Burning Darkness

A sleek black Porsche Boxter pulled into the driveway of what appeared to be a modern style home. The driver side door opened and out exited Cassidy Starks, CEO of Starks Enterprises. Anybody who saw her here would think nothing of it. Her face wasn't instantly recognizable and in the case that she was recognized, the assumption would be that this was just one of the numerous residences that she kept. The truth could not be any further off. By all appearances, interior and exterior, this was actually a home. When in reality, it was a facade. Underneath the foundation of this home was a series of tunnels complete with a fully functional shuttle that led to a state of the art holding facility for highly dangerous (read super powered) individuals that Cass had designed with a large amour of help from the leading scientists in mutant and meta powers.

Her flat boots padded across the stone walkway as she slipped out a key from the large Chanel purse that was draped over her shoulder. Sliding the key into the door, she stepped into the foyer of the house. After closing the heavy front door behind her, she activated the alarm system. Should somebody without the intricately designed access key attempt to enter the abode, several things would happen; a pressure switch would engage in the floor and anybody who triggered it by placing their foot on the floor for longer than a second would release a knockout gas, an assault team would be dispatched to this location and as the crowning glory, the entire house would go into lockdown procedures with the oxygen slowly being sucked out. The only ones capable of disengaging it were the head of the specially appointed assault squad and Cassidy herself. She took no risks with something of this much importance.

Her hand trailed across the smooth wood of the staircase bannister as she descended onto the first level of the house. Entering the bedroom, she stripped off the black silk business suit that she had been wearing and stepped out of the red heels. Stark naked, she walked over to the closet and pulled out something a little more pedestrian. Five minutes later and she was wearing a pair of black cargo pants and a grey tank top accompanied by her favorite pair of combat boots. Her kukris rested safely in their sheaths as always and there was a neural impairing gun at the small of her back, something that Starks Enterprises was in the process of field-testing.

Fifteen Minutes Later

There was an air of business and purpose about her as she strode into the facility currently known only as Beta, hinting at the existence of others. Pulling her coursing red hair back into a ponytail she looked over to her right side as Owen Boone, her first in command for this facility, approached her. His muscled frame towered over her as he fell in step next to her, shortening his stride to match hers. "Do you have a sit-rep for me, Captain?"

The former military man of Scottish descent smiled down at her a they progressed towards the holding cell. "Aye lassie, that I do." His brogue never failed to bring a smile to Cass's face despite the fact that she knew he thickened it intentionally to catch the attention of ladies. A charmer if there ever was. "She's becoming more hostile. Ye know we've been doing our best to keep her complacent, but she's beginning to build up a resistance to everything."

"She's never been one to sit down and take something. A fighter if I've ever met one. I'd respect her for it if it didn't infuriate me so damn much." With a rolling of her green eyes she looked over to Owen. "Has she attempted an escape yet?"

"Nay. But tis only a matter of time. She's biding her time, I believe. Waiting for a moment of opportunity. I don't want ye here when she attempts it, Cassidy."

They had come to a stop in front of a set of doors that were able to be accessed only by the combination of their retinal scans, full palm prints and voice recognition, all done simultaneously with one another. "We've had this discussion before, Captain Boone. I'm perfectly capable of handling myself. You know this better than most. Now, shall we?" The last was said with a slight head tilt toward the doors.

Three minutes later the process was complete and Cass entered the holding cell as Owen awaited her in the observation room. They were currently the only two occupying Beta, all other teams had been sent home and given the next two days off. Everything that happened here was kept between the two of them and there were only several ways that that could go wrong. The holding cell was a large, nicely furnished room. It was complete with a bed, television, bookcase, kitchenette and separate bathroom. There was nothing that could be weaponized and everything had been fire-proofed. There were no chances being taken here.

The brunette woman sat in a chair, a glowering expression on her face. Cassidy smirked as she stood, leaning casually against the wall. "Nova. Pleasure to see you, as always. Please, be so kind as to let me talk before threatening to burn me to a crisp." Pulling a tablet out of her cargo pocket, she pulled up a set of legal documents proclaiming Stephanie Ardor to be of unsound mental health. "You're a danger to the public, Nova. You have a history of mental instability, of attacking not only innocent people like that man you burned to a crisp in Peru, but of attacking heroes as well." She pulled out a file from the briefcase that she had brought in with her and walked over to the titanium dining table, fanning out the pictures. They were of extremely graphic content. A man without any eyeballs in his face, after they had been heated and exploded by Nova herself. A burn scar traced down the edge of his cheek, a memento from a sadistically gentle touch. Crazy Eights in extreme and utter agony after being burned to a crisp in an attempt to protect the rest of the Shadow Squad. "Starks Enterprises has satellites all over the world. When I inherited the company, it was a simple matter of tracking down the dates of the Skrull attack and finding the evidence of your attack. How many times have you attacked heroes, Stephanie? Your attack during the attempted Skrull Invasion could have seriously hindered our return to Champion City. How many times have you tried to kill Zicarra, the woman you claim to be your best friend? There's something that's broken inside of you, something that makes it dangerous for others to be near you or around you." This wasn't a spin of events and that's what made it so damn convincing. Everything that Cassidy had said was true. Perhaps skewed a bit, but that was part of the art of twisting things and anybody with knowledge of PR knew that. All the best spins were based entirely on the truth.

