[Cortex] Into the Crimson Code [EN] | ходы игроков | Pain, We Like It Rough

"I. Don't. Like it." Widowmaker, who was in her superhero costume again, carefully looked inside, probing the air with her forked tongue and really expecting to smell blood. "Sirs?" she reached out to the policemen minds, also expecting to find out nothing but the silence of death.

Two bobbies were physically silent, but probing into their minds Margareth was able to at least confirm that they are alive... There were thoughts. Chaotic and full of dramatic recreations of the lives those people had. Tragic as it was, there was no time to look through the whole live of Daniel Peterborough, who came to London to support his big family and yada-yada. Margareth was looking for the newest fluctuations in the peaceful lives of these two. And those were connected to the girls the heroes were after. Both bobbies tried to run away as soon as their car was attacked, but pink-haired girl easily catch up to them. The first one twisted his ankle and fell down screaming like he had broken every bone in his leg. The other one tried to help and they both were knocked out and apparently brought here...

BONG

Again bell echoed through the peaceful neighborhood.

"They're alive," Margaret exhaled, relieved. "But their legs are broken, they cannot escape... and the criminals are likely to use them as body shields. Any plans? This whole place looks like a trap, these psychos look like they WANT to attract attention. I can contact the cops telepathically or climb to the bell tower... you?"

"Better get in touch with the cops. Me and I better get to the top," Hydra said and nodded to his clones, "We'll take their attention and you save the hostages... Deal?"

"Right... here goes nothing," Widowmaker wasn't sure about the plan, but she didn't have the time to come up with a better one. So she stealthily sneaked into the church, eyes open for any traps.
"Sirs?" she used her telepathy again to call the policemen. "I'm here to help, yes, I'm a telepath! Can you tell me where the twins are? Any danger you need to warn me about, please?"

Hydra snapped his shoes apart twice, imagining himself as Ellie from “The Sage of Oz” and took a short step forward, pushing off the wall of the church. He began his ascent, adjusting his suit and tightening his tie as he went.
“Poser,” one of the clones told him. “Show-off,” the second one pricked painfully. “Posh boy!” teased a third.
The Hydra waved them away. The assholes are unhappy that they didn't get the shoes. They could be understood. But what could JJ do in this situation? All he had to do was keep going up while the clones climbed the wall the old fashioned way, remembering their parkour and climbing lessons.

“Be patient, damn it,” he sent a message to them through the helmet, “I didn’t have the resources and time to recreate the shoes for you too. You too. So hold on until the next break...", pause, "...or until you find a villain with the right technology.”

Softly stepping on the stone, Hydra bypassed the crowded belfries. His clones were still climbing the tower when he was at the edge of its ledge. Quickly brushed over the helmet to make it shine in the night. And then with an elegant movement he entered the window opening of the tower. Hydra turned on the speakers on his helmet.
His voice poured into the room softly and mockingly:

"Sup, weebs", he respectfully greeted the unknown, "Don't you think it's too late for a call to prayer? Judging by a good book, Big Man in da skys doesn`t particulary like to forgive torturers and edge teenagers"

Once again establishing a connection with one of the policemen, Margareth tried to get the valuable information from him. Initially he didn't respond, but then slowly drop his guard down. Not like he had a choice.

"Oh... sure. Blue-haired is at the altar. She just watches. The pink one..." Widowmaker could see him looking over his shoulder. "She is the one ringing a bell, while catching this boy..."

As Hydra entered the belltower with clock on it and announced his entrance to everybody inside, the ringing of the bell stopped for a couple of seconds.

"Finally!" he heard a kid's voice from the top, where the clock mechanism was placed. "Now you're finished, villains!"

Then this little rascal showed himself, as he ran a little bit down and without losing a second to think jumped over the rails and started falling down. Hydra didn't want to sacrifice the sheer swag of his entrance, and sneakily altered the force field of his boot to cover the way of kid's falling. He didn't expect this. He thought that he was going to receive help and was prepared to be caught in the hands. As such he fell face first into the invisible force field. But right when the impact ended he showed his thumb to say that he is fine.

"Thanks!" he was too excited to notice the blood dripping from his nose. Or the fact that he probably was running for the last half an hour and looked wasted as hell and wet with sweat. "Never doubted you!"

Meanwhile the pink-haired girl appeared on top of the tower.

"Oh hi!" she was carrying her comically-large axe behind her, so it made the loud "bonk" with every step of the stairs it fell down. "Is his name Weebs? To me he looked like a George..."

Yep, she wasn't very smart. Meanwhile the blue-haired stopped doing nothing and slowly made her way towards the stairs that led to the tower.

