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[Gamerlord]

...Seriously?

We would be threatening him with telling Knighthowl! And what we want? Information! WHY he did all that! WHAT he did to Cheery! Etcetera, etcetera!

[Cain12]

Has already been said why no one would believe or care what we say, so it is only more info in his pocket.
Then he just uses the publics reaction to his advantage.

Telling Knighowl what? that he brainwashes children, Knighowl already knows this the heroes methods and would have no reason to suspect us of less intensive treatment, plus I think he thinks Knighowl is dead (Edit: or a deserter) seeing as he disappeared after our attack.

[10ebbor10]

Also, we don't have any way to tell Knighthowl, but that doesn't matter that much.

But yeah, Knighthowl knows, and if he didn't, we would just be endangering him.

[Gamerlord]

Telling Knighthowl that he tortured his own son maybe? That, plus the friendship back when we were a hero would probably royally piss Knighthowl off.

[Eotyrannus]

I'd say that we might be able to glean a bit more info on Cheerie if we pick through all the lies and propaganda that results. That would be useful.

[Knit tie]

Blackmailing the heroes is, unfortunately, impossible. Nobody will believe us.

[Cain12]

That is weak blackmail, of course he tortured us, its hero training, nay The Hero taining, Knighowl would know all about it having been through hero training himself.

And there wont be any revealing propaganda, the public would be easy to silence with some anti-evil speech and lies that give nothing, the heroes don't even need to defend themselves with anything more elegant than "We must save my son, the overlord has clearly messed with his head, and evil shall not prevail ect". If anything this guy knows how to play the public.

[shadenight123]

You speak with Charoline, pushing her into an empty room to have a private chat.
"Can I write a final message home?" she asks softly, probably thinking you're about to 'off' her.
"No," you shake her head. "I'm not going to kill you," you continue. "I want your help."
"I'm not going to trick children in getting into your van," Charoline snaps back. "One thing is to teach children how to behave. Another is to offer them candy and then mutate them!"
"No, no," you bring your hands up to placate her. "Nothing of the sort...I need a moral compass."
"Uh?"
"I need a moral compass. What I did was...too evil, even for my standards," he continues. "I need someone who is able to tell me where the line stands."
"The line? You tore down that line when you experimented on children!" Charoline shrieks, "And you think I don't know about that psychopathic jelly you have as an advisor!? I know all about what you did! You tore apart a city block! You brought down a television tower! You murdered the passengers and the crew of an entire cruiser ship! You're one of the most despicable, egoistic, evil creatures the world has ever known! You are an Evil Overlord...and you want a MORAL COMPASS!?" she is snarling the last part out, lashing out by 'stabbing' you in the chest with her index finger. "You need to pay for your crimes! You're a despicable sociopath who has no qualms in resorting to murder when things don't go your way! IF anyone just tries to oppose you, you kill them off! You have no sense of decency, of shame, of respect for your opponent!"
"That's..."
"You mind-break people so that they can obey! You genetically alter people so that they follow your whims! You tortured a guy until he was utterly broken, so you could have a new minion through that SAD system of yours! How. Is. That. Not. Evil!?"
"And how is that different from torturing a little girl in front of the television then!?" you roar back.
"You mean, after your kill count and murder spree increased? What of the family of the police officers your troops killed? What of the men and women who are crying their hearts out to the children lost during that battle in the city block? What of all that pain, that suffering!? Are you not responsible for that!? Everything your minions did was by your orders! Everyone they killed was because you ordered them to! You get what you want whenever you want, and screw the rest right!? We'll all become mutant and beast freaks by the end of the day, because that's what you want!"
"That's how it has to be!" you yell back, "It's the one thing I have always stuck to! It's the one thing that still shows I have standards!"
"If your standards are based on painfully mutating people and genetically brainwashing them into obedient slaves," Charoline snaps back, "Then you simply don't have any to begin with."
You lash out, grabbing at her neck furiously. "Don't you dare!" you hiss, "I am better than the heroes!" you hold the grip tightly, as her hands flail to grab at your own that is slowly suffocating her. "You think you're any better!? You pathetic excuses! I AM RETURNING ALL THE PAIN YOU DELIVERED! You would have us butchered and analyzed in laboratories, vivisected, cut apart and worse! You're the first who mind-rape your own soldiers! You. Are. A. Cancer! You're a cancer to all that is..."
And then you drop her, as she gags and then retches on the floor, her hands to her neck as her body quakes and trembles.