"You have two choices. Undergo a procedure here that will inhibit your powers and leave them in the control of others and be allowed to wreak as much havoc as you like, but wreak it on the people of our choosing and be free to go, to live your life to some degree of freedom. Your second choice is to remain here, where others can be safe from you. It's up to you." Cassidy was fully prepared for her to accept neither and try and break out, which would also be spun to her favor.

Her fingers tapped lightly along the titanium table as she sat in her prison of a room. She wasn't sure how long she had been trapped here in this forsaken room, or where the hell she was. All she knew was the one responsible for her imprisonment... "Cassidy..." she whispered to herself, her eyes burning with fire.  

When Stephanie first joined Champions of Peace, after her rampage in Peru, there were many people who where skeptical about the Fire Goddess being fully ‘cured’, but the one person who felt more strongly about this more than anyone... was Cassidy. Since the first site of (at the time) the rouge hero, she had embedded in her mind that she was a danger to everyone, that she couldn't be trusted. No matter how many lives she saved or good deeds’ she did, she never, ever trusted her.  

But then again, Stephanie can't say that she didn't feel the same way. With a background like hers... how could she? Raised from birth by Gambler, became an assassin, then brushed elbows with Lady T and Dreadmaster, and not to mention her encounter with Darkchild. And from her personal experience with Darkchild, once he has entered your life... your never the same again. 
So between the two, there had always been an issue when it came to each other. 

However, for the life of her, Nova just can’t remember how Cassidy managed to capture her, the last thing she remembered, was receiving a message to meet up with her, to talk to her, to hopefully come to a understanding of each other and end the cycle of hatred towards each other, then... everything went blank and next thing she knew, she was laying on the bed, dressed in a white suit with her communicator, weapon and own cloths gone and stuck in this room that didn't seem familiar to her. Then when she found it was Cass who captured, and intended on keeping here for the rest of her remanding life, that’s when it pushed her over the edge. She almost attacked Cass that second she found out it was her, the only thing that was stopping her... those two small life forms inside her. She could feel the heat of their life's energy growing inside of her, and even feel the warmth of their pulse beat, it was actually rather amazing. But those two... where the only ones that were keeping their mother from being turned into ashes right now.  

Time wasn't relevant to Stephanie right now, weeks? Months? Years? She didn't know how long she has been in here, but she remembered that the first few days were torture. Somehow, they found the same chemical that Dr. Sting would inject into Stephanie, to suppress her pyro powers, that thick dark blue liquid that felt like fire rushing through her vines when injected. It was the worst feeling she ever felt. Her heart would start pounding, her lungs will struggle to collect oxygen and then her head felt like it was about to explode right before she would pass out, and having that feeling brought back all over again, wasn't making Stephanie a huge fan of Cassidy right now. But the Fire Goddess was quickly becoming resistant to it and the other sedating medications they have tried on her. Stephanie thinks it may be thanks to the demonic blood that now ran through her, 
 
But she wasn't the only one that took noticed, many of the guards now refused to go into the room to give the Fire Goddess her sedating medications due to her increasing resistant to them. All because Stephanie was a prisoner... didn’t' mean she was going to sit back and let people try to take control of her. She would fight for hours while they would attempt to give her medications, never attempted to kill them... only to keep herself safe, and now, they have to come the point of having to shoot in temporary paralyzing gas before going into the room to give her the medications.  

But for some reason... today, she hadn't seen anyone. Not a single guard has roamed by her room. Sure her room was sound proof, but she could always see the infrared outlining of the guards walking by her room. This was very unusual, only happened every once in a while and when it did... it usually meant she was going to have a very important visitor. 

Her door opened and two figures walked through. The first one she recognized all too well, Captain Boone, he was the first person she saw upon waking up in this room, and aside from Cassidy, he wasn't her most favorite person right now. Then the second person, almost pushed her over the edge.  