"Rebecca, who is there?"

"Some green telepath."

"Do you need my help?"

"No, but he tries to steal ma boy."

"Okay, anyway I didn't want to climb there..."

And she turned back to make her way to the altar...

"Damn... not sure if I can get you out of here you first... you have a radio to call for backup?" Widowmaker was facing a dilemma: should she sneak up on the blue-haired psycho bitch or try to get the bystanders out of harm's way... she wasn't sure she could do the latter. Anyway, she sneaked into the church, hiding behind the benches.
"Hydra, I see one of the twins, good news she's to lazy yo join her sister upstairs... what about you?"

“You're welcome, kid”, said Hydra before turning off the vox-caster on his helmet. His clones, climbing the wall of the tower, were already beginning to resent.

"Why did we get a dumbass again!?"

"Shouldn't young villains be more cultured?"

"I thought they let you watch anime in the Tower. Otherwise, what are they doing there?"

"I don't know, maybe socially useful work?"

"In UK prisons? Come on, dude. grow up already"

"Yeah... it's my fault. The fruit is hanging too low."

At the same time, the Hydra moved closer to the boy. He quickly extended his hand to help him lift himself off the force field and onto the solid surface. The hero didn't say a word. The green visor on his helmet kept track of the villain. The ax is as big as it is deadly. One hit will cut it in two. The strength of the girl is also high. Or is there another trick here?

Hydra recalled their strength, in parallel answering Margaret:

"I've got a baby and a second crazy bitch”, very dry and short he said, “I'll throw the kid outside the bell tower, to the duplicates. And then I'll start a fight," he paused, "can you get the hostages out of here safely?"

At the same time, Hydra unbuttoned his jacket. He took out the carpenter's hammer. Ordinary. Small. But very heavy. He weighed it in his hand and went to the boy.

“Good evening”, he saluted the girl, "I assure you! There has been a misunderstanding"

"I'm not here to steal your boy", prepared to throw the boy out, "I'm here to smack you on the head with a hamma! Very hard, I swear to... SIKE BITCH!", Hydra yelled and threw the boy out of the window.

"No-o-o!" pink-haired girl screamed as the boy flew into the open window, where he was casually caught in the caring hands of the other Hydra. Of course twin didn't know about it... "You monster!"

She clenched her axe. Very hard. It was noticeable even from where Hydra was standing. Girl also stood, not knowing what to do now.

"Rebecca?" the voice from downstairs belonged to another twin, who stopped right away, when she heard screaming. "What happened?"

"Sis, he threw him away!"

"Oh my stupid fucking sister..." blue-haired muttered to herself and then raised her hand and clenched her fist. Rebecca instantly dropped her axe and screamed. "Pull yourself together. If you don't we've got troubles. Break him."

The fist unclenched. Pink-haired instantly stopped screaming. She looked for an axe, and then in two fast motions jumper over railing with that thing in her hand. She landed one stairway higher than Hydra, looked at him and then waited for something.

"Not going to jump yourself? Fine..."

She jumped forward, raising her axe like it was a toy and then swung it to the side, trying to hit Hydra with the flat side and send him flying into the window...

Attack the psycho or get the hostages out of harm's way? Attack her or protect her victims? Damn! Okay, let's try to... Widowmaker sneaked closer to the girl, trying to stay hidden.
"Knock knock," she reached out to the blue-haired twin's mind, sending her a message in a mocking "voice". "Not going to help your sister? Go ahead. That will make it easier for us to take you out one by one."

"Sorry, no radio. They broke them," finally answered the bobby. He was too scared by the noise to do it earlier. "Shouldn't they already be on their way?"

Meanwhile the girl started frantically moving her head around.

"Who's there?" she asked mentally. This one was smarter, but not that smart. At least she didn't start speaking to the air. She looked around, still not able to find the source of her distress. Then she stopped and started to slowly walk around the church perimeter. Her patrolling wasn't skilled, but she still tried to search for somebody. And her hand reached to the pocket and emerged back with a comically small Swiss knife. Even so, the sharpness of this thing was not something you would like to check on yourself.

"You may guess," the villainess couldn't see her, but Widowmaker grinned devilishly, satisfied with her distraction. "Who am I? Someone you know? Where am I? Anywhere? Everywhere? Nowhere? Am I alone? Or not? Maybe I'm... BEHIND YOUR BACK?! Hahaha, gotcha! Maybe your sister is being killed as we speak? Or not?"
Widowmaker's plan was relatively simple - to direct the crazy chick away from the hostages, then grab them and rush with them from the church. Yes, it's hard to run while carrying two grown men, but the snake hybrid was much stronger than your average girl.