8th Trick - VOICE/TEXT/VIDEO FEED (Day of the Dead Guy)

[vengefulshades]

[At 8:45 PM on November 3rd, this message is broadcast to all Import devices. The video shows a flickering feed of security cameras in some swanky lounge. As the camera shifts, six people can be seen in and around the lounge, in various emotional states:

- Abigail Hobbs
- Annie Leonhart
- Kate Kane
- Siegmund Heissenrech
- Anna
- Rampage

Finally, the voice of The Manipulator comes over the line.]

Attention, all Import citizens of Heropa. This is The Manipulator speaking.

Here, you can see there are currently seven people in the top floor lounge of The Lift in downtown Heropa. Six of them are innocents. Six lives. Six hostages who may be dead by tomorrow morning.

Unless one of you has the guts to save them.

[The camera feed flicks around appropriately to show the security system, the room's entrances and exits, and whatever else he talks about.]

Let's break it down nice and simple.

The lounge is secured by an alarm, doors and windows-- one that you won't be able to turn off without my knowledge or my help. If it goes off, the hostages will die. If anyone attempts to enter or leave the lounge, the hostages will die. If anyone sets foot on the 15th floor of this building without my express say-so, the hostages will die.

But you don't need to sit around and accept this loss of life. You can stop it. Only one person needs to die tonight to end this.

The seventh person. Me.

[And now the camera flickers to show a brief glimpse of a silhouetted person- someone in plain clothes, wearing a black mask over his face.]

One of you so-called heroes has fifteen minutes to get to the rooftop of this building. There, your only task is a simple one... you're going to kill me. Get rid of me permanently. End this hell of an existence of mine once and for all.

No mercy. No tricks. Just you and me and your powers, and the death that I was denied ten years ago.

[The shot goes back to the lounge and the hostages within.]

If your powers don't work on me, I'll understand. Nothing else has worked so far. And I'm really not unreasonable. We'll just have to try someone else. Every hour. On the hour.

And if some hour passes and nobody shows up to take me on, then one hostage dies. You've got six whole tries to figure this out before we run out of hostages.

But remember. I don't need to kill anyone. Nobody innocent needs to suffer tonight. Only one person needs to die to put an end to this.

So come get me.

[And the feed ends.]

((ooc: All replies will come from "The Manipulator," not "Yomiel."))

Comments

[forcowardice]

Yeah, you say that name like I'm supposed to know what it means. I've never heard of you before.

[vengefulshades]

To make a long story short, I'm a villain. And it's a hero's job to stop a villain.

If you want to hear my rap sheet, you're welcome to, but I don't think it's especially important right now. The bottom line is I'm a villain. And six people will die unless my demands are met.

[forcowardice]

What's so difficult about your life that you need to endanger people just so you get what you want?

[vengefulshades]

I don't have a life at all. I'm already dead.

I have been for ten years. Ten years I've been forced to hang around in this worthless corpse of a body. Nothing else will end me. So it's time someone else gives it a try.

[forcowardice]

Look, I can't imagine what that's like for you. But that hardly excuses the position you're putting others into! If you really want to end your life, why put others in a position where they could get killed?

[vengefulshades]

Because I've already tried everything else.

I asked nicely. I asked for someone to kill me- and I was told that I didn't really want that.

[forcowardice]

So you decided that you would force your hand and drag people who don't even know you into this.

I won't assume to know everything about your situation but there should be a better way. I can try to help you but I'm not interested in endangering lives unnecessarily. Would you be willing to work with me?

[vengefulshades]

I warned you all. I said I'd make you take me seriously. Now I actually do it and everyone is surprised.

Typical, isn't it?

[There's a long pause before he replies to the offer of help.]

I'm listening.

[forcowardice]

I haven't been here that long, so I can't really speak to it. But people should have taken you more seriously.

Can you tell me a little more about your condition? My powers seem to allow me to cause objects and people to combust, but your situation is unique. I don't know how it'll work on you, but we can... we can give that a try.

[vengefulshades]

My body is a corpse. My soul is a ghost. I can't die in any sense of the word. There's something bizarre tethering my existence to the world, and I don't know what it'll take to sever it.

But some Import has to be able to. They have to. From all these worlds, all these people. And none of them have even tried!

[This is probably because he goes about it in backwards, antagonistic, crazy-ass ways and has put-off anyone who might have actually aided him by being a jerk. But details, details...]

So I made it so they can't ignore me anymore. See?

[forcowardice]

So other people's lives are completely worth it as long as you get what you want?

[vengefulshades]

Nobody else has to die. All you all have to do is try.

It's not too much to ask.

[forcowardice]

I'm giving you the opportunity to see if I can make you explode, but I can't promise it'll work. Trust me: I'd have no problem with a little combustion for you.

You just need to let the hostages go.

[vengefulshades]

I already told you the order this goes in. They'll be free once I'm dead.

[forcowardice]

And what'll happen to them if I can't kill you? If my powers don't get you what you want despite my best effort?

[vengefulshades]

Then someone else will try. Then someone else. All night long.

I can't punish innocents for the failures of other people who put in a real effort.

[forcowardice]

But you'll punish innocents for your own desires anyway. That's still a backwards method.

In any case, we might end up meeting each other face to face eventually.

[vengefulshades]

I never really claimed to be a nice guy.

Come get me. Put your money where your mouth is, if you don't like what I've done.