"Nova. Pleasure to see you, as always. Please, be so kind as to let me talk before threatening to burn me to a crisp."  

All Stephanie did was glare at the woman, thoughts of different way's to repay her for this was rushing through her mind right now as her hands balled up into fists. One thing about Stephanie, she was never good at hiding her feelings.
Setting some documentation’s on the table, Stephanie looked at them with angery eyes, she knew what was about to happen. Cassidy began to speak about how she was a danger to everyone, telling stories of her past when she wasn’t in control of herself back at the time of Peru, and was so nice as to pull out some visual aids for her form the incident. Stephanie couldn't help but look away from them, she knew what she did was wrong, she knew she was a danger, at THAT point of her life, she knew she had killed an innocent man, and almost took out an entire squad of heroes, BUT she wasn't the same person she was when those events happened. Not to mention she had paid her dues. She had control over herself now, over a year since anything like that happen, in fact, she had shown control over it now. If anything, she has been improving.

She then ended her lovely speech with "You have two choices. Undergo a procedure here that will inhibit your powers and leave them in the control of others and be allowed to wreak as much havoc as you like, but wreak it on the people of our choosing and be free to go, to live your life to some degree of freedom. Your second choice is to remain here, where others can be safe from you. It's up to you.". 

That caused Stephanie to lash out, she stood up, slamming her hands on the table. "YOU of all people should understand what hell I went through, the emotional and mental battle I went through because of my encounter with Darkchild. You know very damn well that at the time, I had no control over myself and I don't remember the attack in Peru pass the part where THEY fired at me FIRST. As for attacking heroes, I'm not going to lie to you, it's happened twice in my life, once in Peru, the other time when I was brainwashed and used by Sha to do her bidding for the Death Syndicate, BEFORE your time. I have been trying to redeem myself for my mistakes I've made in life, I've fought along side with heroes, not to mention your mother, and even lead a team myself. I've learned from my mistakes Cassidy, unlike someone else here in this room." Her eyes look fiercely at Cassidy. "If ANYONE is a danger to the people around them, its YOU." she pointed at the redhead as Boone quickly stood up as well, only to have the hand of The Huntress gently grasp his arm to sit back down. "YOUR the one who's emotionally unstable, YOUR the one who's been going through mental breakdowns and YOUR the one who is now kidnapping HEROES. Why not go after people like DARKCHILD, GAMBLER, LADY T, the REAL villains, is it because YOU work for them now? Have you steeped so low in life that you've decided to cause the same mental and physical pain and torment to innocents as those morally corrupted people have done to millions of others as well as yourself?! Are your really planning to expose the innocents of your two unborn children to this madness? Or what about those other heroes that go rouge more times than Gambler finds new love intrests!? Or are you just on some personal vendetta against me when I was at the lowest point of my life?" She paused for a moment as the two locked eye contact, if looks could kill, everyone within a hundred foot radius would be dead right about now.
 
She looked at the documents as she grasped them with her hands and held them outward towards Cassidy. "I know, you know, I WONT sign this bull crap, I also know that your expecting something to go down, why other reason would all the guards be suddenly gone?" She slammed the papers back on the table. "Tell me Cassidy, if the rolls were switched right now, what would you honestly do in my shoes? Sign those papers? Rot in this place or..." her eyes switched over to Captain Boone. "Try to escape?" She looked back at the emerald eyed villain.
 
She sat back down in her seat as she watched Cassidy think for a moment. "I'd do everything in my power to beat the living crap out of you. Without question." her answer spew from her lips as Stephanie couldn't help but smirk. 
 
"Well... now that, that’s settled..." she closed her eyes for a moment as tension could be felt rising in the room. "I guess I shouldn't disappoint, since you did come all this way to pay me a little visit." 

With that, within seconds everything was about to break into hell. Stephanie stood up, pushing the titanium table to the left as it smashed into the wall and with her free hand, outstretched it to Captain Boone as he began to scream in pain. Manipulating the heat inside his body she then pulled him towards her, allowing her hand to wrap around his neck as he struggled to breath. Stephanie was currently raising the temperatures in his lungs to the point of him being unable to breath without causing pain. This wasn't a part of her powers the hero used often, but desperate times, comes for desperate measures. While also rising the temperature inside the enclosed room sky high, she grasped the gun from the Captain's holster with her free hand and threw it across the room after melting the barrel shut. Looking at Captain Boone she hissed in anger to him. "As much as I spite you for following her... you don't deserve to die, not by my hands." with that she suddenly withdrew body heat from him, causing him to pass out from hypothermia, his body pale and cold she threw him to the side on the bed that was provided for her.  

