "Just come back alone, we'll try and regroup."

"Are you joking?" Sypher panted, still trying to get his hands on Slam. Slam was still avoiding him and was now trying to find a way to get back into the air. Unfortunately, Sypher had managed to tear off the jet pack when he pulled Slam down and it was now out of commission. He changed tactic and tried escaping on land but Sypher, though not being able to catch him, was doing a more than decent job keeping him trapped, blocking his every attempt to run for it.

"Stop fooling around." Massive's voice came through now, sounding pissed. "You're just going to mess things up more."

"Shut up." Sypher snarled. He stepped in front of Slam, blocking his path. As Slam twisted side ways to avoid him, Sypher allowed his weight to topple him in the same direction. Slam wasn't fast enough to swerve and Marina wasn't in a position to push him back. Sypher grabbed Slam's giant shoulder, using it to prevent himself from hitting the pavement. Slam felt the cyclone around him slow until his legs were just a normal pair of chubby devil legs, holding their ground, refusing to twist. He growled and tried to push Marina away, signaling her to run for it. Sypher however had other plans.

"Did you know," he said, an evil grin on his face. "I don't just take abilities. If I hold on long enough, I can absorb a person's actual life force." He had grabbed Marina's wrist, squeezing it non to gently. She tried to struggle and pull away, but it was in vein. She became light headed and her vision started to blur around the edges. The last thing she registered before sinking into the darkness was Slam's glowing purple eyes fixed on Sypher as the latter cackled in disgusting glee.

…am I alone in wanting to boil that dude's head? Even in the show he creeped me out…probably why I focuss on him as a primary bad guy…anyhow, R&R and keep an eye out for future warnings…they're going to become VERY important within the next two chapters or so…