PSIGAMES:
By: ShadowWing
Disclaimers: ShadowWing / Belle Anderson, and Cypher are all mine, so please ask prior to borrowing ^_^
Author's Notes: This was to be the second ShadowWing Online Comic, however that wonderful and talented artist that brought the first Comic to life, Amy Robbins AKA Scythe, was unable to complete this one. I was finally able to convert that script into prose format and here is the finished result. If there are any artists out there who would be interested in completing the comic I do have the original script if you are interested ^_^ Enjoy!
It was late one night in New York City and Belle Anderson found herself in the rare position of being stumped, oh she knew the answer, she just was not willing to accept that answer. She had been sitting at her desk for the past three hours at least and was no closer to a solution to her problem then she was three hours ago. Her head was in her hands; her hands were clenched into her long brown hair and were on the verge of ripping a few more strands out of her head in pure frustration. Her elbows were resting on the edge of her desk that was covered in various papers, files, computer disks and a few empty mugs that once held hot drinks.
After another great sigh Belle unclenched one of her fists out of her hair and selected a paper from the pile. It was a copy of a death certificate for one Angelica Beaumont, once the heir to a sizable family fortune that dried up thanks to her father's bad business practices. But since she had taken over the family's finances the their fortunes seemed to be on the rise again. It was only after her sudden death that the truth to the sudden turn around was revealed. It seemed like Angelica had been padding her income with a stable of high priced call girls. Once she shoved her father out of the driver's seat of the family fortune, or what was left of it, she used what was left to expand the business and had made an extremely good living at it as well.
It wasn't Angelica's business ventures that caught Belle Anderson's attention; no it was the way she had died that earned the case a second look from the woman who also called herself ShadowWing. Angelica's body had been found in her home on the floor of her bedroom. Other than the look of extreme pain on her face there wasn't a mark on her body. The coroner listed her official cause of death as 'Natural Causes' during autopsy a large, fatal, aneurysm was discovered deep in her brain.
Again this was odd but not enough to raise the eyebrows of the NYPD, but add to the fact that this was the fourth such death of a member in New York's criminal element in less than two months that really caught Belle Anderson's attention, if not the NYPD's attention. As the psionic super-heroine, ShadowWing, she knew that a massive aneurysm could easily be caused by a skilled telepath. It was the mental equal to a fatal computer crash, overload the brain's neural pathways until they gave out resulting in a so called 'natural death'. It was also a rather painful way to die as well. She had procured copies of coroner's reports on all four deaths in hopes that she would find evidence that would disprove her worst fears.
After a week of going though every report, every post mortem test and every single detail of the deaths Belle was right back where she started. The only hint that these were not natural deaths was the faces of the victims; aneurysms hurt yes…but not to the degree of pain that those frozen faces showed. That left one option left and it was not a pretty one, there was a psionic assassin loose in New York and ShadowWing has no choice but to find this assassin and bring him or her down for keeps. With a deep sigh Belle looked out the windows of her apartment and saw that dusk had fallen, it was time to start hunting.
About an hour later ShadowWing had finished her usual route of patrolling the city looking for any trouble. For once there wasn't anything going on that the NYPD couldn't handle. That left ShadowWing with only one thing left to do, flush out that Psi-Assassin and at least get either an identity or a location on whomever it was. With a deep breath ShadowWing closed her eyes in focus and cast a mental dragnet across the city, any psionic individuals that were powerful enough to do the damage to those people would be caught in that net and allow ShadowWing to follow the trail right to them. At least in theory…
"Youch!" ShadowWing yelped in shock as she felt the effects of her dragnet flashback to her mind and send razor sharp needles of pain into her own mind. As she took a few deep breaths to regain her focus and her internal balance. After about a minute ShadowWing was almost back to normal as she reevaluated her options. The good was that she found the person she was looking for. The bad was that this person now knew that he or she was being hunted, the really bad was that whoever this was must be a great deal closer than ShadowWing originally thought, judging from the level of feedback that she just got a mind full of. Again ShadowWing was about to use her powers to get a better grip on where the asshole was when she got a nasty shock on exactly how close this person was.
One moment ShadowWing was standing on the edge of a rooftop the next thing she knew she was flying off the edge and on a one way trip 10 stories straight down. At first ShadowWing couldn't tell if the was pushed physically or with a good dose of telekinetic power, and at this moment ShadowWing didn't give a good goddamn about it either.
With the ease that only years of experience can provide ShadowWing had her jump line in her hand and was firing it at the building in less than a second. In less than a minute ShadowWing had completely recovered from her impromptu flying lesson and was well on her way to climbing back up the side of the building and more than willing to kick major tail when she got there. She decided to get some more information as well as vent her frustration at being caught so flatfooted.
~ I don't know who the hell you are but you are so going to pay for that! ~ She hissed at her unknown attacker via telepathy.
ShadowWing was rewarded for her efforts by an answer in a very confident female voice. ~ Cash only dear, I don't take credit. ~ The telepathic message was followed by a sultry laughter, this only made ShadowWing madder as she finally reached the roof edge. The masked woman got a nasty shock as she reached one arm over the edge to hoist herself up with.