You have to understand, Silver, that the Overlords came first. They are always a source of evil, and the monsters they command always relish in blood and death...so you see, we aren't actually killing them because we enjoy it.
We are simply returning the pain they have delivered to us.


You hold the side of your head, moaning lightly.

I know you're in there Silver. Fight on. Fight it. You're THE Hero, aren't you? So fight!

You ground your teeth.
There is no Silver.
There is no Hero.
You. Are. Incognito.
You are an Evil Overlord.
You scream as your bloodshot eyes gaze upwards, towards the ceiling. "I AM OVERLORD INCOGNITO! DO YOU HEAR ME, SILVER!? I AM NOT YOU! I WILL NEVER BE YOU!"
And then you gaze at Charoline, and curtly hiss.
"You will tell me when I do something wrong...or I will kill you and find someone else who will."
Charoline spits at your feet. "Why don't...you just...die?"
"Not until the HEROES association draws breath," you reply, before leaving the room and closing the door behind.

You decide to head over to the tape room as your anger abates. It's not really going to be difficult to find out who did-
The tape room has no tapes.
You frown, gazing at the cabinets, which do not appear to have been forced. Your fingers trace delicately over the keyhole for the archives where you keep the recordings.
There is a smudge of Goo.

This does quite implicate Cerulean in it however.
You frown as you try to view through the cameras what is going on. Somebody has apparently rerouted a few of them to send a loop of a few areas. That's...high concept work. Unless Cerulean is a masterful Hacker, she must have had help from someone who can tinker with technology just as well as you do.
Your thoughts end up on Gamington. Splinter Cog said he saw Cerulean leave through the door with Jeanne. The cameras were rerouted anyway.
However, if the cameras had ended up being rerouted...why destroy the tapes anyway?
You turn thoughtful. Splinter Cog could be lying. But you don't think he can. He could have been reprogrammed to see one thing, then. That is most certainly true.
That would point to Gamington.
But then, why would Cerulean lie so badly? Unless she wanted to be thought of as guilty.
Because you would be more lenient on her.
Because a Dark Advisor can betray, and if he does then the only solution is death.
But you don't understand. Why?
Why would Gamington do this?
Why number fifteen and not the others?
But maybe he did try, but he could only save one child. Maybe he did plan to reroute the cameras so he could let them all escape. But he was stopped, because Cerulean happened across the scene and saw him leave with one and so he had no choice but to enlist her aid.
However...in doing so, he wasted time.
Time that was precious and little. It took four hours for Ragnarok to be 'mutated'. Gamington probably used that timelapse to get that one child...where? To safety?
Or maybe Cerulean did stop him. She did eat the children -no sign of the crime, no reason to punish him after all- and then she didn't let him explain and went on to hide or destroy everything related to the crime because she didn't want you to punish him.
That too makes sense.

