X-Men Mission: Agents of SHIELD - Part 10
Mar. 10th, 2021 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsMODOK’s shield partially down, Marvel Girl and Psylocke attack on a psionic level and do some damage.
MODOK rocked back as his shield started to flicker, turning a deeper purple. All of a sudden, his psychic presence, which up until then had been entirely opaque and untouchable to them blinked into existence. He continued to straf the platform with his cannons and his robots continued their assault unabated, making it seem that whatever measures that May and the tech team had taken had failed. But to the two psychics, MODOK was suddenly vulnerable in a way he hadn't been up until now in the fight.
The unveiled psyche was unlike anything Betsy had encountered before, the technological enhancements making its structure almost alien. But there were more familiar traits there too, like anger, ambition, the need to obtain and control and possess. Threads that could be tugged to take down the whole web. All very exploitable. One strand in particular caught her attention and she highlighted it for Jean with a questioning air.
A smile slipped across Jean's face and she nodded. ~Perfect~ she thought back to Betsy. The world around them was one part real, one part fake, overlaid with the heightened reality of the astral plane.
~See how straight the thread is? We pull it enough to where we can knot it up, tangle his thoughts. Approach it like a machine. How would we continue to sabotage until it burns out?~
~Always the teacher,~ Betsy teased, before continuing with a more sober tone as she started teasing the thread out from the tangle that was MODOK’s mind. ~I am not sure he even remembers he is not a machine, to be honest, so that approach sounds right. We just need to make him misfire.~
At that moment, two of his rotating cannons turned on them, and the air was lit up by red tracers as a wave of incendiary rounds flooded towards them both.
~Fair point,~ Jean said as her attention fixated on the incendiary rounds. ~Less teaching, more destruction. Go. I'll cover.~
She paused after a moment, her calm, thoughtful face in the real world a contrast to the rounds bursting into flames against the shield. Was it truly an X-Men mission without something exploding?
~Actually...forget what I said before. You're right. He's too comfortable as a machine. Lean into that human side. That'll probably be a way to turn him on his head, so to speak. It's in there somewhere. Rip it out.~
Betsy quickly ducked behind a pile of debris from an earlier attack, once again cursing the limitations of her power set. At least she’d managed to keep her mental hold on the cyborg intact. ~Maybe a bit of both. In any case, the key is in that mismatch… Aha! This seems to fit the bill.~ It was a memory of a young man in university, swearing to prove himself to those who had ridiculed him for his high aspirations. ~This is who he still sees himself as.~ She couldn’t help feeling some sympathy for that man, so far removed from the thing in front of them.
Since that thing was trying to kill them though, she yanked the conflicting image out of MODOK’s subconscious and forced it to the light along with a simple question. ~Is this really what you wanted to become?~
"Dirty little mutant! My sacrifice is not for you to see!" A wave of purple energy rolled over Betsy, upending her and sending her flying across the tarmac. MODOK screamed in rage as he followed, his two cannon arms trained on the young woman.
A telekinetic blast slammed into MODOK, knocking him out of the way before he could fire. Jean's eyes burned as she stepped into view, standing over the once-man, the flames billowing up from her hair, fire catching down her arms.
~Sure it is, George. ~ she said. ~You lost your right to privacy when you became this.~
Taking the memory that Betsy had pulled out, Jean focused on a few precious seconds and put a proverbial spotlight on it, using it to flood his mind, replaying it over and over as a way to put cracks in his concentration.
Her attention remained on MODOK. ~Psylocke, are you okay?~
~Well, if the aim was to get his attention that definitely worked,~ Betsy thought as she pulled herself back up and darted to cover. ~I’m slightly battered but nothing’s broken. We need to keep pushing.~ The last thought was accentuated with a scattering of psychic attacks, pulling out memories of earlier humiliations and flashing them across the cyborg's consciousness. Past mistakes were always easy fodder as everyone sought to forget them.
"GAAAAAAHH!" MODOK's screams echoed across the platform. His massive form lurched to one side as the glow from the gem in the centre of his forehead dimmed. The shimmer from the shield that was protecting him shimmered and winked out of existence. "Oh, you huuuuurt me." He slurred, mind reeling from the attack. "Huuuurt me... and I'm going to kill you. All of you. A lot."
