Scene #5102: TRUE PSYCHIC TALES: Nightmare of the Blind Mind

Owner	Pose
Flamel Parsons	PREPARE YOUR MIND, TRUE BELIEVER! Last issue (No. 423), Flamel Parsons and his expert team fought the Heart Render, hunting and killing the big-game deadly psychohazard, and discovering it came from... Notorious law-enforcing metalbender, Toph Beifong, adopted daughter of Tony Stark himself! Now, they've convinced Toph to allow them into her mind, even though they already have a tense past... Parsons' arrival is rather mundane, given the events at work here. A windowless, ominous government black van, of course, as is always his way. He's given free rides to anyone else from the League or League-friendly types in need of a ride. They'll be meeting Toph at or near her Malibu residence, where she'll have gotten some place private, someplace she can bend. There are few more fitting situations to astrally project in than having everyone sit around on floating rocks and such while they visit her mind, you know, aside the fact that it's calming and mind-clearing for her. There may be some unusual League presence, but with enough convincing, Parsons can probably manage to assure Toph of their need of their academic power and muscle in facing down something this dangerous. Introductions are offered politely, guidance is given, of course. People are warned about the effects of joining in this astral projection: They'll zone out and be incredibly distracted in physical space for the duration of the projection, though retain some basic awareness and communicative ability. Then, Parsons has them all get together around Toph herself, settle down, and has her apply the potentially-Stark-modified Psycho-portal to her own forehead. With override codes from Psychic Age Earth's government, it uneasily allows access to a young mind. The first more granulalrly relevant dialogue is spoken: "Alright, Toph. Prepare your mind." Parsons removes his trademark secret agent sunglasses, revealing bright, glowing white eyes. Parsons, and all those near him who begin to accept that soft mental tug, experience a strange sensation as bright white phantasmal versions of themselves project out of their heads in a shining swarm and through Toph's door, which snaps shut once the whole group has projected their way inside. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/201370883/MIND_DIVE.mp3 The dive itself should be weird enough, but once the assembled team heads into the young earthbender's mind, their initial input from it all might be rather unfamiliar and jarring at first. Complete darkness reigns, spanning out around them. At least until one of them moves. The first foot step doesnt simply stop as the foot touches the ground, creating vibrations that spread out like a drop in quiet waters. To their eyes it's like seeing items revealed by sonar, the rings forming themselves around the people and items present. The more people move, the more rings are formed as they spread out. Colour is lacking here, save for some of the fragments collected in corners here and there and themselves, as well as the people who all volunteered to do this mind dive. It might not be too hard for them to realise just why this is happening. And for some of them the dark area they are in might even be familiar. A large bedroom filled with extravagant furniture, sweet smelling flowers and various girly toys thrown about without much care. The doors are open to the hallway, and as the team move their vibrations carry down hallway, until it strikes something there. A small feminine figure turns partially around to face them, as if frozen when the vibrations reach her. Before they can get a closer "look" at her however she hurries along, ducking into a nearby room, her footsteps quiet. The vibrations that she sends out however seem to impact the area more than the visitors do, spreading out even further. Just in time to avoid a larger figure that walks up the hallway. Strangely enough the vibrations that this one sends out are rather small, and it just briefly turns its head back and forth before it heads down the hallway again.
Toph Beifong	There are few places Toph feels as safe in as what counts as her official home nowadays. Perhaps it's the sound of the calming Pacific ocean, the clean and luxurious surroundings... or perhaps the fact that there's the Iron Legion and advanced security systems around. It makes it better that she's not too happy about people going into her head. But... it's the right thing to do, or at least she hopes so. It should be clear from her not being overeager about this as she settles on the spacious couch in the living room, having some metal ore in her lap that she bends even as she strange little door is placed on her forehead. Though the people gathered will receive a fair warning. "If you guys blabber on about what you see in my head, I /will/ punch you," she warns them before she closes her eyes and begins bending the metal, something to help put her mind at ease and make this hopefully less awkward than it has to be.
Sokka	Sokka had probably threatened Flamel. A little bit. What? They were going into Toph's mind, of course he was a little anxious. Of course, once they were in, he, well... "I can't see anything." ... He half expected 'Oh no, what a nightmare' to echo from the distance. Still, he checked his sword, boomerang, clothes. Good. All good. And then the first step and... "Huh. Is this how Toph sees the world? I wonder if there's a mirror." ... He'd walk quickly to Flamel's side, sitting on one side of him and just... glaring down. Sorta. The dark made it hard to notice. "Well, you're the expert at all this, get to... doing whatever it is you want to do," he muttered. "Let's get this done with and get out of here as quick as possible," he muttered. He... obviously was very uncomfortable being here. Or maybe he was uncomfortable with others being here.