But before speaking with Gamington, you decide to speak with Chemista.
She is the other Goo-Girl in the lair after all.
"Your evilness?" she is currently slinking about, a batch of glass vials in her hands. "Do you require something?"
"Did the Mindium go inactive?"
"Uh...no. It just finished from the mines I worked it on. There is that one rock in the museum if you wish for it, why the question?"
"I was thinking...maybe we could deal with Cerulean's repressed memories...or maybe with my own."
"Well your evilness, I am always at your disposal," she smiles. "The way you delivered a clear-cut and clean list for experimentation was particularly satisfying. We might make a biological scientist out of you."
"I don't know whether to feel praised or not..." you mutter back, "But the Heroes association is using it, right? I think...I think they use it in the Asylum."
"They must have found some mines," she shrugs. "Or maybe they had some reserves. It does explain why Heroic Heroes are not convertible however. You can't break Mindium's Control that easily. With time it might just slightly fade, but we are speaking of decades."
"If it was a matter of decades, why stop being an overlord?" you ask Chemista.
"Why keep on being it? There is a lot of stress involved," she shrugs. "You never know who among your Dark Advisors might rebel or what ticks them off...I mean, would you tell someone who has powers of life and death over you if you dislike how he does things?"
"But you are pretty vocal sometimes."
"Of course, but your evilness, that's because there are some things we won't simply tolerate. Like that Charoline...when am I transforming her?"
"Not yet," you reply.
"There, you see? This doesn't offend me, but it clearly makes me think 'Is he going back on his standards? Did something happen? Maybe I should try and torture it out of that human girl...' and so on."
"No torturing her!" you exclaim, "I mean..."
"Oh," Chemista blinks. "Of course, it's obvious in retrospect. You are a man after all and she is a young girl trapped in the lair with children around. Of course, of course, I suppose it's obvious your animal instincts on reproduction would come to the fore."
"IT's not that!" you weakly reply.
"As a motherly figure, let me explain to you how the act of reproduction works among the mammals known as humans."
"You are not giving me the talk, Chemista," you deadpan, "I know that stuff."
"Did you know that there are particular pressure points in..."
"LALALALAALA NOT LISTENING LALALALAAL."
"Very well. I will have informative pamphlets sent up to your rooms. Would you like me to have the 'spider-girl' produce a silk dress? Something racy perhaps as a gift and 'double entendre'?"
"No, no," you keep on shaking your head. "Did you perhaps find...the tape room?"
"The tape Room?"
"I...placed cameras around the lair."
"I know that, your evilness."
"You do? How!?"
"What sort of Evil Overlord doesn't keep an eye on his subordinates? And I can walk through walls and pipes, so I saw the increased electrical lines. They are very well hidden by the way. I doubt anyone would have seen them otherwise..."

Like Gamington.

He wouldn't have been able to see them in the first place.


It was the other way around.

Your eyes widen as realization hits you. It wasn't Gamington who tried to free the children, but Cerulean. She saw the cameras, but since she couldn't just reprogram them to look elsewhere she melted off the tapes. She couldn't bring out more than one children at a time with her gelatinous mass, and thus managed only Jeanne. Gamington saw her and stopped her, only to let his heart sway and help out.
That was when things got trickier. Cerulean told him of the cameras. He headed off to reprogram them...so that they could take the submarine or the zeppelin and drop the girl off somewhere else.
But why? They couldn't just have done that without...oh, of course, Gamington reprogrammed Splinter Cog, and he can program the Cogs just like you. He is a Flesh Cog in basic principle after all...although you never tried to see what a Flesh Cog does.
It took four hours for Ragnarok's mutation to be completed. More than enough time. If they had taken more than one girl, it would have been obvious really...
But why her?
Why not...someone else?

Cerulean clearly didn't eat her. She did see the girl give you the drawing of yourself gutted.
Gamington couldn't have accessed the cameras without Cerulean showing him first.
Cerulean tried to make the fault fall on herself with mentions of 'death' and 'guts'. So that you'd blame her.
Still, why mention it in that way?

You leave Chemista and head towards the 'bathroom'.
You feel like a sort-of Sherlock Holmes, trying to find the truth.
In fact, Cerulean's 'self-incrimination' appears convincing, especially when you find the torn and jelly covered clothes of the girl in a bathroom stall which is overflowing.
This...just proves that she is really trying to get incriminated for that. In that way, Gamington would walk away scot-free.
However, you can't believe anyone else couldn't see a zeppelin or a submarine leave.
In fact...

