Archive Mutants & Masterminds: Future Imperfect - Chapter 6.2: To be or not to be

[Joani]

It took Travis quite some time to accept that he had to trust Sly to not mess with his head. Ronnie and Juno stayed close and from the look in their eyes he could tell that Sly would regret any shenanigans he’d do to Travis should the results of the mind probe hurt Travis.

Somewhere deep inside Ronnie could feel how Raven watched what was happening. She didn’t approve but was too weak to take control or interfere. He asked me not to let this happen, you know that? I promised it.

Ronnie gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. She was used to share her body with the others but this ‘newcomer’ was an unpleasant addition and having experienced how easily she eradicated Rebecca made her almost throw up. There was absolutely no trace left of Rebecca – she was truly gone, dead. Ronnie’s eyes watered and she struggled to control all these conflicting emotions. She wasn’t ‘made’ for this but now she didn’t care. All she cared about was laying on a gurney and giving her a typical smirk of his.

“It’ll be ok, Violet.”, it seemed as if he wanted to add something but whatever it was he kept it to himself.

Juno had crossed her arms over her chest and watched Sly carefully. She liked Travis and whatever was going on between him and Ronnie they weren’t a couple so he was fair game, wasn’t he? Still she wondered if Ronnie would try to rip her head off if she made a move on Travis. Hell, did Travis even care beyond a one night stand? He was both charming and disgusting and that particular mixture made him irresistible. Juno frowned quietly and sighed – she couldn’t wait for this to be over.

“Ok Travis. I know this sounds all cliché but it really helps. Please try to relax and don’t struggle against my presence. All I’m going to do is move step by step through your memories until I find parts that don’t add up. Once I’ve got a general feel for what is going on I’ll be looking for those missing parts and hopefully find a way to reconnect those locked away parts with your conscience enabling you to remember everything that has been lost. We all know that there is more hidden in that brain of yours and I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen if I find it but I promise that I’ll try my very best to keep you safe and remove that unwanted part, ok?”

Travis quietly nodded and tried to relax. He started to breath steadily and entered a meditative trance.

“Good – that’ll help.”, Sly put one hand on Travis’ forehead and closed his eyes – then a long moment of silence followed.

Click to reveal..

Travis’ Mindscape

Sly found himself in a storm encircled by myriads of broken memories. He found himself standing on an island and the sea was made of the shards of a thousand broken mirrors. Each shard contained a short glimpse, a microsecond of a memory and it seemed impossible for him to make any sense of it. Sly closed his eyes and dove into the sea swimming deeper into Travis subconscious self.

Here things slowly started to make sense. He found a great deal of his childhood past that looked mostly intact but was locked away in a far away and dark place. Sly carefully followed through the stream of consciousness and memories until he found missing and interrupted parts. Most of it didn’t make much sense to him and he concluded that Travis had a very lively past. He met a huge amount of different people and even more different women but one face showed up regularly again and again. Travis emotional connection to that woman was very strong and it was one of the few things that were consistent in regards to Travis in general.

Sly carefully arranged connections which made sense and sifted through the endless sea of shards to fill in the gaps that were not making much sense. It took him quite some time or so it felt but he was slowly making progress.

After about an hour Sly had reconstructed a great deal of cluttered and messed up memories which obviously have been manipulated by someone who tried to leave as much mess as possible behind. Sly still couldn’t find anything that appeared of real importance to him. Sure Travis was involved in some kind of double or even triple agent affairs. That ravenhaired woman constantly showed up again and sometimes it appeared they were partners and sometimes it looked like they were more than just partners… but then again Travis practically laid every woman that came across his path and was good looking.

Sly took a short break and mentally stepped back to get a better view of the larger picture. Why did someone waste so much time messing up these parts of Travis memory when there was no really important clues that could reveal any reason for the manipulation in the first place… unless these memories were false too or somehow coded. Maybe Travis could make more out of it once he had access to these lost parts.

Sly decided to move on and focused on the next pattern that was missing and faulty when he felt a second presence in Travis’ mind. He instinctively tried to shield his own presence and watched out for any signs of the supposed Alien bug that was somewhere planted in Travis’ head. Just when he felt save something touched him and violently disconnected him from Travis.