Adele Rozenbach	Adele had come on her own, in a 1914 Mercedes 90 h.p. Accompanied by two androdynous servants, and she'd quietly moved along, wielding an umbrella to shield herself from the sun's searing rays until they moved in. The introduction was polite and brief, "Princess Adele von und zu Rozenbach, artist and part of the League's medical staff." She glances to her companions, and explains, "Here to make sure nothing untowards happens while we're in. I'm paranoid, you see." True to her word, those two reject the gentle pull into the mindspace, and the inhuman creature that does makes sure to maintain a low profile as she follows along. "Curious." She comments, deliberately making sound to see how that influences the picture. if you can call it that.
Tony Stark	Tony still doesn't think this was a good idea, as evidenced by his tense demeanor on allowing all of these strange people into his house, much less his daughter's mind. Still, if she's set on trying this mind dive thing, he'd rather she do it somewhere safe. Jarvis has been instructed to keep the house on lockdown for the duration, lest anyone try to take advantage of the psychic party to... well, do anything, really. He's to keep a particular electronic eye on Adele's servants while everyone else is effectively incapacitated. RJ is with his grandparents for the evening, so no risk of baby-related interruptions tonight. He realizes pretty quickly why everything is dark -- this is Toph's mind after all and of course she wouldn't visualize things the way he does. He can 'see' well enough to tell that this isn't her bedroom at the Malibu mansion. Too girly. Must be from her early childhood. "Well, let's find out what we're here for," he remarks sardonically, as he turns in mind-space to follow the small feminine figure. He's assuming that's Toph's self-projection or whatever.
Flamel Parsons	Parsons can feel when people are glaring daggers at him. You know, if people want them to be felt. Psychic broadcasts are his wheelhouse, you know. He gives a side-glance to Sokka, makes a soft sort of placating gesture. "Well, we just saw Toph's... I think that was one of her core mental images. Young selves usuall are. They stick to the relevant areas and the problem areas. So, following her is probably the best." He sort of gestures to allow Sokka to do it before he does, specifically in case he'd rather Parsons not run off ahead of the group. Doing his best to be trustworthy.
Flamel Parsons	The word lets Adele get some bearing on things. It does seem to have an effect, though not precisely the one she thought. There's a feeling of a pulse seeking out some kind of distant mechanism, one she wouldn't have noticed without trying to look for it, but it doesn't reveal the environment. Toph seems to perceive things only through 'felt' vibrations, rather than echolocation, but now Adele knows that something in this system will respond particularly to words. It's just not here.
Eve	"Well, we ARE in Toph's mind." Eve answers Sokka dryly, not quite adding 'you idiot' at the end. Though of course the words are possibly heard even if they remain unspoken. The little blonde was fairly tentative accepting Toph's invitation, but accept she did. Eagerly, even if in an outward and unconvincing show of reluctance. Her confidence in Toph is shaky right now compared to normal, or rather her confidence in Toph's bosses. But she still wants to prove herself to her rival, and so here she is. Eve appears rather deeply suspicious of newcomers who specifically introduce themselves as League. Not suspicious of those who don't state their affiliation outright, however. Her suspicions remain limited just to narrow-eyed glares though. If they're here to help, she'll do nothing more than watch them. Eve's remarkably sanguine about being in pitch blackness. It's scary, but she doesn't like giving in to fear. She just remains still, studying anything that DOES have a distinct appearance, such as the other psycho-journeyers and rare figments.
Sokka	Sokka nods and starts heading after it, walking slowly. "Toph's childhood... huh." He kept his mouth chut, though he chewed on his tongue a little bit. Oh, a whole plethora of things came to mind. Sure, the others had probably heard about it. But he'd seen parts of it. The earth rumble, her father. The way she'd been then. It... didn't make him happy, imagining her in that situation again. His hands tightened into fists as he walked. He glanced back towards Eve. He wasn't a hundred percent comfy with the little kid behind here too, buuuuut... well... "Hey, Eve. Can you come and stick with us? Help me keep an eye on Flamel, in case he tries anything." Totally not trying to keep the little kid close in case there's any problems and he has to deal with them or protect the kiddo. Totally not. He trusted Tony to keep an eye on the others, though.
August Kohler	Amongst the party is a redhead in a hoodie, hood pulled down. August Kohler, known to some of the Paladins as a Watch member, and armed with...a mirrored bracelet! He's mostly quiet, tapping his foot frequently to make vibrations as he attempts to get used to the pure darkness. He does ask one important question, both loudly and over radio. "What would happen, light-wise, if I started a fire?"
