A Very HIVE Christmas (HIVE/Open)

'Don't speak of things you don't understand...' Kristen thought with a bit of exasperation. She realized that she let herself get a bit too harsh though; the holier-than-thou personality trait passed down through generations of Nephilim that she always tried to hide was showing through as a result of her failing acting techniques. As Kane led Quinn towards the exit, he told Kristen that if she finds any other villains around, that she should give him a holler so he could handle it. Before walking off in the other direction, Kristen turned to him and Quinn as they walked away, "While I can take care of myself, I can only leave you with the same advice. I believe the saying is, 'there is safety in numbers.'"

After parting with Kane and Quinn, Kristen walked over to a map of the Galleria, trying to locate where the security office might be. While she doubted anything but stores, the food court and hallways would be located on the map, she noticed that one hallway next to the food court had a dead end, and decided that it was likely that the security room was behind the food court kiosks. Taking off again and flying up near the ceiling, out of view of the cameras, Kristen followed the route towards the hallway next to the food court that would lead her to the security room.

When she arrived, she noticed that the door was locked from the inside, and because of the opposing force behind the door when she tried the lock, probably barricaded as well. Knowing that, at this point, whoever was behind the cameras probably noticed the disturbance by now, Kristen charged up two medium-powered Smite Gauntlets to break up door and the barricade, moved off to the side, and shot out both arms in a sweeping motion, bringing the debris towards her end of the doorway and clearing the entrance completely. After this maneuver, she stepped into the security room, hands raised in front in defense, to face whoever was manning the cameras. She tried to reach out with her telekinesis to suspend the person inside, but if Nina had already heard her and hid/escaped through the air vent, she would be met with an empty room littered with food and drinks, and blinking screens.

Of course they wouldn't cooperate. They rarely did. At least she gave the warning. Whatever came after, they were asking for it. She did quick roll forward to avoid the falling shelves before standing up and brushing the dust off her sleeve, her aura glowing visibly. Someone had been neglecting the cleaning.

"It can't be helped. You tripped alarms all over the city didn't you? I just happened to draw the lucky ticket with the real thing. Let's see if I can't wrap this up before the rest arrive."

Mav aimed her lined launcher and fired, the line soaring dangerously close to Pix's "head" before latching on to the opposite wall. She would then reel herself in at high-speed and use the momentum to execute a flying kick that would connect with Pix's "chest" if he did not move out of the way. It was hard to say for sure if she was aiming at the correct spot when the target was made of pixels or could become so at will. She only hoped she was fast enough or Pix was as easily distracted as she remembered.

So Kane was being more obvious than he had thought, not that it mattered though, pretending to check her out was an excuse to keep an eye on her. Kane slowed down so that he was right beside her So did you see exactly who or what it was that's out there? I'd like to know what I'm dealing with, I'm gonna go after it once we're done here

Whether or not this would spark a meaningful response, they would soon arrive at the doors Alright, hurry along now, go straight home. If you don't live in walking distance, take a bus he gave her some spare change for a bus, just in case Promise me you'll be safe, K? with that, he started to walk back the way they went, if Quinn was going to try anything this would be her last chance.

Pix was pleased that someone had picked up the nuance of his plan. Acknowledging it was almost akin to praise. His chest puffed out as he replied, "That's right. With no police to speak of my strategy is far easier to-" Pix flinched as something flew passed his head. Caught mid-sentence, he glanced dumbfoundedly at the projectile marvelling that it hadn't hit. Then he registered what it was. His marvel quickly transformed into panic and he quickly grabbed the line a fraction of a second before Maverique's impact.

Pix flew off his vehicle and landed several feet back. Had he been breathing the wind would have been knocked out of him. A large chunk or his chest had merely shattered upon contact. Individual pieces now began to trickle automatically back into the cavity. Recovering from shock Pix propped himself up on one elbow, "I didn't say start!" His turn.