There standing a short ways away from the roof edge was the mysterious Psi-Assassin. She was about ShadowWing's height and weight, but she had blond shoulder length hair that was pulled back into a high ponytail. She forgo the usual wacky costume look and wore black leather pants, boots and vest a dark gray poets blouse and black leather gloves completed the look. Her face was narrow, but extremely elegant, the kind of society bitch that made Belle Anderson's blood run cold. Yet ShadowWing couldn't recall ever seeing this woman in the city before. Yet while she committed the face to her memory she also had to focus her attention on the .45 Automatic pistol that Ms. Mystery here was holding aimed at her head!
~ Sorry darling ~ She chimed into ShadowWing's mind yet again. ~ But I can't have a goody two shoes telepath running about ~
ShadowWing internally groaned as she figured a way out of this mess. ~ A bad guy, who has the sense to shoot the hero outright, somebody write down the date. ~
The lady's face slid into a confident smirk as she began to pull the trigger. ~ I'll write it on your tombstone. ~
ShadowWing's eye had an odd glint as her own face fell into an evil grin. ~ Yeah riiiight… ~ A mere second before enough pressure was applied to the trigger to make the weapon fire, an odd bluish light surrounded the weapon. The next thing this lady knew was her gun was taking a flying lesson on it's own.
"Wha…" The blond gasped, before she could react any more ShadowWing used another burst of TK power to launch herself onto the roof itself and with an added burst of speed launched a nasty left hook to blondie's jaw. Much to ShadowWing's satisfaction the witch went down.
(Hit first. Ask 20 Questions later.) Thought ShadowWing as she planned her next move. To her annoyance and grudging admiration blondie didn't stay down for long, with a sneer in ShadowWing's direction she staggered to her feet and wiped what appeared to be blood off her lower lip. (Tough little witch…damn it…)
"Have you got a name? I wanna be able to notify your next of kin when I mop this roof with you." Hissed ShadowWing as she prepped to launch herself into her next attack.
In an almost flippant manner the lady replied. "My clients call me Cypher. It's the last thing you'll hear any way Goody-Two Shoes." Too late did ShadowWing spot the all too familiar glint in the other woman's eye. She was launching another mental attack.
ShadowWing felt what seemed to be a set of invisible hands wrapping around her neck and they began to squeeze. (Oh the Darth Vader Mind Choke Gag…. how unoriginal…) Before ShadowWing could break the mental hold it began to tighten rapidly, forcing ShadowWing to her knees as she fought to stay awake while her air supply was slowly being cut off. (Yet… It's rather effective…)
While ShadowWing was attempting to break her mental attack, Cypher kept the pressure on as she casually strolled to where her pistol had landed a short distance away. After retrieving her weapon she walked over to where ShadowWing was still on her knees barely staying awake from her attack. As she lined up her aim for the costumed woman's head she remarked "Now be a good little super hero and die will you?" as her finger tightened on the trigger.
At last ShadowWing finally broke the deadly chokehold and glared at Cypher. "Like Hell!" She hissed and focused for a second.
From Cypher's perspective it felt like somebody just jammed a white-hot knife into the deepest part of her brain. On reflex, Cypher yelped in pain and her finger spasmed on the gun's trigger setting off the weapon. In the dim recesses of her mind Cypher heard ShadowWing cry out in pain as well. That released the white-hot pain in her skull as Cypher cleared her mind she found herself on the ground with ShadowWing a short distance away holding her upper arm. Dark stains were showing between the fingers of her gloves and on the sleeves of her costume. Looks like she scored a hit after all, pity it wasn't a fatal one.
(Will that costumed bitch die already!) Cypher silently fumed as she lunged for the gun again.
ShadowWing checked the gunshot wound in her arm, it wasn't too serious thankfully, but since even her sleeves were lined with bulletproof Kevlar ShadowWing made a nasty assumption. (Teflon Coated bullets, oh this bites! I HATE guns.) She looked up to see Cypher going for the gun again. ShadowWing scowled and lunged for Cypher as well.
In another second the gun would have been in Cypher's hands, but ShadowWing dropped her booted foot right on to her wrist effectively pinning the other woman to the ground and keeping her scant inches from the weapon. Keeping her weight on the foot pinning Cypher, ShadowWing reached down a scooped up the gun.
"Game over Cypher." She hissed. "You're heading for a one way trip to the Slab." The Slab was a super prison designed to hold Meta genetics and super criminals, and Cypher knew she didn't want to go there and attempted a final move to escape.
"In your dreams Goody Two shoes!" She snapped and launched a hit with the heal of her unpinned hand at the kneecap of the leg that held her down. Thankfully for Cypher ShadowWing lost her balance and fell onto her injured arm slowing her down. Cypher used this reprieve and sprinted across the roof to the fire escape. Just as she was about to disappear over the roof's edge she gave the pissed heroine a smile and a wave. "Ciao darling! I have places to be and people to kill." With that remark she vanished into the night.
ShadowWing slowly got to her feet holding her injured arm with a confident smirk on her face. ~ Don't be so sure about that Cypher, I have one last card to play…it's called Psi-Blinding…~
A short distance away Cypher got the last mental message that ShadowWing sent her just a second before her power simply vanished! Cypher was enraged and hissed into the night. "That…BITCH…you stole my power!"
As ShadowWing walked to the edge of the roof to head home and get patched up she mused out loud. "Too bad it's only temporary, but that will give me time to track you down Cypher."
Some distance away Cypher also mused aloud as she too headed back to her base. "When my powers return, oh we'll meet again Hero." With a final glare behind her she hissed, "Count on it!"
Only the Beginning…