Tingle's return

So, there we are, me powerless, Healthbar and Dragon unconscious, and Howard and John looming over us.Playwrite stared at Howard in horror, more than the rest of us, and Howard smiled. 'Finally worked it out, have you? I wondered how long I'd be able to hide my thoughts from you.' and he morphed into Sage. We all gaped, shellshocked (not having heard this from Cleo at this point in time) and I said 'It's a trick, it has to be. He's just trying to creep us out'
'I'm afraid not' sighed Playwrite. They are the same person. I'm not sure if that was always true, they may have been separate people once, but Sage has been hiding as Howard for a while now.' Sage grinned, but gasped as Diffy head butted him in the knee. He bent over, clutched his knee, and then made a grab for Diffy, who ducked round him, leapt on his back, and started to do his private cloud of horror thing 'Why do meanies keep being nasty to Healthy and Tempest!' he yelled, and John started to back away, obviously he had the memories of the John that Diffy did this too, he looked terrified. He opened his mouth and started to say 'ST...' but Broadcast had made a pinching motion with his fingers, and John muted out. He yelled and roaredbut no sound came out. I rugby-tackled him to the floor, and out of the corner of my eye saw Playwrite edge towards the window, and lift the curtain slightly, so that a thin beam of light shone down on part of Healthbar's hand, which twitched. John shook violently under me and I felt myself thrown away, colliding with a man with a goatee that had just entered the room. He fell to the floor, and a girl floated into the room, followed by a small group of other people. The girl lifted me off the ground, and threw me again, this time I crashed into Precog and Doolittle. Playwrite put two fingers of his left hand to his temple, yelled 'Headache Attack!' and swept his right hand round in a long wave at the new people. They all yelled, clutched their heads, and the girl crashed to the floor. Howard called 'that won't work on us!' and John blasted him back with some sort of bright light from his hand. John was standing up again, and had clearly been practising his brain control whilst in hiding, because he was slowly gaining control of Diffy and Broadcast through thought alone. He concentrated hard on Broadcast, making him release his volume hold just enough to let John's shouts come out as whispers. He commanded them to stop, and slowly Diffy's cloud of horror faded, and Howard threw him to the floor, whilst John froze everyone in place. Howard dampened everyone's powers, and they both smiled 'A good attempt I suppose, but it was never going to work. Now, who shall I kill first?' As he looked around at all of us, I glimpsed Healthbar slowly open her eyes, create a tiny cloud of dark, as if testing herself, and, slowly streching out so that she could just about touch Dragon's ankle with her finger.
'Ah, I think the little egg boy first, we've both been subjected to his little cloud, but I should tell you, illusion boy, your visions didn't scare me. I fear nothing. You think I couldn't stand up against the things you showed me? They wouldn't even reach me. Yes, you're going first.'
The room lit up as he said this, and Diffy pouted at him, stood up, and just said 'Oooh, Tingle's going to be veeeery maaaaad at you, big stinky meany' Howard laughed, and gloated 'What could he do? Notice I can shapeshift? Hahahaha! Anyway, I tricked one of his old friends to kidnap him, she thinks he's vital for some warning she kept yammering on about, I couldn't have him notice my plan, now could I?'
'Are you referring to the fact that you took control of Lily so she helped you and that everything she showed us from Tildy was fake and made by you to trick us and were afraid I would see through her which is why I was taken from DC minutes before she showed up? Too late, I noticed.' Said Tingle, stepping out of a column of white light that had appeared at the edge of the room, and was lighting up Howards astonished face. John's hands started to glow orange and he leapt at Tingle, but Tingle waved a hand and John was lifted into the air and slammed against a wall, slumping down unconscious. 'My friends, it is good to see you again. Moira and her associates allowed me to channel their powers briefly. Please keep that portal open, as soon as it closes, the link is lost and I will not be able to help as much.' Those of us that could still stand rushed to the column of light, it was like the room back at the hotel, but confined to a smaller space. We could look inside and see endless white in all directions, but it was definately only this small column of light, and we could look into it from any angle. It was starting to shrink, so we tried to grab it, pulling at non-existent edges, doing anything we could to stop it. Nothing was working, and it had nerly closed, when Diffy sat in it. Half in, half out of the light. It kept trying to push him out so it could close, but the closing was slowed alot.

Mean while, Tingle was in a heated battle with Howard, blocking everything Howard shot at him, and teleporting round him, first infront, then behind for a quick blast of what seemed to be particles of coloured light to the back of the head, then to the side in order to jab him in the ribs, and then back to the front again. It was almost even, with Howard looking more enraged with every move, but John came from behind and froze Tingle in place. John started to speak, but a huge blast of water slammed him to the floor, leaving him gurgling and spluttering on the floor. Dragon was standing up, brushing the dust from his robes (he wears chinese robes most of the time) and helping Healthbar to her feet. 'Only giving people a precautionary slight wave of power numbing because they appear to be unconsious so you can concentrate on others is a mistake' he said, walking over to John and covering him in a thick substance that stopped him moving. There was a slight pop as Diffy was finally shunted out of the light and it closed, and the crackling energy in Tingle's hands faded. Howard gave a cry of victory and knocked Tingle to the floor, but it turned to anguish as Tingle grabbed his leg, which started to smoke. 'You fool' said Tingle, standing and grabbing Howards arm, causing him to kneel in pain 'Your body has been warped so often that it now reeks of it, and you're more ability than human. Just like I can destroy reality warped objects with a touch, I can affect shapeshifters too. I don't need extra help from Moira to defeat you. Your body is constantly changing, though you may not realize it, and that is why I burn! Now leave me and my friends alone, you foul wrech!' Healthbar healed us all, and Dragon was gathering up the henchpeople, but Howard kept staring at Tingle 'You think...this can stop me? I...have been torn apart before...and come back...a little...pain won't stop me now!' 'Not alone, maybe' Tingle agreed, and looked over at Diffy, who was sticking his tongue out at John 'But Moira showed me what Diffy showed you. And I have four words to say to you about them.' and he leant down and whispered in Howard's ear. Howard looked deeply shocked, and I could see true fear on his face for just a second. Then it vanished, and he looked angrier than ever 'YOU LIE!' He screamed, Tingle flying off him as he stood, grabbed John, and as he strode across to the flying girl, I could see a deep red mark in the shape of a hand, burnt into his arm, hollowed out, as if the skin there had just burnt away. He roared, made a sweeping gesture with his arm, and he, John, and all his thugs dissappeared.
After that we had a lot of catching up to do, we heard from Tingle what had been going on with him, and caught him up with things out here. Then Precog told us we all had to get to DC, but Dragon said he would stay at the base, clean up, and rest. I couldn't fly us of course, but luckily I knew exactly what my Hotel room looked like, and had visited it before, so Jorge's Doorknob got us there quickly. Precog told me that we needed to be alert, because we would see something that we needed to follow up, so I asked Diffy to prepare some illusions and the three of us rejoined the others as we left the hotel to see Cleo talking to herself. Literally.