The pixels overhead and alongside and behind all began to coalesce into basic shapes. Cubes, pyramids, cylinders and the like. Pix was then able to simultaneously set their vectors to crash into Maverique. It was a pixel onslaught. Meanwhile another plan was in motion. When Pix had lain a hand on Mav's line launcher he had coated a section with a thin layer of pixels. That line was now back inside the gun's housing. The pixels were free to disperse and genuinely try to gum up the mechanism.

Nina had seen Kirsten looking at the map on the cameras, followed by her sudden disappearance, if playing Five Nights at Freddy's had taught her anything, it would be that if you can't see it, it's probably heading straight for you. Filled with the same paranoia Nina decided to hit the kill button for the cameras, switching all the screens off before she turned into her fox form and jumped into the vents, backing up into them but watching the console to see if her paranoia had been correct, and it was ha! Pfft, and people say that games teach you nothing.

Of course, Quinn couldn’t help but smile she had heard the transmission from Nina come through her ear piece. “Ummm, I didn’t really get a good look… it was sort of dark after all”. Quinn would say initially as Kane had quizzed her on the appearance of the so called ‘attacker’. “But that girl… I dunno, something seemed a little off. You should probably keep an eye on her”. Quinn would say, having watched on with a slight glare when Kristen had departed from them.

“I’ll be fine, thank you”. Quinn would say with a smile in response to Kane after he had escorted her out of the mall. She watched as he headed back in, waiting until he was out of sight before turning away. Hand to her ear, she opened communications once again. “Nina… we’ve got two heroes sniffing around. Holler if you need me”. Quinn would then simply walk away down the street. Pix had spoken of contingency plans, well. Best put one to use.

Kristen walked into the security room, now empty because of Nina's disappearance. She noticed the unusual nature of the security cameras being killed and blacked out. She idly lifted her hand, using telekinesis to clean up the food and drink strewn around the space as she plotted her next move. Surely there was someone in here, there was no other entrance and exit into the room besides that which Kristen had entered from herself, so where could the overseer have hidden? It was a possibility that the person who was manning the cameras was still around. "It would make this less difficult for the both of us if you quit hiding; I know you're around here." Kristen spoke into the air, releasing her spiritual permeation and searching for any signals, all for naught though. It was useless if the person she was searching for was not demonic in origin. Whether or not Nina decided to reveal herself or call for backup seemed to depend little on Kristen's seemingly apathetic statement.

Kristen started messing with different controls to get the cameras back online. She had no intention of standing back and watching; she was more interested in getting back into action. But she still had to take care of the individual originally behind the cameras. Her thought process circling, she decided it was time to bring this dull escapade to an end. After a significant deal of button mashing, Kristen finally reactivated the cameras.

She quickly glanced over the different screens before pacing the security room again. Kane had appeared to successfully get Quinn out of the mall and was now heading back inside. She figured that the girl probably had some other trick up her sleeve since she had not attacked Kane. Another hero that Kristen had not yet met had also intercepted Pix's shenanigans.

Casting her gaze among the room before leaving to reinforce one of the two other heroes, she noticed something off about the grate of the air vent. Upon coming closer to it, she noticed it had been disturbed; the screws were looser than they would have been, had the grate been closed from the outside. Kristen ghosted her fingers across the grate momentarily before stepping back and reaching out with her telekinesis to open the grate and secure any entity within with careful grace. The grate would effortlessly float off of its placement in the wall, and if Nina was still hiding, she would be pulled out along with it. If Nina had managed to escape the way she came in, Kristen would be greeted with a vent of nothing. Either way, Kristen would meet whatever she faced with a calm, level gaze.

It was hard for Mav to be happy about landing a hit even though the villain was thrown back and his chest shattered. He was only down for a few seconds before picking himself up and proceeding to launch his own assault almost immediately after. As Mav reeled back her line, she found that the mechanism was somehow jammed and she couldn't retract the entire thing. Normally it would be impossible as she kept her equipment well-maintained. But Pix was someone who could easily reach into tiny spaces and mess them up. It didn't take long to put two and two together, which was a relief as she didn't have much time to pause.