Turning her attention to Cassidy she looked at her with furry, her brows collided together. "If you weren't holding those living beings inside you right now... you would have already been blown out of this room." She growled at her as she walked forward, grasping the titanium metal table as it began to slowly melt down from the simple touch of her hand. Manipulating the heated metal, it began to wrap itself around her left arm in a spiral band to her shoulder. Melted metal, always had its uses for Stephanie, and now was not an exception. 

“I’ll give you ONE chance Cass, for the sake of your unborn children, let me out of here alive, in one piece and with my powers, and I WILL NOT harm you.” Her eyes were stern, filled with power and anger. This wouldn’t be an offer Stephanie would give twice. Sure she wanted to beat the living crap out of Cassidy, but with those babies growing inside… she wouldn’t steep so low as to attack her without a choice.

The words sank in as Feral Nova spouted them out and they sunk in with perhaps more depth and meaning than Cass cared for. This wasn't the time for introspection, but there it was, happening anyways. Cass had always been without strong roots, always trying to find her path. She stumbled a lot, went down a lot of dark roads. She was down one now. But no matter how dark she went, no matter what she did, in her mind there was always some kind of justification for it and that may just have been what made her the most dangerous. If you could justify something to yourself, then there wasn't really anybody who could stop you from doing it. But Nova's words struck her deep, there was no justifying away their meaning, because everything she said was completely true.

As the eyes of the temperamental Fire Goddess met those of the unpredictable Redheaded Ravager, something passed between them. It wasn't able to be defined by a single emotion and no words came to mind to describe it, but there was something. In another world, during another time, there was every possibility that these two would have been great friends, if a bit begrudging. But the time had passed far too long ago for that to ever be a possibility in this lifetime. Too many wrongs had been perpetrated between them, too many hard feelings for things to ever be soothed over. Maybe one day Nova would understand, but that day was not coming for many ages.

The intent had never been for Nova to accept, although that would have been quite a nice feat. The intent was to leave a message. This is one of your best known heroes and not even she is safe. Don't ever come up against Cassidy Lockhart Starks, you will not come away unscathed. Do not harm her family. Do not threaten her friends. Even if you make reparations in your own way. They said it was better to be respected than to be feared and she figured she was a bit far gone for the respected part, so god help her, she would be feared.

The last sentence left Nova's mouth and everything went to hell. Cassidy had made it part of her life's mission not to ever underestimate anybody, but she was woe to admit that she had done just that with Stephanie. Cassidy had to physically restrain herself from charging forward towards Nova the second that she put her hands on Owen. He was not Captain Boone, not in Cassidy's mind. He was a friend of hers from that in between time of her life, after she had left Gambler and before she'd become a part of the Shadow Squad. They'd now known each other for over five years and in those five years, gone through may unspeakable things. "I swear by everything that you hold dear, if he comes to any grievous harm at your hands, I will never stop coming for you and those you love." There was no panic in her voice, only rock steady conviction.

As soon as the words had left her mouth, he was safe and not so sound on the bed. A cursory glance and Cass knew he would be fine, he was after all, hearty Scottish stock, a joke that they had between the two of them. "You call me the villain and maybe I am. But I'd rather live in a world that fears me, than in one that thinks it can walk all over me."

Innovative, as always, was the only thought in her mind as she watched Stephanie fashion a weapon literally forged from steel. Cass herself was not without weapons, though. She wrapped the telekinetic energy around herself, forming a soft shield of sorts, albeit one that could be broken through so that she could focus the rest of her energies elsewhere. Since her pregnancy had manifested, there had been a purple tint on the edges of her telekinetic forcefield and it glowed in the air as she pulled her two kukris from their waist sheaths, lacing them in that energy as well to give them an added oomph.

"You're giving me ultimatums now, Steph? Really, me? How well have I ever responded to threats?" She shook her head, half in amusement, half in frustration, resulting in her red hair to cascade around her lightly freckled cheeks. Looking up at Feral Nova, her green eyes glowed with a vibrant light as she readied herself for battle. For that's what this would be, a battle like no other that she had ever fought.