You walk outside firmly, snapping your fingers as all of your Cog troops except Gamington assemble.
You start counting them.
You reach eighteen.
There's one Cog more than there should be.

"Cogs," you say clearly. "Compute your identification number."
"Cog Number One. Computing. Basic Functions."
"Cog Number Two. Computing. Basic Functions."
"Cog Number Three. Computing. Basic Functions."
"C-Cog Number Four. Computing. B-Basic Functions."
"Cog Number Four. Computing. Basic Functions."
"Halt," you step down from your vantage point, walking towards the 'stuttering' Cog...who is actually someone wearing a patchwork made metallic armor that looks like a cog, but really isn't.
You kneel down, removing the 'Helmet'.
Seems like you found the missing Child.

It also seems two people have some explaining to do.
The girl does start crying however. She sobs and sniffles, probably expecting to be killed on the spot.

You Found the Girl!


What do you do now?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Concerning Prank calls and whatnot.
Remember that Incognito's ability is a turn-free of action. (Meaning that yes, indeed, he could go to the library without attracting any attention)
And that's especially true because he's human, dressed with stuff that makes him off as a 'hero' and few know Incognito's 'real' appearance.
Go to the library alone, and you will most certainly NOT suffer!
And by the time I wrote this spoiler, I had 25 new posts to read through. Propagandatis is a must in the world of HEROES!

[10ebbor10]

Well, let's try to gather everyone and hear their stories in turn. Additionally, restore camera functions. Also, set-up a backup. And a back-up for said back-up.

[Cain12]

Well we question her first, then we discuss our findings with the others, the ones we can trust that is, Psysquid, Chemista, Ragnarock, this is betrayal and needs to be dealt with. Then we hear out the people who betrayed us.
Edit:+1 to back ups, maybe a clear guard to stop people from doing this again, can we turn Splinter Cog into a flesh cog? Not likely but some form of better protection is a must.
Edit:Take her somewhere secure first.

[Eotyrannus]

She's gone through enough. Let's privately speak to Cerulean and Gamington. Tell them-

"I appreciate that you both have standards better than my own. If you feel that I'm forgetting my Standards, do not hesitate to say so. I promise that I won't harm her."

I vote we give her a really cool Cog-Suit instead of making her a Mutant or Flesh-cog.

[Cain12]

This requires punishment, not encouragement.

Bit early since we haven't heard them out but since we are apparently discussing resolution far too quickly:

What are your ideas on punishment, thinking the girl should be turned into a flesh-cog so they can be reminded of their treachery and as a joke of sorts, something should be done to Games lover, so he has to suffer knowing she suffered because of him. (maybe alter her so she no longer loves him, if we can)
And, well at least we don't have to put Cerulean down now but something needs to be done to her.

Again too early to come to a decision either way.
Edit: At the very least no way in hell are we letting them get away scot free.

[Eotyrannus]

Well, we could try and come to a compromise. They had Team Evil's best interests at heart, instead of for their own personal gain. If we're going to punish them, remember that they're more useful to us alive than dead.

But there's another thing we need to remember.

We've been waiting for Cerulean to become mature enough and sane enough to earn that wand, and she's just proved that she had a sense of compassion for that kid. If we harm the kid, we've undone all of that. DO NOT BRING HARM TO THE KID. She hasn't done anything wrong, and ruining all of Cerulean and Gamington's efforts to keep her safe would be far more likely to make him launch a rebellion.

As a final note, we asked for a morality chain, and we just got one. Don't waste this.

[Cain12]

If anything she proved she isn't ready for that wand, ic and ooc. But fine a compromise, still want to twist the child's being into a mockery of their efforts but that is a tad harsher than our usual.

[10ebbor10]

Honestly, cruelty is seldomly a good answer to internal dissent, unless we're willing to go through with it all the way. Without motivation we shouldn't judge just yet.

Truly, we should gather everyone, separate them to prevent cross contamination of stories, and then hear them out individually.