Sly winced painfully and then stumbled backwards and unceremoniously fell on his behind obviously disoriented and worried. Just before he could gather enough willpower to speak up a blue light engulfed Travis’ head and something slipped out of his brain. The blue light which was roughly shaped like a ball started to glow intensively before it blinded Ronnie and Juno with a bright flash.

When they were able to see again a humanoid shaped female body made of blue light stood next to Travis looking at everyone with a strange curiosity. The new arrival looked faintly familiar like… Ronnie?

Travis slowly opened his eyes and had a terrible headache. Suddenly he could remember it all – memories flooded his mind and made him almost throw up as he felt himself thrown into a rollercoaster that didn’t want to stop. He reached for his head trying to hold on to something while his brain tried to process the huge input of information it was suffering.

[Travis Kincaid]

Travis Kincaid slid off the chair and fell to the floor, the impact meant nothing to him, even had he felt it it would have not compared to the searing burn in his mind as memory fell into being and chaos was flashed away in an intense wash of power.

He remembered.

I am Thomas Kraig, born May 12th, 1976 ... I was recruited into the deep black organization Delta 8 ... Raven LeBeau ... murder ... death ... destruction...

"Oh god!" Travis, or Thomas, whoever he was now, curled into a ball as everything was laid bare. It took but seconds and yet it felt like a lifetime. The part of him that was Travis, watched it unfold, first with hungry curiosity, and then with disgust as he saw what he had once been, saw the man he had become. A killer, a cold blooded ender of lives. Travis now Thomas, but still Travis now understood how it had been so easy to kill those men aboard that alien ship, had been so natural to combat and destruction. He reveled in the scope of his life even as he reviled himself for what he had once been.

Finally after long agonizing seconds Travis ... or Thomas, or perhaps a little of both but all of neither, sat up and saw the glowing blue woman. "Fuck."

[SalmonMax]

"Travis!" Juno blurted, but before she could DO anything, the blue light erupted from his head, arresting her.

She quickly looked at Ronnie, then back at the ghostly form, verifying their resemblance.

"What the hell's this?!"

[Mr Fox]

From his undignified position on the floor Sly called out, "Stop no one take any action. The blue alien isn't an enemy."

He was still putting it all together in his own mind, but he was pretty sure that Travis or Thomas had willingly let the alien tag along hidden in his brain.

Sly put a hand to his own head, even without the virus that had not been pleasant. Raven or whatever, he was so confused, had really trashed Travis' mind and fragmented it all to hell. It had be a heck of a chore to reestablish the connections. He was sure he could have done better and could clean up most of the mess, but for now he'd done enough.

[z-May Allman]

Ronnie stared wide-eyed. Slowly, she walked forward, her eyes examining the glowing form's features. She swallowed hard, and asked it the burning question on her lips: "Are you wearing my face, or am I wearing yours?"

[Travis Kincaid]

TK looked up at Ronnie from the floor, his head felt like it was actually throbbing, as though the cells of his brain were moving about as his memories returned. He remembered Raven with a sudden clarity that roused his lust. Then, in the next moment, he recalled the savage horror of Germany, the torture and his eventual escape. His hands slapped down on the floor and he propelled himself to his feet, telekinetic stays keeping him upright as he considered the alien and Ronnie side by each. "That's a damn fine question. Also a damn fine question if what the hell we do now. Those fuckers with the four arms are gonna be able to track you down now that you are out in the open again." He addressed the alien, not bothering to hide the pain in his head as it slowly diminished as memory finally began to settle down.

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: May Allman

Ronnie stared wide-eyed. Slowly, she walked forward, her eyes examining the glowing form's features. She swallowed hard, and asked it the burning question on her lips: "Are you wearing my face, or am I wearing yours?"

Originally Posted By: Travis Kincaid

"That's a damn fine question. Also a damn fine question if what the hell we do now. Those fuckers with the four arms are gonna be able to track you down now that you are out in the open again." He addressed the alien, not bothering to hide the pain in his head as it slowly diminished as memory finally began to settle down.