Before there was time for a response, Cass was off and moving. She may be pregnant, but she was still more than capable of fighting, perhaps even moreso now with the motherly protection instinct kicking in. Moving towards Nova with a nearly blinding speed, she feinted to the left before moving right, a kukri held firmly gripped in one hand, her second free for any maneuvers she may need to perform. Running slightly off to the side, she hopped into the air, placing one foot on the seat of the steel chair for leverage to leap through the air. As she did so, she performed an innovative scissor kick, aiming not for Nova's head, but for her unguarded shoulder in the hopes to jolt her. Landing in a rolling crouch about a foot behind her, Cass's back facing Nova's, she held the kukri in a reverse grip and made a slashing motion towards first her Achilles Heel, followed by the back of her knee and finally ending with a quick motion towards the joint of her elbow. None of these would kill her, but if she were lucky enough to land just one, there was every chance that they would partially (at least temporarily) disable her and limit her range of motion.

Rising to her feet, the reckless mercenary turns around to face the back of Feral Nova, not quite paying attention to what damage she may or may not have dealt and holding the kukri down at her side, ready to act on a moment's notice. "Was that an adequate response?" She can't help but taunt her.

"You call me the villain and maybe I am. But I'd rather live in a world that fears me, than in one that thinks it can walk all over me."

Stephanie chuckled to herself. Villains, they were all the same. Wanting to rule with power, through fear and manipulation. Cassidy was becoming exactly what she was raised to become and has tried to avoid.

The Fire Goddess knew that this fight wasn’t going to be easy; she knew that there was also a pretty good chance that she wouldn’t make it out of this fight alive. But if anyone knew Steph, is that she was a stubborn fighter… and a pretty damn good one at that.

She watched as Cass readied her weapons, two kukris, and she had to admit… they looked like they would cause a lot of pain. Stephanie stood her ground while the rouge hero began to protect herself from the heated room with a purple tinted… force field of some sort. She would actually think it would have been rather pretty… if it wouldn’t have been around the woman she was about to go head to head with. But Stephanie dealt with force feilds before, so she had her own way of dealing with them.

The words that left Cassidy lips barley phased the hero, she was too busy watching her body language, the way she stood, the way she grasp her weapons, even the frustrated and amused look she had on her face. But she didn’t respond with a single word, for the first time in a long time… she was actually worried about losing. If she lost… who would be next? Ziccarra? War Killer? Her own daughter? This was a fight, she couldn’t afford to lose.

As soon as the light flashed in her eyes, Stephanie took a defensive stance as Cass displayed amazing speed as she came towards her. It shocked the flaming hero, before she knew it, she was receiving a kick to the right shoulder, causing her to stumble back and loose focus on what the hell just happened. But that was quickly answered with a sharp pain to the left heel and right after, a pain to the back of the left knee. Grunting in pain she stumbled forward, her left knee buckling under her as she spun around on her right foot, causing the final attack to slice at her elbow to slam right into her titanium covered left arm.

She was right, those damn things DID hurt! Now face to face the two fighters stared at each other, trying not to let the fact that she was kinda sorta maybe in pain right now show in her face, she gave a smirk.

"Was that an adequate response?"

“Oh, I think that was loud and clear.” Stephanie spoke back, a grin on her face. She knew she was going to have to be quicker with her attacks, think ahead, not let her get so close, in other words… she was going to have to fight her like if this was a battle with Ziccarra, with full force.

“You know, they say fear is like a cancer, it is a serious threat to one's spiritual, mental, emotional and physical well being, but… with enough courage, faith and strength, anyone can overcome it.” As she spoke her words, some of the metal traveled down to her left heel and knee, wrapping itself around it as it not only cauterizing her lacerations shut, but was now going to be providing support on her weaken extremity. “And since you already want the roll of fear… I suppose that makes me courage and strength.” Taking a few steps back he grasped the handle of the chair that Cassidy used to maneuver over, with her right hand, using to at first help keep weight off her left foot but with a flick of her wrist the chair melted down and threw her arm outward, solidifying the titanium metal into four metal spikes flying towards her, while manipulating the heat inside each of them, sending each searing spike to a shoulder or hip. Wither or not they would make contact, several seconds later each of them would be re-melted back down without the need of Nova’s touch and to form a small pool of titanium to the ground so her opponent couldn’t use it against her.

Not wasting time she pushed herself forward with her right foot, the bottom of her bilateral feet spewing with fire to give her extra momentum as she was pushed into the air a few feet before coming back downward towards her. Clasping her hand together she rose them high above her head into a fist, and upon coming back down brought them downward forcefully and aflame. Upon landing back on the ground she then took a jump back to create a distance between the two.

