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Raene stretched out, lounging on her cot, being careful not to fall off between rumbles of Darkstorm's anger. She hummed to herself, playing with the ends of her blue hair and dangling one foot over the side of the bed, her head bobbing slightly to a tune no one could hear but herself as Orion fled the room.

Darkstorm was getting more and more worried. He couldn't find her-or anyone for that matter that could even tell him where she was. Where they were. He raked his hands through his long brown hair and then rested them heavily on his hips as he paused in the hall to calm himself down. He needed to keep a cool head, losing control would do nothing for their situation and it certainly wouldn't help Raene if he brought the place down while they were still in it...considering she was even in the same building.

Taking a deep breath, his head snapped up as he suddenly heard movement that wasn't coming from himself. Someone was around the corner and if the voice had anything to do with it, he knew who it was.

Sighing, Darkstorm raised his hands in surrender and stepped slowly around the corner.

"Take it easy. I'm not going to hurt anyone." He said calmly. "I'm just looking for my friend. I'm worried about her. Where are we?" He asked, turning in a slow circle to show he was unarmed.

Darkstorm rolled his eyes and abruptly brought the earth shaking to a halt. Taking a step toward Firefly, the super jabbed a finger in her direction,

"This is exactly the reason I haven't joined your idiotic little band." He muttered. "Get this right, I don't work for that maniac. My girlfriend does...and she doesn't have a choice." He stuffed his hands into his pockets and shook his head. He wasn't going to fight.

"The last thing I remember is some of your friends throwin' what I thought was C4 in my general direction and then an explosion. I woke up in a guest room." He had no patience for the Firebrand team. Yeah, they did good work, but they were busy bodies who jumped to conclusions and took hasty actions. He liked to take things slowly, one step at a time. They saw an issue and BOOM. They did something about it, but didn't always think about the little details that weren't as important to some. At least, that was DArkstorm's long standing opinion.

...Firefly's little accusation was a perfect example.

"Why don't you stop throwing a tantrum and just tell me where Raene is, hm?" he asked frowning. "Or better yet, where's that idiot Orion, I owe him a smack."

Darkstorm watched almost casually as the man dropped from the ceiling and the building returned to normal from having been locked down. Clenching and unclenching a fist at his side, Darkstorm did his best to remain calm while listening to Orion speak. Now wasn't the time for posturing, he needed to get to Raene, so he chose to ignore the comments for now.

Until that last bit, at least.

"You haven't managed anything." He said, as he rolled his eyes. "Just because she's calm now, and just because you've helped her disappear, doesn't mean he can't still screw with her." He looked up and down the hall, wondering just which way Raene was, but then Orion started walking and he followed. "The only reason she's calm at all is because, and I'll bet my life on it, you used me as leverage. You were all honey and wine and promised to bring me right away and she chilled because she didn't see any reason not to."

He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets, pausing when Orion did. "She's damaged, not evil. She doesn't want to be like this. Big challenge figuring that one out." At saying this, however, he arched one brow up and his arms tensed slightly at his sides.

"Look," he sighed, relaxing a little. "I won't deny that I haven't been able to do anything for her long term. I haven't been able to figure out what they did to her, I haven't been able to keep them from doing it to her again...but I do love her, and I have always been, and always will be there for her...She needs help, we need help." He looked Orion directly in the eye.

"She's sick, and she's often in pain and that lunatic uses her like a pet...Helping is what you people do, and I'm willing to lay down my pride and do whatever it takes to get her the help she needs, I'd die for her, but I'm at the end of my rope." As he said all this, the young super actually looked worn out. He'd been trying to figure out how to get her away from that madman for nearly three years and it seemed to only be getting worse and Raene was slipping farther and father away, falling deeper into her insanity. He had no idea what to do for her in fear of making it worse for her if he failed.

His eyes seemed to change slowly from their dark green color to an almost black color as he spoke, his element at the edge of his control. "...But don't mistake me for a pushover. The minute I find you can't help her, the minute I find she's even decimally uncomfortable, I will get her out of here. And I will find some other way."

Darkstorm bit the inside of his cheek to keep from responding to Orion's comment. He was arrogant. The hero had no right to protect Raene from him, she was Darkstorm's life, it was his place to protect her. It was neither Orion's place or business to judge what was and was not best for her.

