Lost but not forgotten (Open to friends and acquaintances of EW/Jenny)

"You... you morons!" (*˃ᆺ˂) Not a very constructive reply, especially when accompanied by arm flailing. Pix was frustrated by their continued unwillingness to see his way of things. On top of Keri's inability to acknowledge he hadn't yet lied about anything, Maverique was calling into question his tactical competence. It was an argument that he couldn't refute without giving the game away. It shouldn't have mattered since he knew the reality. But... they didn't know the reality. And somehow what strangers thought of Pix was far more important. Screw those people (mother) who told you it didn't matter what other people believed. It so did matter! His inability to set her straight made the sprite tetchy.

"We killed your leader as a passing gesture. Why don't you fear us!? Graaah!" (;｀O´)o Fist shake, fist shake, fist shake, "Fine! Don't take my word for it. You ingrates. Try and do a girl a favour. Here," The pixels in Hugh's arm rippled, from out his palm sprang a phone which had until now been stored inside his body. Pix tossed the device at Zuciya, if she gave it more than a passing glance she would see that it was familiar. It was swaddled in a piece of fabric torn off a costumed vigilante. The cover had a webbed motive trademark of someone they used to fraternise with. A guy that they doubtless hadn't heard anything from for a long time, "Ask Arachnikid if HIVE is worth worrying about."

Toying with the phone would only confirm that it was the property of their prior member. The smart-alec boy with a passion for crawling up walls. Trying to reach him on it, if Link were naïve enough to try, would fail. Their friend wasn't available to give his opinion, "He's dead." (◣_◢) A cloud of pixels would float over to Pix now, large enough to engulf a person if it had to. The sprite knew it wouldn't have to. This last revelation would break their resolve. Energy Warrior dead. Arachnikid dead. Jemmy had abandoned them. What hope was there?

"Your five strong team is down to two already. We revealed ourselves, you moron, because we've already won! So I'll extend my offer again. As your first act as leader you must surrender to HIVE. Or else that'll be Zuciya's funeral next. What reason could there be to refuse my kind offer? Pride? We're more powerful than you! Get that through your thick skull!" Nothing lasted forever, "She doesn't have to die, Maverique!"

((OOC: Of course we have the permissions from Amag where required.))

Zuciya did not catch the phone with her hands, she made it float before it was within a foot in front of her. She used her powers to open the phone and to operate the buttons to go through it. She then glanced at Mav... "it's his" she said softly. Of course the team had been worried about spider boy's mysterious disappearance after their first meeting. What had they done to him? He did nothing to them... He was innocent.

So was it really was down to Mav and herself? Jemmy was still alive, but ultimately she cannot die for she is immortal, but Keri didnt want to force her into doing what she didnt want to do.

At this point, Pix was just really trying to get under their skins.

"You have a lot of nerve, but regardless if he is dead or if he is still alive, who says we can't find out the truth and gain more teammates" she stated firmly. "Don't be so arrogant and claim that you have won. You haven't won a single thing yet." Zuciya glared at Pix. "And do not underestimate me dear Pix." Zuciya then proceeded to bind his clothes firmly together around his body in attempt to restrict his movements, keeping his limbs squeezed to his body.

"Shall we now head to the station Mav?" She asked smiling a bit forcefully. At this point Zuciya has paid no heed to Pix's threat on her life, but of course, she was still weary of him and his plans, and was on her toes in case he had a trick up his sleeve. "But before we go, answer this question Pix... Why are you so threatened by us... At this point you and HIVE should have left us alone... The Lord of Chaos has left us, and the one who had put us together was murdered under collegues hands." She asked softly with a slight raised brow.

While Mav didn't quite get the reaction she was hoping for, Pix gave her something of similar value. He was flustered. The words and gestures that followed were not the actions someone who was merely hired to do a job. There was some personal interest involved. His declaration of AK also falling to them would have shaken her earlier but at this point, with new clues pointing towards Jemmy's innocence, she stood her ground.

"So that's your game. Causing Jemmy to have a falling out with us was all part of a plan to cut down our numbers. If this was really still about that job, you would have left us alone already. A pro has no obligation to finish the work for a client who cheated them out of their pay. There's nothing to gain from it. So I can only conclude you were after us from the beginning."

She directed her next few words to Keri.

"Don't go counting out AK just yet. They went through the trouble of showing up here in EW's funeral to take responsibility for her death. If they really killed AK too, then we'd be attending two funerals. In this situation, he has good reason for lying low and not contacting us."

Mav turned her attention back to Pix.

"You seem to be under the wrong impression that Link under EW's management will be the same under mine. I'm a little embarrassed to admit it but when I first joined up with them, I never meant to be as involved or serious with it. Being a part of a team was a good experience and I took advantage of it. Heck I even thought we were just junior heroes who would never stand on the same stage as say, the Titans. And I was fine with that. But, things change in ways you wouldn't expect. My only regret was that it had to take someone's death before I stepped it up."

She smiled.