But she was still holding back, she didn’t want to harm Cassidy, no… it wasn’t Cass she didn’t want to hurt… she didn’t want to harm those children. So to help with this, Stephanie brought up something she knew would give herself that push. “My daughter…” she spoke softly, her head turned away from her. “Trusted you Cassidy…” her hands balled up into fists as they gave off a golden glow. “Hotaru looked UP to YOU.” She pointed at Huntress. She would tell me stories, about you, how she thought you were an amazing person who overcame impossible feats, I’ve never seen her so excited about talking about someone other than her Tio Obi. She even tried to convince me to trust you, to try and become friends with you.” Her fist slammed into the wall, giving the room a shake. She was porously making herself more angry, to give her that extra shove. “If you came after me so easily… what’s going to stop you from going after her?” she gave a glare at Cass. “And now, just like you have to protect your own, I must protect her, FROM YOU!” her entire body erupted into fire that engulfed the entire room, the pressure from her flames was so strong that it caused the four walls around them to give out.

When the fire finally died down, there were debris all around them as the fire goddess stood there breathing heavily, her flames flickering around her as if they had a life of their own. Dark Huntress was going to have to find out the hard way, why she was given the name Feral Nova

She stood there poised for the fight of her life, her emerald green eyes coursing up and down the fiery fatale known as Feral Nova. Her words coursed over her, and Cass tried not to let them sink in, but this woman was as adept in the art of words as she was in the wielding of flame. They struck her down to her heart and sparked her conscience, the least useful thing at a time like this, when she needed her head fully in the game. Her parents, Sarah and Mike, they would be ashamed of her conduct, even more so than they already were. Everything up until now, however far she’d strayed from the path of righteousness, it had all been justifiable. This…this was pushing even her own limits, and it was now that she fully realized why people spoke of this fiery woman with such a sense of awe and reverence. She was truly inspirational, even to those who were going up against her.

“You be whatever you need to be, Steph. Whatever lets you sleep at night, whatever lets you think that you’re the world’s best. You do whatever you need to do to allow yourself to continue as a hero.” There was a taunting tone to her voice and it was completely intentional because she truly meant every word that she said at this point. This fight had never been intended to truly subdue Nova, Cassidy had known from the very get to that she would never comply. This fight was meant to insure that she stayed on the straight and narrow, to further push her into being a hero, the kind of hero that the world needed. Because god and everybody else on planet Earth knew that Cass would never be capable of filling that role, nor did she have any inclination whatsoever to do so.

The fire burned bright around the tempestuous fire goddess, a veritable threat to any and all comers. Cass’s telekinesis was able to protect her from harsh climates, but it had never come up against something that burned as hot and as constant as this fire of Stephanie’s. If she didn’t act fast and in a damage-laden way, she didn’t know how long she could take it before her mind started literally melting. Already her hair was starting to stick to her face as her skin started sheening with sweat. “If you think I can’t take a little heat, you really don’t know anything about me.” The words were said with an incredible bravado, but already her mouth was starting to dry out and her lips were starting to crack.

It was just then that the heat and the force behind it accelerated, pushing the four walls out with the immense and insurmountable pressure afforded to them. Despite the telekinetic forcefield, Cass’s immediate reaction was to duck and cover her head with her arms, and do that she did. The roar of crashing wall and debris was nearly deafening, the dust rising in a plume of smoke around them and obstructing vision. Cass took advantage of this momentary moment of distraction. Using her telekinesis, she fashioned a dagger and sent it straight toward Nova’s shoulder. Although nearly invisible to the eye, the movement through the air would cause the dust and pyres of heat to distort around it, signifying both where it was and what direction that it was moving in. After that there was another sent for her knee, followed closely by one aimed for her femoral artery, right where the thigh attached to the pelvis. If that one hit, which Cass was hoping against hope that it didn’t, there was the possibility that Nova would bleed out within minutes.

However those were only a temporary distraction for the physical plane of things, while Cass did her utmost to work a little magic in the psychic plane of things. It had been so long since she’d accessed this part of her brain, ever since she had come to Gambler for help in ridding her soul of the taint of Darkchild. She’d been unable to tap into her once numerous psychic abilities, now relegated to merely to simple parlor tricks and small feats of mind control. What she planned to do now went against every code she had. Nedver did she invade somebody’s mind unless it was the most dire of circumstances and never upon any circumstance that she had met thus far in her life did she rework part’s of people’s brains. That went against everything she believed in and everything that, no matter her allegiance, she had fought against. It was reprehensible to her and left a bad taste in her mouth. But dire times called for dire measures and the world needed heroes. They needed true blues that they could lift up on a pedestal and for all intents and purposes, worship. They needed figureheads, people they could look to and say “we have hope, things do get better. No matter how dark we go, we can always come back and no matter how bad things get, there will always be somebody out there looking out for the greater good.” There were few people better suited to this job than Stephanie Ardor, the woman that the world knew much better as Feral Nova.