The blue glowing woman looked at Travis and then back to Ronnie her form and features getting more and more solid as she spoke. “I have chosen a form comfortable and acquainted for you. It had the strongest emotional tie.”, She suddenly paused and then asked somewhat agitated, “What day is it? I can’t sense the Initiation – where are we? This is not the place you were supposed to take me.”, her voice suddenly got worried and scared. When she finished talking the blueish glowing hue was gone. She looked perfectly human except for her blue, blue eyes and blue lips. There was a faint glowing mark on her forehead which could be mistaken for a tattoo if no one really looked closer.

She was wearing the exact same clothes Ronnie wore.

[Travis Kincaid]

Originally Posted By: Joani

“I have chosen a form comfortable and acquainted for you. It had the strongest emotional tie.”, She suddenly paused and then asked somewhat agitated, “What day is it? I can’t sense the Initiation – where are we? This is not the place you were supposed to take me.”

Travis, Thomas, whoever he was, felt himself flush red, he pushed the sudden feeling of being under a heatlamp away, his hands balling into fists. The sharp report of cracking concrete accompanied the same duller sound from his knuckles as he faced the alien female, "Listen sister, you fucked up but good. If you want somebody to take you someplace its usually a good idea not to have their brain scrambled like a Sunday egg. Any hint of your plan was forgotten, along with my whole damn life. If you got a problem with that maybe you shoulda thought of that before you hopped in my skull."

[z-May Allman]

"For the love of fuck! Could you guys please fuckin' fill the rest of us in on this?" Ronnie looked from her near-duplicate to the man she knew as Travis, struggling to get them to fill her in on what was going on. "It's good that you have your memories, Trav, but the rest of us... fine, Sly is a brain-spy, so Juno and I, are in the dark!"

[SalmonMax]

Juno nodded dumbly, still staring at the 'alien' Ronnie.

"Yeah," she added, with customary wit.

[Travis Kincaid]

"Fine. You remember that little alien Raven told us about? The one you didn't want me to know was in my head. Well here she is. See it seems that her race and the ones leading this invasion are actually the same race involved in some big ol' civil war or some shit. Woo! Lucky us.

"So yeah, turns out I got tortured but good after Berlin, but hey somebody stuck around to make sure I didn't break; thanks for that Raven, I totally enjoyed the pain. Anyways, little miss blue boobs here was their prisoner too. She gave me a little boost and I wrecked some shit up, cause ya' know that IS what I am good at. I got our asses out but seems that her enemies were lookin' hard for her. She got the idea to use my brain as a hidey hole and somehow convinced Raven to fuck up my noggin'. The rest you know."

[Joani]

“I apologize.”, the alien spoke sounding more and more like Ronnie now, “I had no choice. If the Warmongers catch me we lose everything – including your homeworld. Once I’m crowned Queen I can assume control of all military forces ending this struggle immediately. But I can sense that the Initiation has not commenced and this is not the Ante Chamber. What happened? Why did you release me too early?”, the blue Ronnie looked at Purple Ronnie and almost stared through her, as if she was talking to someone inside of Ronnie.

[Travis Kincaid]

"Because, that is what you get when you erase somebody's memory! They tend to forget everything, including why they had their memory wiped out and what they were, or were not, supposed to do!" Travis threw his hands into the air and the floor around him buckled slightly, cracks forming in the concrete and tile. He looked down, "Great, that seems to be getting worse too. Anything else anybody feels like doing to me?"

[SalmonMax]

Juno felt like she was only grasping part of what was going on, but one thing was abundantly obvious to her; Trav needed a time-out.

She quickly walked over to his side, through the weird little pressure waves his body was giving off, like tiny concussions. As she got close she reached out to put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," Juno said with a smile. "It's okay. We'll get through this. Look, the alien's out of your head, and she's on our side. That's good news, right?"

[Mr Fox]

Sly nodded, "Very good news. So let me get this straight, you are a princess or something and if we can get you to the right place at the right time you can end the war and call off the aliens that are messing with us?"