No. 9	Monkey in a suit. Monkey in a suit! Okay to be sure the GOLEM-Style ANMC King Unit No. 9 is not technically a monkey. But to be honest that suit probably technically isn't a suit. It's cut to his dimensions, so it's just as painfully ugly as he is, and seemingly composed of a faintly satiny creamy slightly metallic celery paired with a dark color that's six shades from black, speaking more of the hue of teflon and military hardware. It's really on a rival who of the two of them is uglier, the suit or Nine, but at the very least... he's trying? He's also wearing that cologne that smells like a whole lot of nothing, but at the very least he doesn't smell bad. Water beads his hair, uncertainty his expression. Ugly and awkward, what a fun combination. To his credit Nine doesn't clack his teeth at Tony despite the billionare playboy sort of being a living reminder of all his own inadequacies. Fun times. He just sits down on the couch, looking uncertainly between Flamel and Taro and waiting for the screaming and the throwing things at his head to commence. Um. But barring that, he surrenders to the dive, however brief the surge of terror in his throat. And upon finding himself in utter darkness... GH "I CAN'T SEE, I CAN'T FUCKIN SEE!!!" But then a shuffled foot and... ah, right, um. That. Um. Yeah. Aheh. cough
Staren	Staren heard Flamel needed help on a mind-dive to find the source of the Heart Render. He didn't know it was into the mind of Toph! Who he considers something of a friend, even if they're now on different sides... The catboy steps out of Flamel's van, but seems to find the present situation between himself and Toph awkward, although he is all the more eager to help now that he knows it's her. Staren takes a deep breath as they prepare for the mind dive, then goes catform and curls up on floor or furniture nearby for comfort. He is drawn into darkness. As he takes a step and feels out, though... "Oh my gosh. Is this how you see the world, Toph?!" He looks around, wide-eyed, sending out sonar pulses and just... trying to get used to the effect. After a few seconds of wonderment, he pulls out that flipphone-device and sends out actual, rather than metaphorical, ultrasonic pulses, curious to see if that works too as he follows Tony and the mysterious girl.
Toph Beifong	The young girl certainly seems to move like Toph does, and as she quickly hurries down the sideroom to the right of the hallway, avoiding yet another guard... though at that moment a series of large rings expands from the room she just entered, rings that seem to briefly freeze everything in that same room. "Young lady, you know that you aren't supposed to go too close to the windows," an imposing voice that might be familiar to some people. Lao Beifong. "But dad, I...!" The voice isn't exactly like Toph's, sounding like she's far younger. "That's just how things are done. Now go back to your room!" All of a sudden the young Toph appears in the room again, looking rather bewildered for a moment, especially at all the people around her. But the stubborn little girl quickly hurries ahead again, keeping her voice low. "Don't let him see you!" And it seems that there are some rules in place in this rather strict place. Rules that Lao himself take very seriously as another set of footsteps can be felt. His range seems limited, but still... concerning what he just did to Toph's mental image? He's not one to risk getting near.
Richard Stadler	Stadler was here for one primary reason: Concern for a promising subordinate and representation for who she worked for. It was a nice outlet to the paranoia that Stadler took with him most everywhere, but had been subdued since the end of the war. And like hell if he was going to let the people from this... League walk into Toph's head without the proper, needed security. Secrets non-withstanding, everyone had a right to not have someone screw with their head. It would explain the way he watched the room warily, Class A uniform immaculately pressed, hat tucked under the crook of his arm, and his sidearm at his back. And he stands, for a moment, on that slightly risen rock. As well s looking over to No. 9 as he's here, as well. It may be the reason had a few people down the road in a van. Well, that and everyone else. Paranoid, remember? "All right, then. Let's... see how this goes." And of course, he'll think, as he closes his eyes and, aganist his better judgement, let that tug take him forward, maybe he'll learn something about the troublemaker... And that certainly bares out when they arrive in... whereever they're in. Dark, forbodding... couldn't see anything... FOr the moment. But something happened at a step. He saw those rings extend outward from them. And then again, and again. boucning off symbols, showing the area around them, and seeing figures. "That's... odd. Understandable, but odd." He says, moving forward, tink tink tink. There was someone... and there was something larger than that, two figures running off. Here, he actually looks at Sokka. "I didn't expect to see girly things in Beifong's head-" There was a stop, a male voice. And a younger voice. Father and daughter, he might recognize... before Toph is right back in front of them. Looking at them. "Ahh... so. This is a bit of a sneaking mission."
Flamel Parsons	Eve will indeed find rare, stray figments. The only visible aspect of this mind, they're all monochromatic. Stray fragments of memories, daydreams, and other random ideas. They seem to break on contact with anything, because they're not really of substance. A few seem more firm, a few of Toph herself, but they seem to be connected, by whispy lines, off towards somewhere else in the Estate...
