A not so sneaky attack

Well, John turned up AGAIN yesterday. Me and Doolittle were coming back into the base from having done a food shop, and as we entered there was a slight creak behind us. We looked round but there was nobody there. I glanced over at my machines, and the newest one told me all I needed to know. I gave a slight nod towards the stairs, and me and Doolittle went up as if nothing was wrong. On the stairs we passed Diffy, who waved and faded out of sight as he went down, proving my suspicions that the alarm upstairs must have gone off. We went into the main room upstairs and found everyone waiting for us. I channeled my phasing to everyone so we didn't have to be touching, and we all got in position, exactly above parts of the main room downstairs.

(I should explain at this point about my returning powers. Technopathy is fully restored, Phasing and Persuasion are nearly back but not full strength yet, the earth part of my Earth/Plant Manipulation has come back quite a lot, the air and water elements of my Weather were quite strong, and I can make Forcefields with effort, but I can't move them or use them to fly yet.)

Trusting Diffy to have started the plan and hide our descent, I phased us through the floor, using concentrated areas of wind to ease our landings. Precog ended up behind the counter, Playwrite and Tingle were either side of the door, Healthbar was off to their side crouched in the empty display window so the early evening light fell on her face, causing her to glow slightly. Doolittle was under the table, Don was in front of the stairs, Pete was at the corner of the counter crouching down, and I was standing on the table Doolittle was under.

From there I could see John stumbling around and get a great view of what Diffy had done. We were in a jungle. A thick, dark, swampy rainforest had burst into life in the base, with tall trees, vines, bogs, a dense canopy overhead, and the noise and vague movements of rain and animals in the distance. It was immensely detailed, and seemed to stretch way beyond the walls of the base. Thankful that Diffy had watched so many nature shows and Documentaries, I noticed that the part we were in fitted roughly round the base, and that the trees and landscape made definate paths, creating a huge labyrinth. The counter was a group of fallen trunks and tree stumps. The display window was where there was a gap in the trees allowing light in, The stairs were hidden in a tall hill, with Don concealed in foliage at it's base. Me and Doolittle were in a small cave, that we could see out of but no light came in, making it impossible to see into from outside. I saw John wandering the paths, and he kept trying to use his powers but Diffy made it look like nothing happened and Playwrite helped convince him that they didn't work. Playwrite couldn't control John, he was too strong, but he dimmed his mind, making it harder to think clearly or remember. He looked worried and kept saying 'This isn't right! Where is the base! I bet that fool Dragon sent me here. I enter the shop and suddenly I'm here! When I get hold of him! But first I need to get out....'

(I forgot to say, Dragon wasn't there because he's off getting the remaining members of the old Zodiac.)

He wandered towards the gap in the trees, but Healthbar hit him with a blast of burning sunlight when he got close and he flung himself back into the trees. He muttered about sheltering in the cave until nightfall, but as he came towards us Doolittle sent out a deafening roar. It was intolerable, a bellowing, inhuman feral roar of anger and rage, like hundreds of lions in a fury condensed into one sickening howl, and I backed it up with a blast of wind and a yell of 'Be afraid!' pushing my persuasion as hard as I could, he couldn't make out the words amogst the roar, but they got through, and our combined efforts turned him pale and he fled to the hill, where Don, still hidden, pulled some impressive moves on his legs, making him fall backwards with a yell, holding onto the counter for support, just as Precog leapt up from behind it and smacked him on the head with the cricket bat. Not having thought to use his powers thanks to Diffy and Playwrite, he collapsed to the floor infront of Pete, who clapped one hand over John's face, and grabbed the box he'd put in his pocket with the other. There was an explosion of red energy, John yelled, Pete slid the box across the floor to Tingle, and the jungle faded as we closed in on John. John gasped, sat up, and snarled at us. 'What was all this? I made sure I kept out of sight, and I made hardly any noise. You were as good as dead!'

'Give us a little credit, Cleo warned us ages ago.' grinned Doolittle, as Precog held the cricket bat threateningly over John's neck. Playwrite was making full use of the fact that John no longer had Telepathy to fight his. 'This is the real one' he said, and Tingle verified it after grabbing John's arm. 'He didn't have the stregth for more clones so soon after creating the army that took on TP, and he is powerless now...except...Oh no.' John gave his evil, gloating grin. 'Go on, tell them.'
'He had two Rapid cellular regenerations. The second one was hidden by the first, meaning cleaning him out of powers would ignore this one. We can't kill him.'
Everyone was shocked. Pete reached out, saying 'Well, surely now you've found it, I can just-'

John blasted a hole in Pete's hand with a blue laser from his finger. 'You like? A new aquisition, bringing my total of powers to 8. Regeneration applies to powers aswell, didn't you realize? And now I know my powers were working the whole time...' His legs and head wound healed rapidly, as we felt a familiar stuffy cold come over us as our powers were nulled. 'I should have known it was you' John said to Diffy, (Diffy still looked like Diffy, his passive illusion can only be taken down by him, John can only stop him making new ones) and he lifted him into the air with TK. 'Healthbar' I asked, as Diffy struggled madly 'Can't you null him? Your lunar powers, you have that fog stuff that that can make mental blocks?' 'I can only use it to null my own powers like I did at the start' she replied sadly. 'I can use it to knock people out, but it's harder to knock out an EH, and the stronger they are the harder it is. He would have noticed If I started it earlier and known we were playing a trick, and I can't now because he's blocking mine.' Even Don couldn't help, because we were all frozen in place. Only Tingle had a solution. 'You may not be able to die, but this has got to sting.' he said calmly, and, aiming it at John's back, he opened the box.

A blast of light struck him between the shoulders, with all his radiation and lasers and power nulling being used against him. He was thrown across the room and embedded in a wall, and as his powers were nulled Diffy fell to the floor and we toppled over backwards, causing Tingle to drop the box, which snapped shut as it hit the floor. As we got up a disgusting, almost skeletal form, hardly more than bones and blackened, smoking tissue, limped and staggered past us, now beginnning to heal as his powers returned for the second time, and John began to run as his body restored itself. We thought Diffy had stopped him when a sad, ghostly Aron appeared at the Door, tears rolling down it's cheeks, his body halfway between metal and skin, looking at John and calling softly, 'Why John? I was your friend, Damian was your friends, these people were-' but with something between a sob and a cry of rage he ran straight through it, after yelling 'NOW!' was picked up by a speedster and left in a blur.

'So that was John?' said Don converssationally as Healthbar patched everyone up. Pete was annoyed with himself for not catching the second regen, but Playwrite convinced him that nobody could have, he only found it because John was thinking about it smugly.

That's it for now, I'll write again when Dragon gets back.