Welcome to Gaia! ::

A couple days had passed since Alison had been attacked. While not unexpected in itself given her recent crime spree, it was who that had attacked her that was of interest. Not someone from the hero society, the SIA or even one of the many vigilantes who seemed to breed like rabbits in Chicago. Instead it was a small gang of fellow criminals. Small time drug dealers who as it turned out, got their hands on a new product. One that could temporarily give them powers. High on that power they had thought to challenge her. It hadn't been much of a fight. They had next to no control and even less skill that came with years of practice. But it had caught her attention. Pulling the knowledge of where they had gotten the drugs from their minds was only a little more effort than beating them in a fight had been. With Tachyon's help she followed the trail back to it's source and now the pair found themselves at the docks.

“It's probably the seaweed and algae in the water you are smelling.” Alison answered absentmindedly. She didn't know why the docks had that smell and she didn't particularly care. She didn't even really think it smelled like fish to be honest, but she was more focused on finding the warehouse in question. It wasn't until several seconds after she had finished speaking that Alison realized things were too quiet. No inner-monologues of everyone around her. “There's a -”

“Heyyyyy!” Shouted a flamboyant voice from the roof of one of the warehouses. He was dressed in what loosely resembled a fireman's outfit, only he wore yellow short shorts, with red suspenders and no shirt. Knee high black boots and to cap it all off, a fake red fireman's hat.

“Oh he's cute!” Called out a second voice. Another male behind them wearing the same outfit. “I can't wait to give him my hot load!” He shouted as he held out his hand. A jet of a sticky white substance, which they would later learn was a supernatural glue, shot out, splattering the path behind them and quickly closing in, while his twin did the same from in front of them.

“Try not to hurt them too baddly.” She answered with a bit of a grin. How amusing, this little trap they had set. However, she would show them what true power looked like. Using her telekinesis, Alison redirected the streams of glue to hit the opposing flamboyant fireman. Then all hell broke lose. A flash of lightning and a crack of thunder an electrokinetic appeared. He wasted no time in firing a bolt of lightning at Tachyon. At the same time an overhead door rolled up to the left of them, revealing a group of 10 more of these super fakes. Much to Alison's distress, one was a screamer who opened up with a supersonic scream. She gave a cry of pain, covering both ears, before blindly sweeping the screamer to the side

Charles Pryce - The Whimsical King

Pryce was a simple man, or at a minimum, a man who required very little to be content. So when he heard that a rare shipment of high grade malt whiskey was being delivered tonight, he made his way to the port to... "acquire" it. Suffice to say that the delivery-men of said shipment were wholly unprepared to stop Pryce from obtaining said stiff drink, of which he was enjoying his first bottle.

The loud shouts at one of the nearby warehouses grabbed his attention and he arrived to investigate at the same time that one of the fighters unleashed a bolt of lightning at a blond man. Seeing that it seemed to be about ten plus versus two, King knew clearly which side he found more interesting.

He saw one of the combatants preparing to skewer the woman flinging away the screamer with some launched spikes. The blond, lightly bearded man who seemed to be with the woman was in the midst of dodging the lightning blast. Pryce felt the echo as the man started to speed up. Speedsters... tasted differently in the time stream to Pryce, he could always pick em out. Figuring the speedster had the lightning girl. Pryce went to work.

They were all close enough for his powers to affect them directly, he felt the shift as time around him slowed to a crawl. The spikes rather than hurtle through the air, floated like clouds towards the brunette who seemed blinded. The lightning blast, having hit the ground, was slowly dissipating like a log on fire. The speedster that had been its target was making his way towards its origin. Rather than being a less than visible blur, Pryce saw the man moving like a slowed vid, but still much faster than everyone else. "Speedster confirmed." he chuckled to himself.

He strode forward, knocking aside the spikes so that they'd jut harmlessly around their intended target. He took a moment to check her out. Pretty, but in that sort of femme fatale way. Likely prettier once she moved past the cry of pain emanating from her lips. Turning around he strode towards the spike-launcher, jabbing two fingers into the man's chest. Simple physics would send the man flying as if he were punched by super strength.