Cassidy was currently in a ducked position, hiding behind a wall of sheetrock, her breathing slowed and her movement non-existent after having thrown the telekinetic daggers as a distraction. It was only then she realized the huge gash on her thigh from a piece of shrapnel that must have snuck past her as she lowered the force field. That was going to be a bitch to deal with and she could already feel that it had cut through the muscle to her leg. That would no doubt end up restricting her movement. It had been one of those wounds that was so deep, you didn’t even notice it at first, not until you actually saw it and had that “oh shit” moment of how bad things actually were.

She shook her head slightly, as if shaking it would shake out all of her loose thoughts. Reaching out with her astral form, she searched and found her way into the head of Stephanie. It was not an easy entrance by any means. There was psychic scar tissue of some sort built in as a defense and whether it was from previous psychic traumas or conditioning, Cass wasn’t able to ascertain. She did her best not to force her way past it, but to work around it in a somewhat surgical manner. She looked around until she found the exact spot that she was looking for, the areas of the brain that contained motivation and the will to do good. This was the part where it got tricky. It had been so long and she was so unsure of what she was doing, that it took her longer than it should have to rewire the tiny little neural pathways. What felt like three hours (and sapped her of that time’s strength) took about thirty seconds “real time”. When Cass was pleased with the job she’d done and confident in the fact that never would Nova turn back to the ways of terror and mayhem, she left and returned to her own body.

It was a jerky trip back from her astral self, leaving her weak, feeling as if she had lost a lot of blood. A quick cursory check of her body and motor functions proved that she was okay for now, but no knowing how long that would last or how much time she had before her leg gave out. Turning to face the plank that had been at her back, she placed her palms against it and bum-rushed Nova. Nothing that she’d done would have inhibited her ability to fight, nor her want to. Not unless her own morals stepped in, which was highly doubtful. At the last second as she approached the fiery fatale, she threw the plank off to the side and bum-rushed Nova with a sword forged out of telekinetic energy, the tip of which was heading straight for her stomach. “Now is your chance to walk away.”

Before she could figure out where Cass was, a dagger slammed into her left shoulder. Jerking back in pain her eyes lit with anger more than ache as she took a step forward, only to get another one to her right knee, causing her to drop to her left knee. Looking up she threw her left arm up, a ‘clunk’ sound could be heard as she blocked the last dagger that was coming at her. Gasping in pain she struggled to get up, the dagger went right through her patella in her knee, causing it to almost be impossible to put any weight on it.  

But before she could move her legs to push herself up… a tingling sensation filled her mind. “Wha-?” confusion consumed her as she felt a sudden stabbing pain pierce through her mind. Screaming in pain she grasped her head with both hands as an overwhelming pounding sensation filled her ears. It then clicked in her head what was going on… “CASSIDY!” Nova yelled out in pain. “S-STOP THIS!” blood began to drip down from her nose as she felt a sort of ‘click’ in her mind.

A red glow engulfed the woman. Her eyes turned into a blood lust red as her demonic blood began to sweep over her. Her body trembled from the overwhelming of power that was suddenly unleashed from her mind, being freed from its cage without her consent meant she would have little control of it. A maleficent grin danced upon her face as she looked up towards Cass. Twisted growl echoed through the burning area as the demon began to slowly stand only to have yet another stabbing pain surge through its head. The demon jerked its head back as a feral roar escaped from her lips. Blood drizzling from her mouth, almost chocking on it as her eyes began to bleed as well. For a moment Stephanie began to regain control of herself. “Cassidy… you don’t know… what your doing…" she didn’t have any control what Cassidy was doing, and she feared the most. IT wasn’t so much the demon she was afraid of… it was the chaos that laid dormant inside the darkest part of her mind.

‘Chaos… has returned.’ An low growl, more sinister than the demon’s whispered in her mind.

A chill ran down Stephanie’s mind. “Cassidy… please…. Stop it.” Tears of blood ran down the Fire Goddess eyes only to hear another ‘click’ go off in her mind. In that instant, the once hero fell down to her knees, her face covered by her hair as a dark cloud began to surround the once lively woman.

When Stephanie freed Ziccarra of Chaos Black, she did so by absorbing the entity of Chaos into her own body. But thanks to her having control over her own demonic powers and having a strong willpower, was able to suppress it into the deepest part of her mind… until now.

