Susceptible

Chapter twenty five

Wasting no time I took off towards downtown where I had seen The Machiavellian on tv. I sprinted for about ten minutes and my side started aching causing me to slow down. I was surprisingly out of shape for a superhero. My powers were focused on the mental and emotional, I never really had to get involved physically. 

I was in luck as I saw The Conveyer appear on the top of a nearby rooftop. His head was swiveling around and I knew he was looking for me as he had picked me up in this area before to transport me to battles. Quickly I let my disguise mentally drop, far away enough from the home that I didn't mind if pedestrians noticed me.

"Conveyer!" I yelled out and he quickly appeared by my side grabbing my arm and pulling me into his teleportation.

I felt dizzy landing from the teleport and I closed my eyes for a second to make my head stop spinning. When I opened my eyes I saw I was on top of a rooftop closer to downtown. I walked to the ledge and looked down. There in the streets was The Machiavellian.

And another Machiavellian.

And another Machiavellian.

He had mimicked Green Facsimile's cloning powers so a blur of Maroon and Green suits swirled in the street fighting. 

I felt sick. It hadn't been a dream and seeing him once again and his incredible power left a pit in the bottom of my stomach.

I glanced back at The Conveyer hoping for reassurance but he just gave me a small nod before teleporting off the rooftop down into the action. 

Slowly I sank down onto my butt. The Conveyer had brought me onto the rooftop because this is where I was the most helpful. Far enough away from the action where I can focus on manipulating the mind without being distracted or seen by The Machiavellian.

My heart was racing as I tried to come up with a solution. I couldn't be as careless as I was with normal criminals that were so easy to manipulate. I had to be extremely careful with him as to reach into his mind without him realizing it was me changing what he saw. If my projection was too unreal he would quickly realize that I was nearby and start using my powers for himself. That could get messy fast. He had used my powers once before in a fight at the beginning of the summer. He had seen me hiding in an alleyway and tapped into my powers to change his image and disappear into the surroundings. I needed to avoid that again at all costs.

I scanned my brain trying to think of an approach. If I manipulated his environment to believe that he was trapped or captured I didn't think he would stop. He knew my powers were all mental so he would be prepared to physically test anything I threw at him.

"Ughhhh think Courtney think!" I angrily whispered to myself. I needed to act fast as he knew I would probably be later to the scene thanks to my powers not providing me a faster mode of transport like the others, but sooner or later he would be expecting me to show up and would be trying to tap into my powers.

I exhaled as I realized I really only had one option. I had to reach deep into his mind to pull out a memory to change and play out in front of his eyes.

Of course, if he suddenly was faced with a totally different environment he would know I was messing with his mind. This is why I had to make sure it was the most horrible grotesques nightmare that would paralyze him from the complete fear he was facing. I only had one shot to throw an illusion at him.

"Shit." I whispered again to myself as I came to the realization that this was my only option. There was more to my powers than meets the eye, something about them which I found grossly unfair and left me wondering again how I was chosen to have the most unlucky powers of my colleagues.