Despite all her athleticism and power to see through attacks, avoiding a coordinated onslaught from multiple directions was not an easy chore. Slowly but surely, she made her way closer and closer to Pix's main body as she alternated between dodging and deflecting the pixel constructs. Once she near enough, she used the extended line like a whip to once more try to strike the villain. A steel-like cord would still normally hurt when whipped at someone. But it was difficult to discern if physical attacks even did any lasting damage at all. She'd have to try something else soon.

((OOC: Pika has requested he skip. I for one am not opposed to him frolicking in any manner he chooses. But you guys might hold ethical disagreements with such- oh. OH! That he be skipped. That makes more sense.))

Pix got to his feet as the barrage commenced. And it quickly became apparent that it wasn't working. So much for that idea. From what he knew of Maverique she was blessed with a degree of physical durability. That didn't explain how she could have survived Jemmy's magma attack but go figure. Plainly the pixel barrage was too feeble to invoke anything greater than irritation. Yet this was no great setback. Hugh had always worked best with alternate solutions to problems rather than raw undisciplined violence.

He didn't anticipate the whip. Maverique had used a degree of ingenuity to fashion her broken toy into a new weapon. The steel cable thwacked against Pix a few times, slicing off pixels and stinging him with startling amounts of pain. The sprite was on his knees before a pixel platform whisked him out of range. All wounds Maverique had managed to inflict were rapidly reconstructing. In a few short seconds Pix was back to normal. Without any wounds there was nothing to perpetuate the stinging sensation one suffered with after lashes.

"Time out! It's obvious we're getting nowhere here. I can't be incapacitated by physical attacks and you're above anything I can dish out." The barrage of pixels had stopped, the gravity-defying silver swarm coming to rest like a mist around Hugh. "So why don't we save us both some trouble and come to an arrangement? There is an outstanding bounty on you I could be negotiated to scrap."

It appeared as though everybody was firmly focused upon the Jump City mall. It was tonight's hub of criminal activity, with two heroes already alerted to the danger with the high likeliness that others may follow suit. Whilst it wasn't the most admirable decision, Quinn had decided to desert her fellow HIVE teammates, but did so with good reason.

Tonight was not going to be a failure. Quinn was currently located several blocks away in a store named; Cole's McG's Electronics. She had slipped in without any telling force, and made quick work of the security cameras inside. Out back, in an alleyway at the very south side of the store was a van, with the back doors opened wide as Quinn went back and forth lifting televisions and other electronics into the back. After loading a huge flatscreen into the back, Quinn paused as she opened up comms with her teammates. "So umm... keep the heroes there if you could, thanks". Nothing more needed to be said. The less they know, and the less the heroes know, the better.

Nina went wide eyed when she saw Kirsten destroy all her yummy food, as soon as she did though Nina would start backing up into the vent and turning the corner and moving through the vents silently, all Kirsten would get out of the vent would be dust, Nina would climb out of the vent in the bathroom and whisper into her headset "guys I've been chased out of the camera room..." she uttered.

When Kristen found out that whoever was in the vent had escaped, she dropped her telekinesis and, after taking one last look at the cameras, blocked the vent to prevent the ability to re-enter the room and locked the door behind her after leaving the room. A short walk back to where she had departed from Kane, and she noticed him returning from the exit of the mall. Walking up to him calmly, she said, "I went to go pursue whoever was behind the cameras, but they managed to escape somehow. I closed off all access to the camera room to prevent them from returning. So what do you propose we do now?" She blinked. "I was hoping you were better at reading body language, but now that that girl is gone I'll clear up what I meant to say." she said this in a more hushed tone in case they were still within earshot of anyone else. "You realize that girl was one of them, right? One of the perpetrators. It was obvious to me, but I can't say the same for you."