The hero changed topics to compliment the work he'd done in taking down a trio of villains, "Is everything a backhanded compliment with you?" He asked, pausing in his walk. "I don't help the doctor, I help Raene. There's a difference. If you actually paid atten-" he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers. There was no point arguing with these people. They were going to think what they were going to think and he could do nothing about it. Right now, all that mattered was getting Raene the help she needed.

Darkstorm fell into step with Orion again, his face blank of all emotion save the way his brows knitted above his nose in worry as he came closer to Raene. They turned down a corridor and Orion stopped about halfway down. Darkstorm took a moment to survey his surroundings while Orion hit a button and a opened a door for him. He could see Raene inside a white room, a glass wall closing her in like a mouse in an aquarium.

He felt his heart constrict, remembering how many times he had found her like this in the doctor's place in any of the times he had to go in after her. Darkstorm had to take a minute and close his eyes to get control of his emotions. If he showed Raene any emotion other than the calm, cheerful side of him, she would grow unstable and lose control. It didn't take much to set her off, but his emotion being off was a good start.

Stepping into her room, Darkstorm prepared himself for anything, a soft smile spreading across his face slowly until..."...-OOMF!" He was tackled against the wall and his arms instinctively laced around Raene's waist as they slid down the wall to the floor.

"I didn't think you'd come!" She said against his chest.

Darkstorm put a hand over her blue hair and rested his chin atop her head, closing his eyes. "How long were you waiting?" He asked softly.

"Almost four hours..."

"I'll never take that long again." He promised. Taking her by the arms, he pushed her away from him gently and took her face in his hands, smoothing her unruly spikey hair until it laid softly around her face before tucking it behind her ears. It made her look softer, less severe, less crazy, more like the Raene he fell in love with. "And don't you ever doubt I'll come for you." He pulled her to him again, hugging her close. "I'll always come for you."

She smiled and hugged him back, snuggling in close, forgetting they were still on the floor. "Can we go home now, Darren? I want to go home..." She looked up at him, and Darren sighed, turning his gaze to the glass where he knew Orion was standing.

"...Honey," He looked down at her, tipping her chin up. "...This might be exactly what we have been looking for...This could be the chance we need to help you..."

-One Day Later-

"And the reason I had to have someone cover my shift so I could come all the way over here to see you?" Firefly scolded, glaring at Orion. "Especially while I'm still angry with you."
Orion turned in his seat, looking away from the huge holographic display and looked up at Firefly. she couldn't see the expression in his eyes, she'd seen to that when she made him the mask, but even so, the expression in his lips, the concern in his forehead and jaw... "What's wrong?" She asked, concern in her own voice now.
"Danny- Heatwave is missing. I haven't seen him since I went after Raene and Darkstorm yesterday." he waved a hand at the security display, showing the couple watching television in the cell. "His communication was cut off half way through the fight... I'm getting worried."
"He's disappeared before." Firefly reminded her old partner
"Not without giving me a sign that it was ok."
"He'll turn up." She promised
"I... I'm not so sure." He sighed. "Look at this."
He swiveled led the chair back around and tapped on some holographic keys. images and names began to appear. "All these men and women are dead... and Heatwave managed to uncover all but three of them as super heroes or villains that have stopped activity over the past year. I've been looking at it all morning. It's the story the Globe are running with... and I don't know whether it was just a hunch, or if he found out too much..."
Orion sat forward and burried his head in his hands. "What if somethings happening to all of the supers? What if You're next, or Pulse?"