Her entire body was engulfed in a thick black energy that seeped off her body, constantly forming a smoke like cloud around her. The Chaotic being’s head flopped back down, its head tilted to the side as it watched Cassidy rush at her with a blade. Simply stepping to the side the blade slid right past her abdomen as the newly awaken being let out a sickly chortle.

“Now is your chance to walk away.”

“Walk away?” The Chaotic Nova spoke, its voice distorted, mixed with the demonic tone. “We have just started.” With a flicker of her hand, all the fire that surrounded them, went dead, and complete darkness, engulfed the destroyed room. “I should thank you.” The black demonic spirit spoke. “In this body… I will rise… above all.” The room grew cold, a chill of death in the air. Using the darkness around her she began to make the air thick, and hard to breath as she created a small orb of light, to allow Cassidy to see what she had brought upon the Earth. “Because of this… I will kill you quickly.”

That second she threw her arm out and hellfire mixed with the soul staining dark energy flew at Cassidy head on. Able to now manipulate the darkness all around them she then rose her hands in the air, the darkness in every corner came shooting like spears at the rouge hero. Then… the monster went into a teleporting frenzy. Appearing at every angle around Cassidy while using its razor sharp claws to slash at the former hero.

Landing back a few feet away, the black demon let out an annoyed sigh when she saw that Cass wasnt dead... yet. “You bore me.” she turned her back away from Cass as child like twisted chuckles could be heard coming from all around them. “I’ll let my children have some fun.”

Seeping out of the darkness black demonic creatures came into sight as the single globe of light that was giving vision to the woman… went dim. “I will take your offer, and walk away know... but I will be back to show my gratitude to you... and your little ones Cassidy Starks.” And with that… through the darkness around them, Feral Nova vanished, leaving Cassidy to the demons the now rouge hero left behind.

The realization of what she’d done dawned in her eyes. This was her comeuppance for playing with people’s brains, she supposed. This was not the woman she knew and begrudgingly respected. This was an entirely different creature in every sense of the word. The woman once known as one of the world’s greatest heroes was once again a villain and in the throes of Chaos and it was all due to Cassidy. The road to hell was paved with good intentions could not possibly ring more true in this case.

The eyes of the redheaded woman opened wide as the terror that she had unwittingly unleashed on the world made her ever so dramatic exit. The little demonic creatures scrabbled around her and the lights in the room cut out. They weren’t overly strong but dear god, there were so damn many of them. They started nipping at her and the second a scaled claw touched her, her mind shifted to someplace else.

The touch had triggered a sensory memory back to her rape at the hands of Darkchild. His Darkling creatures had taken part in it and this touch had unlocked the floodgates that held back Cassidy’s memories. For a long time she’d suffered the effects of PTSD and now that was unleashed. Her eyes glazed over and the creatures overcame her, cascading over her body, biting and nipping as her mind started shutting down everything except those memories.

It was as if Cassidy was back in that moment again. She swore that she could feel it happening all over and her heart started pounding through her chest. She went into panic mode, her fists slamming down on the floor over and over out of pure instinct, as she struggled against the immense amount of creatures, swearing that they were the Darklings.

Her head slammed into the ground as she flailed frantically, managing to throw one or two of them off, only to have five more come and take their place. Their little claws dug into her skin, their sharp teeth biting at her flesh. One of them had wrapped itself in her hair and was proceeding to tug at it. The flashback progressed and Cassidy continued to live every minute of it once again. She tried to fight her way out, but it all felt so real. It had set her into a state of panic that had frozen her in place.

It took the reliving of Warsman rescuing her to snap her out of it. Her eyes opened and she shot up from the ground, throwing the demonic creatures off of her. There were so many of them, even standing up there were too many of them. “Goddamn rodents.” Her voice was raspy and worn from all the screaming that she had been doing, but that didn’t stop her from speaking – nothing ever would.

Her eyes narrowed as she took in her surroundings, seeing that they had filled the entire room. There only leg up seemed to be that there were so damn many of them, paired with their resistant hides. But resistance and durability had never protected anything from her telekenisis before. “I’ve had about enough of this.” And with that, she sent a cascade of telekinetic waves throughout the room, by turn either squishing or blowing up from the inside, all of the creatures.

The result was her red hair plastered to her face and blood and gore in the form of green slime covering her body. She couldn’t care less. Out of breath and looking much worse for the wear, she limped her way out of the building, favoring her left leg the entire time. She knew her mistake, she had learned her lesson. But now, she knew that she had to be aware of the very powerful enemy that she had just created.