At Thaumaturge's outburst, S.A.N.E. pulled out a tazer and shocked him into unconciousness. When he realized everyone was still staring, he shrugged and pointed to Thaumaturge. "Dennis sinned," was all that he said. He then used some smelling salts to wake Thaumaturge back up.

Thaumaturge came to with a start, then glared at S.A.N.E. He drew from the soul crystal in his hand, and casted a bolt of force that sent S.A.N.E. skidding across the rooftop.

"I have had ENOUGH of you! This time I will destroy you, and slowly torture your soul over centuries!"

He paused. Everyone was looking at him.

"Er... buddy?"

"The Spam Map! No! That Was My Favourite Map!!!"

"Get to my office and alert all other minions! We must plan...Er...a brilliant (and evil) plan. Now let's get planning! We must have that map back..."

Jackal, responding immediately to Thaumaturge's order, brought his blade swiftly down. The katana sliced through the ground as if it was rice paper, and he immediately held Sarah in an iron-gripped headlock.

Thaumaturge bellowed.
The ninja's arm grabbed her around the neck.
Sarah's hand darted for her pocket.
She grabbed the soul crystal.
And then it got weird.
Upon Sarah's attempt to harness power, a telepathic roar of "DENIED!" was heard pretty much throughout the fortress.
Sarah recoiled as if slapped by one of the recently-departed cod. Astrabelle had...
Traitor!
There was no way to win. She slumped to the ground in surrender, and looked up at the one she had sworn to kill.
"Why?"

OOC: I may not be able to get on for the next couple of days. I'll try to post, but if I can't, she can be unconscious for a while.

"Jackal! Don't kill her!" Azeran said. "Considering what just happened, maybe we should detain her and ask her about what just happened and what she had to do with it. Violence isn't always the answer, remember that." Azeran looked over at Thaumaturge. "Both of you, ok?"

Not responding to Azeran, Jackal sheathed his katana and a knife slipped into his hand. He pressed the knife to Sarah's neck. "This knife is coated in an overdose of sodium penathol, an overdose strong enough to kill ten people. Just one prick, and she's gone. Thaumaturge insisted on it."

"Stop that!" Courtney shouted in dismay. "Don't hurt her! She might be mad at me, but she's still my friend, and I can't let you do that. Azeran's right-now is not the time for violence. Let's stop this silly fighting, and go save those poor trapped souls!"

Jackal's head jerked. "My helmet.....It's controlling my mind. Programming." He released his grip on Sarah and shrunk back, melding into the shadows and disappearing.

Thaumaturge grimaced and forced himself to supress his magic. "Very well, we will do this your way." He turned to the newcomer. "But remember, you are living on borrowed time, at Courtney's behest." He stepped closer to the newcomer, looking directly into her eyes. "If I had my way, you would be dead already."

"EVIL!!!!!!!!!" was what Cowman screamed. He was, erm, splashing milk all around the, erm, room. Firing earth spikes wildly in all directions, one struck the EVIL JOCK STRAP from Thaumatarge's family jewels. However, the earth spikes were really made of iron, or more accurately, magnetite, and this attracted a load of space satelites that would horribly and terribly smash into their squishy interiors.

Thaumaturge rolled on the ground in utter agony. AARGH!! Why me...? Why is it always ME!! And why does Cowman hate me so...? I mean, there was that time that I put those aliens onto him... I wonder what they actually did to him...

Aloud, he said, in between incoherent moans: "Could... Somebody... Please... Heal... me..."

Courtney knelt down beside the writhing, agonized Thaumaturge. She somehow managed to scoop the full-grown ex-villain into her lap, cradling him in her arms like a baby.
"Aww...poor little guy...it'll be okay...injuries to the testicles are only for comedy, and are therefore not life-threatening. We'll get through this..." She paused to reflect. "Umm...on a side note, you might want to consider not using cybernetic technology to control that ninja's mind. Mind control is nicer than killing, but not by a lot, so you should probably let him make his own choices and stuff. Okie, Mr. Thaumaturge?"

Aloud, Thaumaturge said: "Make his own choices? But... Then how do I control what he does? How can I ensure his unwavering loyalty? I don't understand... Oouch..."

Mentally, he thought: Well, it looks like being a good guy has some perks after all...

The girl rubbed her chin in thought. "Hmm...well, I guess you could just treat him fairly, and be nice to him, and then he'd want to work for you because it's fun! ...Actually, come to think of it, I thought you were a mage or something. How come you're using technology to control him? Not that either way is right, of course."

Courtney had been lightly stroking Thaum's forehead to calm him down a bit, and was a bit perplexed when she realized his face was STILL too shadowy to see. Maybe it's one of his super-powers...

Thaumaturge suppressed the urge to purr like a cat at the stroking. " 'fa-ir-ly'? I'm afraid that I still don't understand. Is that some sort of drug, that I could treat him with? As to the cybernetics, I stole him from a secret lab hidden underneath Tokyo. My science team then made alterations, inserting the complience hardware, augmenting the cybernetics, etc. I am a mage, but I use also technology when I can get it." He smiled weakly with pride. "My science team was the first in the world to develop a hand-held phaser! Of course, it can't hit anything beyond a few metres, but that's a minor detail which they assure me will be fixed in the next version..."