MODOK rocked back as his shield started to flicker, turning a deeper purple. All of a sudden, his psychic presence, which up until then had been entirely opaque and untouchable to them blinked into existence. He continued to straf the platform with his cannons and his robots continued their assault unabated, making it seem that whatever measures that May and the tech team had taken had failed. But to the two psychics, MODOK was suddenly vulnerable in a way he hadn't been up until now in the fight.
The unveiled psyche was unlike anything Betsy had encountered before, the technological enhancements making its structure almost alien. But there were more familiar traits there too, like anger, ambition, the need to obtain and control and possess. Threads that could be tugged to take down the whole web. All very exploitable. One strand in particular caught her attention and she highlighted it for Jean with a questioning air.
A smile slipped across Jean's face and she nodded. ~Perfect~ she thought back to Betsy. The world around them was one part real, one part fake, overlaid with the heightened reality of the astral plane.
~See how straight the thread is? We pull it enough to where we can knot it up, tangle his thoughts. Approach it like a machine. How would we continue to sabotage until it burns out?~
~Always the teacher,~ Betsy teased, before continuing with a more sober tone as she started teasing the thread out from the tangle that was MODOK’s mind. ~I am not sure he even remembers he is not a machine, to be honest, so that approach sounds right. We just need to make him misfire.~
At that moment, two of his rotating cannons turned on them, and the air was lit up by red tracers as a wave of incendiary rounds flooded towards them both.
~Fair point,~ Jean said as her attention fixated on the incendiary rounds. ~Less teaching, more destruction. Go. I'll cover.~
She paused after a moment, her calm, thoughtful face in the real world a contrast to the rounds bursting into flames against the shield. Was it truly an X-Men mission without something exploding?
~Actually...forget what I said before. You're right. He's too comfortable as a machine. Lean into that human side. That'll probably be a way to turn him on his head, so to speak. It's in there somewhere. Rip it out.~
Betsy quickly ducked behind a pile of debris from an earlier attack, once again cursing the limitations of her power set. At least she’d managed to keep her mental hold on the cyborg intact. ~Maybe a bit of both. In any case, the key is in that mismatch… Aha! This seems to fit the bill.~ It was a memory of a young man in university, swearing to prove himself to those who had ridiculed him for his high aspirations. ~This is who he still sees himself as.~ She couldn’t help feeling some sympathy for that man, so far removed from the thing in front of them.
Since that thing was trying to kill them though, she yanked the conflicting image out of MODOK’s subconscious and forced it to the light along with a simple question. ~Is this really what you wanted to become?~
"Dirty little mutant! My sacrifice is not for you to see!" A wave of purple energy rolled over Betsy, upending her and sending her flying across the tarmac. MODOK screamed in rage as he followed, his two cannon arms trained on the young woman.
A telekinetic blast slammed into MODOK, knocking him out of the way before he could fire. Jean's eyes burned as she stepped into view, standing over the once-man, the flames billowing up from her hair, fire catching down her arms.
~Sure it is, George. ~ she said. ~You lost your right to privacy when you became this.~
Taking the memory that Betsy had pulled out, Jean focused on a few precious seconds and put a proverbial spotlight on it, using it to flood his mind, replaying it over and over as a way to put cracks in his concentration.
Her attention remained on MODOK. ~Psylocke, are you okay?~
~Well, if the aim was to get his attention that definitely worked,~ Betsy thought as she pulled herself back up and darted to cover. ~I’m slightly battered but nothing’s broken. We need to keep pushing.~ The last thought was accentuated with a scattering of psychic attacks, pulling out memories of earlier humiliations and flashing them across the cyborg's consciousness. Past mistakes were always easy fodder as everyone sought to forget them.
"GAAAAAAHH!" MODOK's screams echoed across the platform. His massive form lurched to one side as the glow from the gem in the centre of his forehead dimmed. The shimmer from the shield that was protecting him shimmered and winked out of existence. "Oh, you huuuuurt me." He slurred, mind reeling from the attack. "Huuuurt me... and I'm going to kill you. All of you. A lot."
