There's a War Going on For Your Mind (Open)

Police were called to help monitor an event gathering downtown that they didn't want to get out of hand. So far, it appeared to be a peaceful protest. But many of the Watcher's collaboraters were seen at the site, and the Watcher's rallies were known for becoming a little... disorganized. STAR Labs was under the public's microscope. They regularly dealt in shady research, and it was well known by many radicals (known being a term used very mercifully here) to be the government's lapdogs. So they often ended up on the wrong side of public backlash. Recently STAR Labs had quite a fiasco when someone had leaked their financial records online, where numerous projects with ominious names on the list.

Sure enough, the Watcher soon made an appearance. Wearing his trademark mask, his followers soon put on the same masks. They seemed expensive, but little effort was put into them besides voice modulation and light effects. The Watcher was handed a megaphone, and the crowd was getting restless with their picket signs. He turned the megaphone on and would start rattling off.

"It was organizations like this that helped the government with experiments like MK ULTRA! It is organizations like these that forsake our saviors in the Justice League and the Teen Titans, and create tools and weapons to destroy them!"

He raised his fist into the air, which was mirrored by his followers. "There is a war going on for your mind! Media mavens mount surgical strikes from trapper keeper collages and online magazine racks! Cover Girl cutouts throw up pop-up ads infecting victims with silicone shrapnel! Worldwide passenger pigeons deploy paratroopers- now it's raining pornography, lovers take shelter! Post-production debutantes pursue you in NASCAR chariots! They construct ransom letters from Biblical passages and bleed mascara into the holy water supplies!"

"There is a war going on for your mind!"

He thrust his fist into the air one more time as the crowd went into an uproar, supporting him and his scripture.

There was little to no response from any kind of authority figures, vigilantes or no. That was good. Christian continued rattling off his poetry and scripture as his followers began wheeling out a pallet of bricks, along with some makeshift weapons like shovels, hammers, and pipes.

"Industry insiders slang test tube babies to corporate crackheads! They flash logos and blast ghettoes! Their embroidered neckties say, STOP SNITCHIN'! Conscious rappers and whistleblowers get stitches made of acupuncture needles and marionette strings!"

"There is a war going on for your mind!" the amassed crowd would chant with him as he said those words again. And as the security guards inside the building were looking at each other in worry, the crowd was being armed. "We demand to be kept informed of what STAR Labs is doing! They work for our government; lapdogs, to beg at their heels! They should be working for us, not against us! And even now, they lie in wait, preparing to make war with us instead of reveal their secrets!" The crowd was getting amped up, just as they usually did when the Watcher made an appearance. They were waving their weapons in the air. All it needed was a little spark...

"This some shit ain't it?" Chuckled a giant of a man watching from the sidelines, chilling with a pair of his buddies from one of the Local Gangs, The Sunset Skulls. He had just gotten back to Jump very recently, and in a short time there was already some mayhem brewing. He liked where this was going- didn't know much about STAR labs, so everything being said was news to him. The fact they worked for the government was already reason enough for him to feel restless and wanting to thrash.

"Sure is Red, this gonna be real fun in a moment. You want us to get this party started?" One of the other thugs offered.

"Wait a tick, look at what's pulling up over there," the other one whistled and pointed to an expensive looking car pulling up behind police. Out stepped a rather important figure, as far as the town or authority figures went. It was the mayor herself in the overdressed flesh!


Sometimes, she really hated this job. As nice as it was to fantasize about all of the power it gave her, she wasn't naive to think that it would be that easy, and had mentally steeled herself for eventualities such as this. But that still didn't mean she was happy about having to deal with an angry mob assembling outside of STAR labs. It was actually quite something for the mayor herself to make an appearance, and that would help the image that she took an interest in the concerns of the people. Flanking her was a small entourage of Vigilance Private Security Bodyguards. She honestly only trusted the police to a limited degree, most of them were complacent, and the fact would not be denied that their efforts to subdue metahumans was abysmal with The MRO... at least until That Robot was taken from STAR Labs; CAP she thought his name was. The Vigilance Bodyguards looked as stern and intimidating as Secret Service, watching everything around them suspiciously.

Charlotte was given a megaphone, and channelling her... persuasive wiles spoke into it, "If I may have everybody's attention!" Charlotte said, the megaphone carrying her voice into the ears of the crowd and subtly applying her influence over their minds. "I have heard your concerns and want to personally assure you, that the recent events involving STAR's involvement with the infamous DOMA debacle and many others are being investigated right now by local and federal investigators," she continued with her silky soft and coaxing voice which seemed to actually be subduing many in the crowd; but for how long that would last remained to be seen.

There wasn't any lie to her words, STAR Labs here was indeed being investigated from top to bottom after DOMA was kicked out and thoroughly put on ice until further notice. She could've been fudging the part about local investigations, as no doubt the higher ups would want to keep things hush hush but that was less an outright lie and an assumption on her part. Since it was in HER city, she deserved to know what they had been doing and she had definitely pushed for it. "I humbly ask that you leave this to us, and go back to your business knowing that your voices and discontent have been heard, and that action is being taken to bring to light what is and has been going on in this great city of ours," Charlotte implored sincerely, and waited to see how the effects of her mental subversion took. It seemed like it was having the desired effect, but there was a small pocket that concerned her greatly... and was that a Giant in the crowd?


"Dude, mayor's a hottie," one of Inferno's buddies remarked, obviously oggling her more than actually listening to what she had to say.

"Now that's a poll erection I can get behind," Inferno grinned stupidly, and all three of them chuckled like morons. Between the three of them, Inferno was probably the most likely to behave around women; especially ones that looked like Charlotte. While effective as it was to soothe everyone in the crowd, Inferno's desire for mayhem just barely eked out whatever Charlotte's words and beauty did for him. "Ay, Caine- let's light this powder keg eh?" Inferno smirked evilly as he gestured for them to follow him into the crowd as Charlotte was nearing the end of her spiel. Then handing Caine the empty bottle he totally had on him, he whispered to throw it at the cops.

Which he did, while everyone was partially distracted with Charlotte. Their fear and respect of Inferno was likewise JUST high enough to eke out Charlotte's persuasion, and Caine threw it right at a cop's face to try and set this off!

The Watcher regarded the Mayor as she showed up, and told him and his crowd that STAR Labs was already being investigated and taken care of. He let her have her time to talk, and then turned around, walking into the crowd as he looked at each and every one of them. He wanted to believe her. It looked like nearly everyone in the crowd did. But he had lost trust in his country and his government a long time ago.

Without looking back at Mayor Charlotte, he spoke into the loudspeaker as he walked among the crowd. "She seeks to placate us. To tame us. Domesticate us, as her government has done to all officials in this city."

He turned around, addressing the Mayor from within the crowd. Gesturing at her and their city as he looked to the people. "Professional wrestlers and vice presidents want you to believe them! The desert sky is their blue screen; they superimpose explosions! They shout at you, "Pay no attention to the men behind the barbed curtain, nor the craters beneath the draped flags! Those hoods are there for your protection, and the meteors these days are the size of corpses!" He was getting worked up, hyperventilating. Once more, he repeated, "There is a war going on for your mind..."

He turned, just in time to see a man hefting a glass bottle to throw at the police. He dropped the megaphone, and raised his fist into the air, shouting. "WE ARE THE INSURGENTS!"

Then, the bottle was thrown. And it incited the crowd to begin attacking STAR Labs. Where did those molotovs come from? The Watcher faded into the crowd with the dozen or so men that were dressed and looked like him with their masks, and they stormed the front of the building as they broke down the glass doors.