Why? The amount force Pryce had just hit him with was staggering, Force was mass times acceleration. While the mass of two fingers was minimal, the acceleration was the real culprit. Acceleration was the shift in velocity over time. No time in the change of velocity was the equivalent of dividing by zero, or at least... very close to it. What did that mean? It meant Pryce had hit the man with a *lot* of force.

He walked to stand behind the woman, about a foot or so apart, before easing up his time displacement. The effects were always *so* much fun to watch: the spikes that had been careening towards the woman broke apart flying all directions, giving the sensation that Pryce had knocked them away with pure strength. The man he had jabbed? Slammed *through* the wall behind him. And Pryce standing pretty as a picture.

"Hardly seems fair, ten plus versus two. How about I join?"

It would quickly become clear just how inexperienced the attackers were. While most elektrokinetics would have been able to at least dodge Tachyon's opening attack, this one seemed surprised at just how fast he could move. In fact rather than try to dodge, she panicked and started shooting lighting wildly. The sweeping kick made contact, though Tachyon likely received a shock in return. The Electrokinetic screamed in agony, her tibia protruding through her flesh of both legs. She wouldn't be walking again any time soon, if ever.

Alison was about to fling away the spikes, when they seemed to hurl themselves to the side of their own volition. Not only that, but the male that had thrown them suddenly flew through the wall without her or Tachyon touching him. It wasn't until an unfamiliar voice spoke from behind her that the source of such events had been revealed. Damn whoever was blocking her telepathy. She felt blind without it. It was also obvious that she was far to reliant on it. She half turned to glance at the new comer, however there were still plenty of enemies around. Proper introductions would need to wait. Hopefully he wasn't some hero or vigilante thinking to save the day, or things would go south rather quickly once those introductions were made. “The more the merrier.” She said with a half smile before turning her attention back towards the remaining enemies.

With five of their number being so easily dispatched, the rest suddenly seemed much more uncertain about their task. The screamer was busy suffocating in the glue, while the two 'firemen' on the roof were likewise trying to unstick themselves. The electrokinetic screaming on the ground and the projectile user likely dead under the rubble of the wall. “Can you two do me a favour and deal with the rest of these? There is a telepath in the area who needs dealing with.” Based on what she had seen, it shouldn't be a problem, but counter attacking whoever was shielding her would leave her vulnerable to attack. If they agreed she would begin work on the mental shield.

Charles Pryce - The Whimsical King

Pryce was already growing bored with all this. The more heavily numbered side seemed to lack in talent, which was making the fight boring. The Speedster rushed off, sending all but two flying. Pryce observed it all a slower pace, so when the speedster started shoving Pryce exerted control and shoved time to stop. Walking up to each of the speedster's victims and slugging them across the face. Likely shattering a lot of jaws and more likely knocking them all out. If they could withstand the punishment of flying at... five hundred? Six hundred? miles an hour.

Feeling he was running out of time, he walked up to the last two that had begun to whirl in place at the onslaught thrown out by the speedster. Pryce simply grabbed them from the back of their hands and slammed the two noggins together. It was quite probable that the two would have a concussion.

But... it would be a shame to not finish the show. He let go of the two before grabbing each and making the appropriate pokes and prods to send them flying into the harbor. When time reasserted itself and momentum took over, the two victims would fly through the sky as if launched from cannons, only to slam into the harbor water.

He released his time stop to watch the various punched heads whip around so hard he was almost afraid some necks would snap. The two he had "thrown" shot off, landing into the cold water with a loud splash. Looking towards the speedster, Pryce merely grinned before focusing towards the woman and where she was running off to. Time to find a new game.

The world exploded around Alison. Those who sought to challenge them were sent flying in all directions thanks to Tachyon and the new comer. All that was left was to break whoever was shielding her from telepathic use. She paid no attention to the newest arrival, assuming Tachyon would take care of it, if the time manipulator didn't do it first. Instead she put all of her focus into breaking the shield only for a painful high pitched sound to cut through the air. She let out a cry of pain as both hands moved to cover her ears. A moment later she blindly lashed out with her telekentics in the hopes of stopping the sound.