"Congratulations, you have our full attention. You say no one else needs to die if we surrender? In my opinion, we'd be doing the fallen a great disservice if we did give up here. What kind of heroes do you take us for anyway? Here's a better idea. Link will take down HIVE starting with you. And we'll be one step closer to being THE hero team here in Jump. Not that it's a big deal to me. I just really wanna help people like any goody good. But if I can do something for my friends in the process, then it's a win-win. Thanks for giving us this opportunity. I hope you're looking forward to a nice cell downtown."

Once more the attendance of Zuciya's mental faculties restricted Pix's movement. Being of inorganic build he was more susceptible to the psychic energy which bound his body and made escape through displays of strength impossible. Yet this did not aggrieve him as much as her continued inability to grasp his logic. He had already explained why HIVE were continuing their pursuit of this admittedly doomed contract. Calling it quits gave them nothing, extorting a tribute from the heroes provided a handy return. It was a well thought out lie. A shame Pix's agitation got the best of him, "Oh listen to yourself. Threatened!? Does the lion kill the gazelle because he's threatened by it? He does it because it's an easy meal. Get over yourself!"

From this Maverique made the sound conclusion that HIVE prioritised the extinction of Link over redeeming the worth of any supposed contracts. Circumstantial evidence was the only evidence she had to this conclusion, but you try talking sense to people afflicted by bias. Pix wanted to rebut everything but understood in the course of a normal conversation that this was neither indulged nor practical. Negotiations had failed in the face of stone-walled ignorance and a heroes inability to acknowledge discretion as the better part of valour. Emphasis on better. It was time to make good on their threats.

"And I hope you appreciate the irony of this final revelation." Against the telekinetic influence of Keri, Hugh relaxed his posture. It was as if there was no force acting upon him at all. Who had been underestimating whom? "Both our powers are telekinetic in nature. While mine may be more limited in scope I'm willing to wager its stronger than yours." (◣_◢) A blizzard of pixels surged forward at Zuciya. The sprite anticipated she would try to stop them and lessened his own psionic pressure so that the two forces came to a stalemate. If she had reacted thus, the pixels would hang between the two parties, inert.

"If it ain't, I don't underestimate you enough to arrive without backup. Cue Zero." Either Keri had used her ability against Pix's onslaught or she hadn't. The former fixated her attention entirely upon the task at hand, the latter inundated both members of Link with a pixel cloud that would restrict their visibility. Either outcome was a perfect opportunity for Pix's associate to finish the job.

((OOC: Can we let St post next? ))

Zero, the very name caused nervous whispers among the underbelly of Jump City. He was an assassin, one of the best contract killers there were, and he only recently turned 18. He is never noticed until he wants to be, so it was that Kris only made his presence known when he was about 3 feet behind Keri. He took out his laser Katana, slashing at her as she was preoccupied with Pix, a sick and wild grin on his face, he seemed to be in love with the idea of killing.

Keri tensed when something happened to her vision. In case of emergencies, she threw up a force field around herself as well as Mav. She had no intention of speaking back to Mav, and no want to continue the conversation with Pix, but she did want to say one last thing. "Pix, remove whatever you had put on us to restrict our vision." she warned.

She was smarter than what she appeared to be. Confused at times, but yes, what she lacked in physical ability, she made up with mental ability. Yes, technically they had no backup, but that didnt mean they couldnt push through until back up did arrive.

When pix mentioned Zero, Keri lifted an eyebrow in curiosity. 'His wild card?' she questioned to herself softly. She had a feeling that something bad was about to happen, but that feeling didnt hit home until she suddenly felt someone's presence behind her, about three feet back. Relying on mainly her instincts, before Zero could hit Keri and cause serious damage, she dropped to the ground and rolled away.

"Mav there's someone else here!" she warned her teammate in case she did not register the presence of another being in time for his next attack.

ooc: shes mainly confused when im confused lolol or says the wrong thing when im lost on whats going on

And all hell broke loose. At least they were a long way from the funeral proper. This would have been a lot less manageable if the attendees were taken hostage. Out here, they only had to worry about themselves. Keri threw up a shield for her but it wasn't really needed. The flood of pixels would have had no chance of moving her an inch as long as her aura was activated. It was interesting to know that the leader of Hive actually had some bite to back up his bark.

She didn't need Keri's warning to know Pix had an accomplice waiting. From the moment he was threatening to go after her last teammate, Mav made sure to watch her back the entire time. She could barely feel it as the main target of the assassin wasn't her but that was about to change soon.

"Eyes on me Mr. Zero!"

She rolled up her sleeve and aimed her line launcher at Zero's sword-wielding arm. Should it connect, she would begin the process of pulling him over closer to her. If not, then she would at least be able to get his attention. Pix was trouble but it would be easier to aim for the human-shaped target first than the formless mass. But if he showed even one opening, Mav would have no problem switching targets too.

The opening Pix had provided was not immediately gratified with a the life-ebbing shriek of the slain. Which meant Zero had missed. Bugger. Through the sandstorm he had created the sprite could roughly make out the positioning of three bodies. Statistically there was a higher chance Zuciya was the one of the floor. And so it proved to be. There was deft movement, not at all sluggish, and Pix was struck with the sudden notion that Kris had made a mess of a faultless opportunity. Subordinates, eh?