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: Travis Kincaid

"Because, that is what you get when you erase somebody's memory! They tend to forget everything, including why they had their memory wiped out and what they were, or were not, supposed to do!" Travis threw his hands into the air and the floor around him buckled slightly, cracks forming in the concrete and tile. He looked down, "Great, that seems to be getting worse too. Anything else anybody feels like doing to me?"

The Alien Princess in the shape of Ronnie flinched slightly backwards intimidated by Travis’ display of power and emotional outburst. “I asked your friend to help me. We agreed to set a trigger which would awaken me but only on the day of the Initiation. You specifically asked for a shattering of your memories. You didn’t want to be the man you once were.”

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

Sly nodded, "Very good news. So let me get this straight, you are a princess or something and if we can get you to the right place at the right time you can end the war and call off the aliens that are messing with us?"

Without facing Sly the Alien Princess answered, “That is correct – but only on the day of the initiation. The 24th of December 2012. Which date is today?”, her voice was now a perfect match of Ronnie’s. She even displayed the same kind of bodylanguage which was kind of creepy. The only distinction between the two women were the colour of their eyes, hair and lips.

(ooc: before you guys start asking again - it's late march - the 26th in the year 2012)

[Mr Fox]

"Next question, where is the initiation to take place?" Sly was having some doubts thinking the initiation would be on an alien world somewhere out in space... How could they possibly get there? Steal a ship of course, but that would be a lot harder than destroying one.

[Joani]

“The place you call Egypt. Inside the Cheops Pyramid. It’s the resting place of the eternal Queen. Her essence imbues the heir with the power to rule for the next five Millenia. If I don’t make it to the Initiation…”, she didn’t dare finish her sentence but it was obvious that the consequences would be dire.

[SalmonMax]

"Uh." Juno frowned. "Okay, maybe this makes me the dumb kid in the room, but someone's gotta ask. Why would an alien priest...princess queen be using a pyramid on Earth? Why not a pyramid on whatever planet they're from? And besides, we've been in those pyramids like...a thousand times, and never found any aliens."

[Travis Kincaid]

Originally Posted By: Joani

The Alien Princess in the shape of Ronnie flinched slightly backwards intimidated by Travis’ display of power and emotional outburst. “I asked your friend to help me. We agreed to set a trigger which would awaken me but only on the day of the Initiation. You specifically asked for a shattering of your memories. You didn’t want to be the man you once were.”

Travis was seething, his teeth ground against each other until he couldn't hold it in any longer, "BULLSHIT!" The blue version of Ronnie flew backward and slammed none-too-gently into the wall held in place by a blanket of force. "I didn't ask for this! You wanted my help and then you used me, you manipulated me once I agreed, you made me ask Raven to blank my mind. You ruined my damn life! This whole fucking deal was your idea, this your fault for playing with people's minds!"

Travis looked over his shoulder at Ronnie, "I thought she cared about me but when it came down to it I think she was a cold and heartless and I was before, I wanted to be a different person, but she agreed to ... she agreed to kill me. Death of the mind. Sure, no blood on her hands, but Thomas was dead just the same. Except here he is, here I am. Oh I'm not the same though, cause I'm Travis too, two men, one mind. Gee, what a novel idea." Ronnie could feel the buffeting of Travis' (or was it Thomas' ?) unchecked power all over he body, the others could feel it too, even the room itself seemed strained. He was slipping, the dangerous part of himself asserting control.

[z-May Allman]

"If I could kill her for you, I would," Ronnie said. "In fact, if you tell me how to, I will. She deserves to die, for even more than what she did to you." She stared at Travis, willing him to understand that she was serious; that she'd take Raven's life with her own hands.

She'd do it even if it killed her. She'd rather die than share head-space with this bitch for the rest of her life.

[Mr Fox]

"Easy Travis, calm down, this isn't helping. What we need to do is make some plans here. If getting her inside that pyramid at the right time will save the earth then we need to figure out how to do that and bashing the future queen up against a wall is not the best idea."

Inside a pyramid on earth and no one had ever found it? That was going to be a tough nut to crack, they would need Grav to open them a hole, but to do that Grav would need to know where. That meant Sly was going to need to get inside this alien's head to get an image of the place to pass on. That was something he wanted to do anyway and it meant they needed her friendly.