After Roan made sure that now was going to be injured (A new thing to him). "Now wowman do you mind if I ask you some question? Like how did you polymorph like that I MUST KNOW!"

OOC: Skull - She didn't actually soul fuse. Astrabelle rejected her. However, Astrabelle, being a pure soul, did try to save her life by telepathing (is that even a word?) REALLY LOUD. And yes, I'm back.

A torrent of profanity issued forth from Sarah's mouth. Most of it was directed at Our Hero, but she ripped off a few choice expletives to Jackal, Thaumaturge, and Astrabelle. But she did recognize her situation, and made no attempts to go for her weapon. She also recognized that Courtney had been the one that had saved her, and that just added to her rage.

Astrabelle saw Courtney and Thaumaturge, well, she used whatever weird sense disembodied souls use to "see", and came to one thought...
Awww, cute!

Sarah, however, was having conversations with herself, while still cussing up a storm.
So, what am I going to do when I get to Osterbaum's lair?
Same thing I do every night...

Jackal fell from the ceiling noiselessly, at least, until he dropped his helmet to the floor. He toof out a fresh cigarette and lit it. "How you guys doin'? Mmmmmm...... nicotene." He hurriedly pulled two more from a pack he'd found and lit them. When he had been Johnathan Slekhanne, a name he no longer remembered, he'd been a heavy cigarette smoker. "I've forgotten how good these are." he muttered, shoving another three cigarettes into his mouth, making a total of six.

ooc: You know I meant your charecter. you know being threatened by a ninja witrh a big sword normally leads to injuring.

Thaumaturge considered getting up, since the pain had subsided, and there were things that needed doing. On the other hand, he liked it where he was... Yeah, he'd stay here for a while, after all, there were plenty of heroes here to deal with one newcomer...

They were all in the meating room. Everyone sat quiet.

"Minions...I have the duty to inform you that the spam map has been stolen."

"NO!"

"Yes...And I urge you all to be ready for any attack that might occur...Prepare your selves for the wors, cause you know what the Spam Map can do besides giving away our location...You will keep twice as much guards patroling all the time and on your free time you will practice fighting. Understood?"

"Yes sir!"

"Excellent...My evil plan is falling in place. Soon it will happen!"

"BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!"

Cowman contemplated his situation. There was a newcomer, obviously related to Courtney Thaumatarge had been reformed, and he had an inexplicable pain in his buttocks. He did the only stupid thing: get to know the newcomer better.

"Hi. I'm CowmAIIIIIIIIIGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The earth spike lodged in his ass had dislodged itself painfully, and an Osterbaum Indusries' spy satelite crashlanded on his head.

Thaumaturge seems to be enjoying that a bit too much, Azeran thought to himself. "Perhaps we should get going to Osterbaum's lair, yes? It would be for the best for all of-"

BAM!

"Oh my God! Cowman, are you ok?" Azeran took a close look at the sattelite, and noticed a symbol marked OSTERBAUM INDUSTRIES on the side. "Looks like Osterbaum might be behind this one."

"Oh, dear...Cowman is really an accident magnet...or a satellite magnet...or something...but at least he's resilient. Okay, little guy," she said looking down at Thaumaturge now, "I'm sorry, but we need to get going. Maybe you can tell Mr. Osterbaum how nice it is to be a good guy, and he'll change over, too! That would be so cool...and really useful, too. For some reason, bad guys are always way better financed than hero groups. We could solve world hunger! We could make sure no one is ever lost or scared or hurt! We could even build a giant, video game-themed amusement park! Yeah!"

Courtney smiled at Azeran. "You're good at keeping us on track. I'm sure you haven't noticed, but I do get a little distracted sometimes..." She slid out from under Thaum and stood up, then extended her hand to him to help him to his feet.

Thaumaturge took Courtney's hand with pleasure, but stood up grudgingly, casting a quick glare towards Azeran.

Aloud he said: "Perhaps you are right. I wouldn't hold out hope for Osterbaum's conversion though."

He looked around the group. Everyone was looking at him. With a sudden flush of embarassment he realised that he hadn't released Courtney's hand, and he did so hurriedly, taking a step forwards before continuing.

"We must enter his lair as quietly as possible, which may mean leaving some of our..." Here he looked at Cowman. "Less stealthy members behind."

Yeah, I figured he was, Azeran said as he noticed the quick glare Thaumaturge gave him. "Ok, two things we need to do. First-" Azeran started looking at Thaumaturge, as he hadn't let go of Courtney's hand yet. Thaumaturge realized this, and with a quick flush of embarresment, let go. "As I was saying, first, we need to figure out where to put our 'guest' here while we're away at Osterbaum's lair. Second, we need Dr. Awkward to teleport us there."
...
"Hey, where is he, anyway?"

S.A.N.E. had temporarily forgotten that he was among good guys, and was, in fact, hiding in the shadows, preparing to blast the living hell out of Thaumaturge. Remembering that Thaumaturge was a good man and everyone needed a ride to Osterbaum's lair, he stepped forward. He made a few adjustments on his teleporter and shouted, "Won't lovers revolt now?" and zapped everyone into Osterbaum's lair.

----------------------------------------------------

Steven L. stepped forward at the meeting and spoke. "We must recover the Spam Map and eliminate all forces that are good! A new chapter in our lives begins now!"

"PUPUPUUPUUPUPUPUPUPU!"