The pixel cloud regrouped. It peeled away from Zero and Maverique, coming to rest solely around Zuciya. These tiny square silvery specs began to rotate. They encompassed the girl inside a circle, giving almost five feet of room either way. It was a pixel tornado, tall enough that she could not see over, dense enough that she could not see through.

Pix himself stood north of her position on the brow of a small hillock. His full attention was upon the twister he had created. Its speed was not particularly ferocious, in actual fact Keri would have been able to walk through its face with no more difficulty as she may have walked through heavy rain. However, this twister was alive and dogging her steps so that were she to escape it would endeavour to sweep her back inside its fold. No, it was not a physical barrier. It was a mental one. The pixel tornado was alive with psionic energy. Any telekinetic force Zuciya could muster would have to pass through it. Yet it could not, for Pix was determined the counteract her psionic force with an equal measure of his own. In effect, quashing the attempt and bringing it to naught. The sprite had created a prison for telekinetics. In doing so, he fancied he had defanged his adversary.

Zero grinned as she fired at him with the line launcher, moving his arm out of the way and pulling out his trusty pistol, sending 3 shots at the girl, "Shoulda taken the deal! Now we're gonna kill you!" Kris would then run at her with his laser katana, jumping around any obstacles and never staying one place for too long.

Zuciya was confused at what was going on around her. When she looked around, she just saw she was in the center of this torando prison thing. Her eyebrows furrowed, "what the hell?" she whispered before extending her hand to the pixel tornado. Her hand could pass through with no problem, but it ended up pushing it back in towards the middle.

She then attempted to use her powers, trying to send a large trashcan to crash through the sandstorm, but nothing. It was just dead silence. "again... what the hell..." she sighed softly. She resulted in having to be physical with this living thing. By logic she was beyond confused about this whole manipulation of pixels thing, but her life was anything but logical, so she just had to face what was given and just go with it.

After contemplating, she sighed and held down her hood with one hand and pushed with another, in attempt to escape from her prison-like cage so she can actually do some real damage. The pressure was not violent and it just felt like she was walking through a really bad rain storm.

Well, she got his attention. But reading movements and intentions could only get Mav so far. It's not like she was physically superhuman. Of the three shots fired, she only managed to cleanly avoid one. The other two would hit non-vitals, or they would have, if they weren't stopped dead in their tracks by her aura. Probably realizing guns wouldn't do him much good, Zero charged at her with his laser katana. Now that was something that would hurt.

He was quite the nimble fellow, as expected of a dangerous assassin. Mav wasn't taking any chances and went on the defensive, watching his movements closely whilst slowly but surely stepping backwards and leading him on. She found herself avoiding the slashes and thrusts by a hair. The katana managed to graze her jacket several times.

Using her senses to be perfectly aware of Zero's and Pix's locations at all times, she used her dodges and sidesteps to gradually lure them closer to each other. Once they were close enough, Keri could probably try to take them both out at once.

A message would come through Zero's communicator. Pix was dimly aware of it, but his attention at the time was focused wholly on Zuciya. If it hadn't been he would have been dictating optimal strategy to Kris, so that was probably a welcome relief. Although, no reason to almost take his head off for. As Maverique drew closer, Zero's laser katana swung uncomfortably close to Pix. Of course the assassin's skill was such that he would never be so careless as to hit an ally. Unfortunately Pix was a little jumpy about the proximity to death implements whizzing passed his skin. He broke concentration.

"Oi! Am I gonna have to replace your laser arsenal with cotton bud themed weapons instead?" This of course meant the pixel tornado (as in likened to a tornado in shape, not power, for those who can't help but take things literally) stopped doing its job.

Kris jumped back far enough to take the call, "Chad this had better be freaking important, Pix and I are in a meeting and- What? Really? Now?" Kris walked over to Pix, hands in his pockets as to show he was no longer a hostile, "Pix, the barbarians are at the gate, we need to give them a welcome party, Link can wait." Pix was smart, he'd probably guess barbarian means Russian and gate means prison.

(posting to end this thread)

In a surprising turn of events, Mav's assailant halted his attack to speak with Pix. From the few words they exchanged, it sounded like they needed to be somewhere else. Well, she wasn't about to just let them walk away. But before she could make good on that resolution her own communicator started beeping. She quickly read of the message that came through. It was a high priority alert to heroes. An invasion was apparently underway and assistance was urgently needed.

Mav paused to run through the facts in her mind. With the gravity of the situation, this was indeed far more important than their scuffle. She would have to deal with HIVE another time. Their call was probably related to this matter as well but she was not about to get friendly with them to discuss it, considering what has happened so far. In any case, it looked like it was in both their best interests to withdraw for now.

"I don't particularly like it, but something urgent has come up and we're going to have to back off for now. The city is in trouble." She said, addressing her teammate.

She then turned her attention to HIVE. "Don't think this is over. Next time, we'll bring you in for sure!"

Once Mav was certain HIVE was backing off as well, she set out post haste to the bridge.