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: Travis Kincaid

Travis was seething, his teeth ground against each other until he couldn't hold it in any longer, "BULLSHIT!" The blue version of Ronnie flew backward and slammed none-too-gently into the wall held in place by a blanket of force. "I didn't ask for this! You wanted my help and then you used me, you manipulated me once I agreed, you made me ask Raven to blank my mind. You ruined my damn life! This whole fucking deal was your idea, this your fault for playing with people's minds!"

Travis looked over his shoulder at Ronnie, "I thought she cared about me but when it came down to it I think she was a cold and heartless and I was before, I wanted to be a different person, but she agreed to ... she agreed to kill me. Death of the mind. Sure, no blood on her hands, but Thomas was dead just the same. Except here he is, here I am. Oh I'm not the same though, cause I'm Travis too, two men, one mind. Gee, what a novel idea." Ronnie could feel the buffeting of Travis' (or was it Thomas' ?) unchecked power all over he body, the others could feel it too, even the room itself seemed strained. He was slipping, the dangerous part of himself asserting control.

The alien Ronnie struggled against Travis’ force blanket but relented. “You wanted this, I felt it – I saw it. And she asked me to make sure you’d never remember who you once were. All I did is agree to her request. She told me you would die if not. I thought it was the least I could do for my saviour.”

The blue Ronnie stopped struggling and waited patiently as she watched Travis with sad eyes.

[Travis Kincaid]

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

"Easy Travis, calm down, this isn't helping. What we need to do is make some plans here. If getting her inside that pyramid at the right time will save the earth then we need to figure out how to do that and bashing the future queen up against a wall is not the best idea."

"I don't care," Travis growled, "I ... I didn't want this, I didn't want to stop being ..." Without warning the alien was released to fall to the floor and Travis sagged, "I ... I don't know who I am, I know who I was but ..." He stumbled toward the door, unsure of what to do next.

[SalmonMax]

Juno glanced anxiously at Ronnie, but when Travis stumbled she quickly went to his side to take hold of his arm.

"Hey," she said, "It's not so bad. I mean, who here really knows who they are, right? Your girlfriend doesn't." She nods at Ronnie. "Hell, half the time I don't either. Having issues doesn't set you apart from is. It makes you one of us. We've all got them."

[z-May Allman]

Sidling around the edge of the room to avoid Aqua-Ronnie, she stopped next to Travis. "Hey, I know this sucks, but you're not as bad as me, and we can help you figure it out." She knew that the kid would assume that Ronnie meant herself and Juno, but Ronnie was talking about the Others - minus Raven, of course. As far as the Others were considered, Raven was the enemy. She lightly touched his cheek as she smiled at him.

[Travis Kincaid]

He laughed a bitter laugh, "What's to figure out, my lover tried to erase my mind completely at my request while under the influence of an alien who claims to have our best interest at heart. Nope, everything is square and peachy... yup, everything is fine, just fine. I can remember it all now, why shouldn't I be fine?"

[SalmonMax]

Juno glanced at Ronnie, feeling more than a little out of her depth here.

"Okay, just saying...that's all in the past now, is all. Now you've got friends to help you."

[z-May Allman]

"Travis, c'mon... you know you're not alright with this," Ronnie said, her voice a touch impatient. She appeared to be taking the tough love approach. "No one would be alright with this. But like she just said, you don't have to do this alone. If you're dumb enough to push off by yourself, that's your fault."

[Travis Kincaid]

"I'm fine." Travis' tone was flat, he wasn't having any further argument, "We're fine, Thomas says 'Hi' and he'd like to know if you both want to get a three way going. That or maybe we can go out and kill some aliens?" He looks at Ronnie, his expression says he's fine, but, to her, his eyes say he's not. "See, I'm good. Gimme some booze, some ho's, and some killn' and I'll just jus' fine."

[SalmonMax]

"Nice," Juno says, her face pinching into a scowl. "Fine. I'm going outside. I need some fresh air all of a sudden."

She turns and stalks away.