Chapter Six: Fallout

(We open inside of the Aegis' control room as the entire base is abuzz with tension. One of the Arbiters had gone rogue and willingly came to the Aegis for the heroes' help, the Responders finally knew the truth of the Myers family, and their plan was made clear. The Siphon would be used to shut down the Aegis so it could fall upon the Hole.)

Taffy: They want to do what!? That would kill everyone on the ship and the prison!

Frigid: That's kind of the idea.

Jesus: We can't allow this to happen, we must find them immediately!

Jeremih: We've been trying. But if there's one thing I know about Kathy, it's that we won't know anything until it's too late.

Frigid: And too late is coming faster than you think.

Zip: So what? We just wait for them to attack the ship?

Bell: We can't always be on the offensive. The best thing we can do right now is to prepare ourselves and wait for the attack while Jeremih's men search for their base. We can't leave this place undefended until this is done. Right, Bamboozle-Man?

(There was no response from the caped hero. Belltower and the others weren't surprised. Bamboozle-Man felt terrible about his power being used for the Erasure, putting Andrea in a coma, and now this. An innocent man just following orders had been corrupted and had his mind twisted by the very thing Bamboozle-Man used to protect people.)

BM: Yeah. Right.

Cena: Bamboozle-Man, stop it.

BM: I'm not even doing anything.

Taffy: Yes you are.

Zip: I don't need to be a telepath to tell you're already blaming yourself for Kevin.

Jesus: It's not your fault.

BM: It's kind of hard not to see it that way.

Bell: Well you're going to have to see it that way because it's true. You heard Jeremih, Kevin put himself in that situation  and Cladsteel is the one who experimented on him. You had nothing to do with it.

BM: Hmph. Nothing at all.

(Before the heroes could further reassure their friend of his innocence, Bamboozle-Man felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He quickly pulled it out to see Maddie was calling him)

Taffy: Who is it?

BM: A friend. And something tells me it isn't a social call.

(Bamboozle-Man answered the phone and began to speak)

BM: Hel-

Maddie: TURN ON THE NEWS NOW!

BM: Ah shit. Turn on the news!

Jeremih: You heard the man

(One of the control room agents nodded and pressed a button on a control pad. The large monitor that took up the northern wall of the room lit up as several news feeds showed something quite shocking occurring in New Orleans.)

Taffy: Oh no.

(The control room filled with gasps as they registered the images on the various screens. An army of the dead was flooding the streets of New Orleans, all of their eyes beaming with an ethereal emerald glow. But on other screen, they saw that several police cars and small structures had been melted by an intense source of heat and energy)

Zip: Thermogore.

Jesus: The Plague.

BM: Thanks for giving us the heads up, MM. We'll take it from here.