A red light on the screen began flashing, and then a siren went off. Orion frowned, looking up and pulled on his mask. He'd removed it due to the heat, but that light meant danger.
Someone or something had breached the defenses. "s**t." he growled looking up at it. He raised a holo-display and began scanning images for the intruder, but found nothing. He hit some keys and unlocked Raene and Darkstorm's door. "Guys." he said, pressing a button, he didn't believe them to be the ones causing it, they needed to be protected. "Somethings here, get to the control room immediately, go out the door and turn right, just walk... run straight."
He released the button and turned to Firefly, she had already suited up, donning her quick suit in a matter of moments.
"Whatever this is we need to take it down fast, theres no telling what it could want here." He told her.
She nodded, crossing to the holo display. she started tapping away. "Just incase we have to abandon the area, or incase we dont make it out I'm forwarding all information to my home drive and to Reaper."
"Good."
He looked up at the screen and found something he wasn't expecting; himself walking up the corridor. "I... oh crap." Orion opened up the holo-display and began typing at the pad on his wrist. He began to re-work a bunch of code within the system, finding the hack he was looking for and reverting it to the way it was. He looked up at the viewer screens and found... Pulse was back, her purple energy zipped down a corridor... no... it zipped down two... three...
"s**t." he repeated, finding almost every section of the base covered by soldiers, living weapons, some like Pulse, others just carrying really big guns. "s**t! This isn't good, and one of them might or might not be Pulse... If one is I pray its the one heading after Darkstorm and Raene..."

Lights went down all over the complex at the surge of electricity when Raene's bolt hit the metal walls. Blast and cell doors all over the base opened up, releasing the criminals Firebrand had captured, that were too dangerous to go into the general populace of the prison.
Thankfully for Orion and Firefly the control room was uneffected and had it's own power supply. The cameras went down however, leaving them blind.
"I'm going out there." Orion decided.
"I'm going a-"
"No. I need you to make sure the transfer goes through." Orion argued, turning and raising a hand to the armored girl.
She moved to argue, but then, looking back at the machines, nodded and moved back to try and speed them up.

Orion moved to the door and pressed the open button. the metal slid aside with a slight hiss. He looked up just in time to see a blast of purple energy flying towards him. He wrapped his cape in front of him, hoping that it'd take enough of the damage to let him keep fighting.
The hero was sent flying backwards, rolling a few feet before pushing himself up and un-clipping his purple flaming cape.
Orion grabbed the hilt of his sword and ran for the door, ducking under another blast of purple and rolling under the slightly floating purple weapon. for a brief moment in the roll he argued the virtues of hurting the living weapon, but by the time he was on his feet his sword had slashed across her back, disabling her as he had done to Pulse months earlier. She would live, but her power would be diminished, along with her masters control over her.
He re-sheathed the sword and continued on, pulling a pair of throwing stars from his side pouch as he rounded the next corner, where Rane and Darkstorm fought the next weapon.
He watched for a moment. Their quarrel seemed faster and stronger than Pulse and the other on... she was different, there were odd colors in the energy attacks and her flight was more controlled... She seemed older.

There was an explosion at the other end of the corridor as Pulse finally returned, blowing a hole through the army that had attacked, and speeding down to join the fight.
Damn Orion wished she'd stayed away, this would get worse... much worse, before it got better.

"The girl fighting Raene is not my Pulse." Orion clarified as his throwing stars sped out of his hand and burried deep into two of the robot's backs. there was a strange beepign for a couple of seconds and then the robots exploded, their peices flying in every direction.
He leapt over the other two robots to land next to Darkstorm. He swung around with his sword to force the robots back and grabbed Darkstorm by the shoulder.
Orion pointed down the far end of the corridor where one of the living weapons, the purple firing genetically cloned people was speeding her determined self towards them. She wore her hero suit under the remains of a t-shirt and jeans, Orion hoped that the tattered clothing would last until the fight was over, or they would not be able to tell her apart from the two living weapons that fought Raene not a meter away. "That's my Pulse." he told Dark storm, pulling an Orion taser from his utility belt and handing it to the power challenged hero. "if you can get them in the neck servos with a high charge from that you'll disable them long enough to do something." He told him. "We have a matter transfer device in there. we need to get through and teleport out. I'm going to help Raene and distract one of the Power Puff Girls, Pulse will take on the other. As soon as they aren't on Rane anymore get her into that room and we'll follow." he growled. Pulling another throwing star from his belt and zipping it straight at the younger looking weapon. It hit full in her face, exploding and sending her back a few steps as Orion leapt forward, splitting the girl off from her enemy.

Pulse shot down the corridor. She could feel the others right on her tail. she could feel them, in her head, she couldn't get away, it burned, that feeling that she had been forced to have before she met Mason. She didn't want to go back, she didn't want them to collar her again... she had to get everyone out. Had to make sure it was all ok.
There was a bang and Pulse slammed into the second weapon, fists ablaze with purple energy as she slammed her to the floor.