Don't ever apologize for being the smartest one in the room

[itsamysterio]

WHO: Mysterio, OTA
WHERE: Billy's City
WHAT: Time to prove Beck's tech can change the world
WHEN: Mid/Late Event
WARNINGS: MUCH PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA, UPSETING IMAGERY, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK



Stark Industries

Super villains attacking the building was almost just another Tuesday at this. Not that Mysterio necessarily considered himself to be a villain. A strange green mist spilled through the halls, Beck couldn't help but play up the theatrics a little.

His ultimate goal was Stark, but that didn't mean he couldn't have a little fun with his coworkers as he made his way to his dear boss. Or any other unfortunate visitors to the building.

Before you had time to be surprised by whatever it was he was wearing, you were plunged into a world of illusion, your deepest fears and greatest traumas uprooted and unearthed into an unsettling hellscape.

The Masses

Why not spread the fun around? Mysterio ventured out into the streets, confident no one could stand in his way. After all, what kind of threat could you really be to him when he could twist the very world around you into a personalized hell?

That green mist ventured out, flooding the city block, chaos erupting as people went running and cars veered off course.

Just the Two of Us

It was just the two of you now, and Mysterio chuckled inside his helmet, palms raised in mock surrender.

"You really think you can stop me?" he asked. Sure- they'd put up a good fight, but Beck was barely getting stated.

That mist became almost suffocating, and the world seemed to shift, rewriting itself to plunge you directly into your very own personal hellscape. Even knowing none of it was real did nothing to stop your mind from reacting as though it were. You're just a puppet on a string, and Mysterio's going to enjoy playing with his toy before he breaks it.

Comments

[itsamysterio]

"Didn't it though? How many men are in the ground because of you?"

Just as the earth seems about to swallow him whole it drains away, iron bars rising up from the ground to cage him, the sounds of tortured screaming in the air, and a burning feeling starts running through Bucky's veins.

[sinistral]

"No, not because of—"

Before he could finish the sentence the ground pressed in tight, stealing the air from his lungs, suffocating. Bucky struggled to breathe, feeling lightheaded when the earth melted into iron bars. He sagged for a moment, the rush of oxygen to his brain making him momentarily dizzy.

The dizziness intensified with the rush of pain, burning in his arms and legs. He forced his eyes open to see tubes, wires, needles, drugs and who-knows-what-else pumped into his veins while all he could do was scream.

[itsamysterio]

Mysterio seemed to materialize outside of those bars, peering in unsympathetically.

"Did it hurt? How long until they got it right, I wonder? How many test subjects did they burn through before they got to you?"

There was a crashing sound, one that should have preluded Steve's arrival to come rescue him from this place, but no one came. Mysterio faded away again, and along with him the bars, plunging Bucky into darkness to suffer alone.

[sinistral]

It was just like being strapped down on that table again, restrained so he couldn't struggle while all manner of fire was injected into his veins. HYDRA didn't bother with painkilers or sedatives, not when either one could have potentially interfered with their experiments.

"This is not for you," he growled at the apparition peering through the bars. Bucky tried to push himself forward, to swing a punch at that glass dome, but stumbled to his knees instead as the burning sensation intensified. He wouldn't scream. He wouldn't.

The sound torn from his throat was inhuman, suffering and pained as he pitched forward, trying to catch himself on his hands. This was worse than what he'd endured, so much worse, and as blackness encroached, he didn't know if it was his surroundings or his own consciousness that was fading away.

[itsamysterio]

The surface of the ground beneath his hands might have given the game away some. What looked in that moment to be smooth cement felt distinctly coarser. He could only trick the mind so much, he couldn't change the real world around them.

The darkness pushed in, a distinct sound rising, and then there was a suddenly light. Bucky was crouched a top a moving train, wind whipping around him.

"Just give in and it all stops. Do you really want to relive all this?"

[sinistral]

Blacking out would have been preferable, but Bucky wasn't so lucky. Hands clenched into fists against the ground; the texture didn't match the appearance, and that helped. (One could even say it...grounded him. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.)

Anyway, Bucky looked up in time for the darkness to give way to light, for the wind to whip into his eyes and his balance to sway as he had to clutch the train car under him. Except it wasn't the metal of a train and that helped him force himself to his feet.

"I won't give in to your games," he growled, trying to goad his opponent into more talking. If he could follow the voice to pinpoint the location, maybe he could stop all this.

[itsamysterio]

"Okay but you all ready have," Mysterio mocked, easily baited. His voice came from somewhere off to the left, somewhere over the side of the train. Up ahead some burly HYDRA goons climbed their way on top of the cars, and opened fire on Bucky. Technically they couldn't hurt him, but it wouldn't stop that pain from feeling real if he was struck.

[sinistral]

"Have I now?" That was the key, or so he thought in the quickly changing landscape. Keep the guy talking, keep him focused on Bucky, and hopefully it would leave him vulnerable to the backup Bucky hoped was coming — though it was certainly taking its time arriving.

He couldn't spend too much time attempting to mock the man though; a bullet grazed his thigh and Bucky went down on his knee, hard. It hurt, and only battle instinct had him raising his weighted arm, the shield he'd forgotten about held at the ready, fending off the bullets. Unfortunately he was too busy doing that to pin down the direction of his true enemy.

[itsamysterio]

He was closer than Bucky might have thought, delivering a swift kick that meshed with the illusion to knock Bucky back off the train, the fall seeming to stretch out far longer than it should have before he was lost to the icy terrain below with a painful crunch.

"Look how easily Captain America falls."