Mandelbrot Bound: Game Over

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Garrison, Wanda, Sofia and the Gamemaster come to the end of their game, and according to the rules, someone has to lose.



Kane hung from the restraints, trying to ignore the fire in his joints. Even with his enhanced strength and endurance, he was rapidly growing tired pulling on the massive weights, and the second he slipped, he'd lose both his hands and feet to the crushing swivel trap inside each of the locked sleeves trapping him. There simply was no way to free himself without sacrificing at least one limb, and it was rapidly coming to the point that it was the last available option for the Canadian. Past the blood rushing in his ears, he picked up a new noise, different from the groaning of the metal joists or the slick squeak of the massive cables. It was a roar, like the inside of a jet engine. He had no time for further reflection as the side of the mortar brick wall beside him suddenly buckled and collapsed. Shrieking winds swirled around him, the after effect of a hammer-like rush into the wall, and daylight spilled in for the very first time.

Striding through the rubble, Sofia dropped her hands back to her sides, her face set in a hard, pointed mask. "Remember when I said to stay and we'll figure this out? Next time, let's just do what I say." Her eyes had fallen on Garrison first, and now she circled around him carefully, a solid click each time her heel hit the pavement, nearly keeping time with the clock mentally ticking in her head. "What have you got yourself into?" she finally asked. "I could just experiment, but I feel your limbs might appreciate other."

Kane blinked twice, trying to reconcile the fact that Sofia was here and he wasn't dead. Or maybe he was, and Sofia was some form of angel in very expensive high heels. Did they sell Christian Louboutin in Heaven? No, they wouldn't. There wasn't supposed to be an commerce in Heaven, and for those prices, it wouldn't be worth setting up a store. That meant he was alive and Sofia was actually there.

"Oh, thank Christ... the cables are attached to those pieces of the door's opening sequence. They won't open unless they are locked back in and," Kane paused and groaned. "I stop pulling on them, and it will crush my hands and feet."

A curious tendril of air curled around the weights like a cat against ankles, prodding underneath it experimentally. Sofia smiled in a way that was only a baring of her teeth, the only warning, beyond the dusk glow crackling at the corners of her eyes, before she raised her arms out in a cross, the murderous howling from earlier increasing in suit. "I'm fairly sure I only have one shot at this," she remarked, letting the pressure build. "So for your sake, let's hope I'm as good as I say I am."

There was a fraction of a second where time paused before something audibly clicked; the weights flew in a crescent into the door and they gave way.

Kane sagged and then collapsed as the tension disappeared. His hands were red from the compression, but otherwise unhurt. He groaned as he struggled to his feet.

"Thank you. I was started to get used to the idea of not having hands any longer."

"You can't do that! Do you hear me, you cheaters! You can't bring someone into the game that I didn't approve of, no matter how sharp her outfit and shoes happen to be!"

"Sofia, meet the Gamemaster. He's in the process of torturing Wanda, and I promised to hurt him very badly. Trouble is this place is a maze, and I can't locate him fast enough to get to him. Ideas?"

A whisper, with barely a parting of her lips, drifted over to Kane. "Keep him talking." Sofia pouted, brow furrowing dramatically. "I don't know. This maze is confusing, to the point of genius, really. We may never be able to find him, and he seems to have such excellent taste!"

"So, fairy boy? You got some more toys to break for me?"

"You just keep talking, you cheater you! I will make you pay for it!"

Sofia's eyes closed briefly, a flutter of eyelashes, as she listened. She pointed at the wall on the left, nails perfect arched against the gesture. "That one."

"Oh, fantastic." Garrison turned and slammed his fist against the wall, shattering the bricks and bashing a man size hole it in. A few kicks cleared enough room for them both, and with a gesture from Sofia, bashed through the one beyond, into the depths of the Gamemaster's sanctuary.

***

"I am most cross with your friends, Wanda Maximoff! Most cross! Break the rules on my game, will they?" He reached to the floor, picking up the drill again. "There must be a punishment for breaking the rules. There must be." He said, his face ugly as he stalked towards her.

Suddenly, Wanda laughed - sharp and a hair hysterical. "Did they upset your little game, Stevens?" Wanda asked, relief evident in her voice. "Do what you will because you lost. Even if you manage to kill or hurt me, you lost. Your control is gone, Garrison is safe and right now, I will consider that a victory."

While she taunted, Wanda opened her powers a fraction. Before she'd been trying sheer brute force but maybe it called for something a little more subtle, a little more clever in her approach. She sent a tendril down one of the strings and when it split off, she followed it. It didn't disappear and she was able to follow it a little before she lost it. Maybe she could do something with that...she eyed the drill and swallowed dryly. Fast.

In front of her, the wall exploded inward. Kane stepped through the cloud of dust, the dust caking the blood on his wounds. The look on his face was pure menace.

"Oh, I have just waited to do this all goddamn day."

"You watch your step, Mister FBI!" Stevens' voice grew shrill as he pressed the drill to Wanda's temple. "Cross me and I will have to damage this woman, you know!"

"What about miss?" The voice was low, a growl, punctuated by the golden glow through the plaster. Sofia's hair was streaked with white, making her a strange statue, a portrait of menace. "Drop it, now. I will only give you one warning before I throw you into that wall and shatter your spine."

"I'm not interested in speaking to you." He hissed, reaching for the threads of his web with his other hand.

Sofia narrowed her eyes, narrow slits of fury. "God have mercy," she returned.

And then the webs shattered.
Like a puppet cut free, Wanda fell to the floor in a heap with a strangled gasp - the drill bit had scratched her as she had gone done but that was it. Her limbs were numb and refused to work properly but as the strings fell around her in a silken web, she decided that it didn't matter. Hours of pent up rage, guilt and terror exploded out of her in a roiling wave of chaos.

She'd been planning on being precise and on being subtle but now she just unleashed everything in one go as she lay on the ground shuddering, eyes never leaving Stevens face.

“You can’t—you—you!!!” Stevens started, as he reached out to the ruined threads and froze. He hung for a moment and then turned slowly as he collapsed to his knees. The black horned rim glasses bounced away, and the only thing in Jeffery Stevens look now was blankness as a thousand minds overwhelmed his own. He swayed and fell to the floor like a puppet with it’s strings cut, whatever was Jeffery Stevens now lost in the maelstrom of other thoughts.

Kane nudged him with his foot and stepped back. He signed and winced as each movement brought out pain from his cuts.

“You alright?” He said, somewhat stupidly to Wanda, but got a cut nod in response. “Right, you two better get out of here. Sofia dropped a tip to the FBI, and they’ll be here any minute. I’ll stick around and sort things out.”

Both women left quickly as Garrison found a set amidst the wreckage, staring down at Jeffery Stevens, who could only stare back; trapped inside his own powers, locked in his own game.

Forever.