TB Legacy

“Woah. Interesting.”
“Quit thinking how you talk, Sensor, it's weird.” Voice looked over the rooftop.
“What's the sit-rep?” Cavalier shook her head silently at Voice.
“It's an old one, at the Diego Theatre.” Sensor closed his eyes and checked the scene again, “It looks like it's The Jester.”
“You mean -The- Jester?” Demoness probed, “Like, the actual one?”
“Anybody want to fill in a clueless Brooklyn boy?” Phase strode through the staircase wall behind the group.
At the headquarters, Sensor brought up the file on-screen and transmitted the image mentally, “The Jester, old school Blazers villain, showed up right after they got big. Dude in a white jester suit, natch-”
“Seriously, thinking how you talk.”
“His powers were always majorly inconsistent, it's just listed on the database as presumed reality warper.”
“Threat level?” Cavalier asked.
“Fluctuated, go in careful. He's been known to target bystanders. Cav, tapping your visuals.”
“Roger that.” Cavalier raised her shield and leapt off the rooftop, Demoness following. Voice knelt and allowed Phase to step on his hands before launching him off after the other two, then following himself with a heavy “Vwoorp” sound from his suit.

With much military hand gesture from Cavalier, the group swept into the theatre and formed up on the door the fleeing civilians had been frantically pointing at. “Sensor, does this guy know we're here?” Cavalier thought.
“Ohhhh yes.” Came an unfamiliar voice in their heads.
“I hate this guy already.” Phase intoned aloud.
With annoyance, Cavalier gestured her head towards the door and the foursome strode in, looking down towards the stage where a white figure stood, arms wide.
“Ah, so glade you could make it to my once-in-a-lifteime return performance. I'd have liked to have seen your progenitors again, but I'm given to understand they don't do house calls any more. Such a shame, eh, but the times they are a-changing.”
“Enough outta you.” Voice's suit boomed and a visible wave shot from his wrist. The Jester waved a hand in his general direction.
“Quiet in the peanut gallery.” The soundwave disappeared. Voice attempted another soundwave, but no sound came.
“UNCOOL!” Voice shouted in his head, “HE CAN'T DO THAT! WHY CAN HE DO THAT?”
“I can't abide a heckler, son.” The Jester told him from onstage, pacing up and down. While his back was turned, Phase took the opportunity to fall through the floor.
“Now, where was I? Ah yes. I'm hoping my old act will still play just as well for a new generation of straightmen-” He paused and turned aside, “Heroes, if you prefer.” There was a thud from beneath the stage, then another. The Jester slipped down onto his front and stage-whispered, “Sorry, Phase, that's not where the trap-door is.” He pulled himself up on a cane he didn't have before, “The old one used to be fond of that trick as well. Tell me, can you become a girl?”
“Cut to the chase, Clown White.” Cavalier straightened her stance, “What's your endgame here?”
“Ooh, audience participation!” The Jester hopped down from the stage and began striding up the aisle, “Now let's see, you'd be the new Cavalier, yes? There's a big difference I can't quite put my finger on,” He looked the small, white girl up and down, tapping his finger against his chin, then raising it in revelation, “Ah yes! The other one didn't use a shield, yes?” He stood, hips-cocked, right in front of her.
“One of the many marked differences. For instance, the first one didn't like to throw sucker punches.” She threw a wild haymaker for The Jester's jaw, which he ducked under. She followed with a shield bash he dodged, then drew her halberd in a straight down slash, which he leant back away from. “Gamma Seven, Dee, ASAP.” Cavalier made a standing leap over the Jester's head and slashed at him from behind, pursuing in a series of sharp blows while Demoness began to chant.
“Oh, it's cute how you work together. The old ones, always arguing, they were.” A circle of glowing red sigils appeared around the two.
“You can't dodge forever, Funnyman. Sooner or later-”
“Stop. I've heard this one.” He swung under her halberd blow and came around to balance on top of it. Her weapon and her shield both came crashing to the floor, dragging her with them.
“Aw for- I can't let go of them!”
He stepped off towards Demoness, still behind the warding circle, with his hands behind his back. “And now, just you. The other one would have tried to punch me a lot. But you, you're interesting. A preacher's daughter, and looking like that, cloven hooves and all. If nothing else, it proves God has a sense of humour. And witchcraft?” He sniffed the air, “Not just a light-show, this is the good stuff. And you hide your name, with that face? What an enigma you present.” He stood up against the very edge of the circle, “But don't worry. Insingem didn't know who she was either.”
Demoness smiled. “I know exactly who I am.”
“Ooh, this ought to be a good one.” The Jester smiled as the circle began to draw tighter around him.
“I am a mutant. I am a Christian. And I am a witch. But that's not the most important thing I am.”
“This had better be a good punchline after all that set-up.”
“I'm a distraction.” Phase grabbed him by the ankles and Voice leapt onto his back, wrapping his arms around his neck, bringing him to the ground.
“Predictable, but the old ones are the best, eh?”
Cavalier stood up over the heap on the floor. “I don't know. I think there's something to be said for fresh material.”