It was then that Kristen thought of an idea. "It would be foolish to think that she would be retreating back to their base. We should go after her - well, one of us at least. Whoever was behind the cameras could still be prowling around the mall... not to mention that metahuman is still inside that store." Kristen looked at Kane again to make sure he was paying attention, or if he had something to say.

"I've already tried proposing that you surrender peacefully. For the record, there's zero chance of me accepting an arrangement where you walk out of here freely."

Mav appreciated being given a moment to catch her breath. Not even she could keep up that physical exercise indefinitely. But the pixel dude did have a point. She wasn't making much progress with inflicting physical damage. But since Pix couldn't hurt her too, all hope wasn't lost.

She ran straight towards the villain, reached inside her pocket for a flash grenade and then threw it right at him while shielding her own eyes. She didn't slow down one bit. Unlike most people, she could tell exactly where others were even with her eyes closed in situations like this. As soon as she got close enough, she would flip out her shock stick and thrust into Pix's body, squeezing the grip to activate the stun gun-like effect.

Kane sauntered back the way he came, he regretted that he couldn't do anything about that girl in case she was a perpetrator, but as he just said, he couldn't do anything about it. He came back and was greeted with the familiar yet blank face of Kristen, who told him that things hadn't gone that great on her end either, that made Kane feel slightly better. Sadly, she had salvaged something from the wreck and had prevented them from returning.

Then, she stated that the girl was most likely one of the perpetrators; nooooooooooo, really? Kane had noooooo idea. What an amaaaaaazing insight. Despite all his sass, Kane showed no signs of it on the outside and just sighed I thought as much too, but I can't do anything without proof y'know? She then suggested that they go after the girl to see if she is doing anything, Kane thought about it for a second I'll go after the girl, you stick around here, alright? he waited for some kind of approval from her that that would be what they were doing.

"An inability to compromise is exactly why you're losing." The Titans were easier to deal with.

Seeing the grenade go airborne caused Pix to think GRENADE!!! like any normal person. It seemed a bit extreme for a heroine, but if Maverique could tank the fallout then it wasn't a stretch to believe she would feature explosives in her arsenal. There were many non-killing uses for explosives. Using them against Pix was not one of these. He was immune to their percussion but susceptible to heat from their detonation. A big enough fireball could easily smelt the pixels of his body together and render him naught but slag. He wasn't sure if he could recover from that.

Still, this lessened the danger. An explosive's heat had a far smaller area of effect than did its kinetic force. Pix just needed the keep it away from him. A stream of pixels would intercept the grenade mid-flight and knock it off its current trajectory. Furthermore, the platform Pix was stood upon would drop him to the ground and turn vertical in front of him, forming a sort of blast shield. Pixels were fragile, they would be useless against the percussion yet might still absorb the worst of the heat. He was prepared.

For a normal grenade.

Of course this was a flash bang so the first thing that struck him was a wall of light. And secondly the dizzying effect of sound. Thankfully the blast shield had been between him and the blast. It had taken the edge off that aggressive flare. Pix could still see. But he was stunned thanks to sound alone. The flashbang could still incapacitate targets that were looking the other way if it was close enough. The reason most users put their fingers in their ears instead of using them to shield their eyes.

Hugh's moment of delirium passed. He beheld the sight of Maverique's shock-stick pinioning his pixel construction - a solid obstacle positioned where he had been stood. Electricity would cause the pixels to loose all cohesion and tumble to the ground a disorganised and inert mass. They were now beyond Hugh's control.

Oh c***! ()

The rest of the pixels shot down like a sudden downpour. They weren't shapes this time. Bludgeoning Maverique was useless. They were an amorphous mass in order to prevent the cattle prod from inducing its charge across a solid construct again. The electric arc could only disable those individual pieces that exactly crossed its path. Pix deconstructed parts of his body and slotted himself through the gaps of a shelving isle behind him. Try to put something between himself and Maverique.