Eve	Eve's utterly bemused at the sight of a 'Toph' that's younger than her. And pretty delighted too, admittedly. The idea of Toph as more of a little sister type, rather than a rival or older sister, is something Eve actually can appreciate. Not that she dislikes Toph in either role or anything, but the nanowielder would definitely prefer to be looked up to. Sokka's request gets consideration, then Eve nods. She can accept him needing help. He's wise, after all, to ask for her aid. She also completely misses the point that he's not asking for her help, he's asking so he can keep her safe. THAT would annoy her. She pads over to Sokka and older-Toph. Then, testing, she changes her footfalls to see how that affects the ripples. "Hm. No wonder Toph stomps around all the time." she mutters to herself, pulling even with Flamel. "Maybe someone less stompy should lead the way." she suggests. Looking uuuuup at Nine, she shakes her head. "Probably not him." Eve adds.
Staren	Staren sighs as echolocation doesn't work, and puts the device back in his pocket. He gives Nine a hopefully-reassuring pat on the back. And then not-Toph appears back in the room with them. What is this, a stealth game? He nods at her suggestion, going catform and hoping the boost to stealth from being smaller and lighter will help.
Tony Stark	Tony stops, as he'd already followed little Toph partway down the hallway, and looks back toward the starting room. Well, 'looks'. You know. "Okay then, if I can't knock out her father, how do we help her sneak past? Can we distract them?"
Adele Rozenbach	Experiment one completed to interesting results, Adele moves on to experiment number two. It's hard to quite tell what's going on at first, without colour or light to really give a solid idea, but her figure becomes somewhat vague at first, until she collapses into a pool of liquid that moves along the ground of its own accord, right im time for the girl's father to speak up. The living blood tries to keep its distance from him, but keeps exploring, going over the walls, floors and ceiling to see if it can find any interesting gaps to leak through. She operates by touch, audio and smell like this even in the regular world anyway.
Sokka	Sokka took a deep breath. Well, they saw the dad, just as he expected. He rubbed his chin a little bit, before he slowly tried sneaking after it. Getting around him probably wouldn't be too hard. He snuck around dozens of fire nation soldiers for years, he can sneak around one old buffoon with a golden ego. He then glanced back to Toph, and then she started to go again, he knelt down and held out his hand. "Here. Why don't you come with me, I'll get you through, okay? We can go outside together." Alas, blind, so no way to see his smile. But, well... hed done it once at least. Well, Aang did it. And Katara. Really, he just gushed over the boulder. If she accepted it, though, he'd carry her on his back and then keep an eye on the father, slowly trying to sneak around , ducking and hiding as best he could when the man was looking the other way, nad slowly trying to make his way towards a window. But with his luck, something had to go wrong, right?
Flamel Parsons	The Beifong estate, as depicted in Toph's mind, is... Rather large. It's rather sprawling. Things look bigger in our minds than they really are, which is tough when they're already huge. The Beifong estate is a maze, ornate and culturally rich but still a maze. It's a massive sprawling thing, and no mind is especially ordered, particularly not Toph's, so it's a little elaborate, a little hastily connected. Long hallways intersect in strange ways and segments of the ground are disconnected from each other, held together by the elaborate, sprawling estate's long wings. Some windows allow one to see out past the estate. But as soon as one enters the soon-marked visual stream of 'light' that comes in through them, one will find themselves cast back to the starting room... Or potentially worse. Out through the halls, though. There are several RELEVANT LOCATIONS. Off to one direction, there's something that looks like a dangerous natural passageway. There's a feeling of PHYSICAL DANGER from that direction. Parsons notes that he thinks the Nightmare source is over that way. If they can get through the Estate off towards the stone passage, it'll be a fight, but it'll help. Off to another direction, there's the rest of the estate. Adele is the first to find it, but others will notice: There's indications of more modern power lines. Beifong estate was never meant to have fully modern electricity, and yet, due to Toph's vibration-based awareness of underground utilities, there's built-in electrical lines. They lead elsewhere; there's a feeling of a more ACADEMIC CHALLENGE in that direction.
Flamel Parsons	August will find, if or when he tries it, that attempting to start a fire creates 'feelings of heat' in a vague fire shape. It's not as precise as the vibration control, but it at least creates some visual feedback for where fire is.
Richard Stadler	There was a lot of building here. Worst part, of course, was that an actual building would have to make sense... and this wasn't an actual building. It was hallways upon hallways, connecting rooms that may not nessecarily be next to each other, in a mass. There was a window, up ahead, and Stadler almost, /almost/ steps out to see if hecould see through and figure out a way past all of this... before stopping. That little-girl Toph had explained the rules of the game, and he didn't want to know what losing too many times did to this part of her head. Besides, if you /really/ thought about it, about how far could Toph see through windows and glass? Really, how far? He'd never actually asked that question. Another thing to research. And speaking of research, there seemed to be two differet directions. One, of course, led somewhere... dangerous. He could feel it, which was odd. But the other... He paused, as he looked at the powerlines along the ground and walls. "Didn't know she could see these..." He muses. And was that more... Academic? Hmmm... Looking to the rest of them, he heads off in that direction. Thinking through this problem might be better than attempting to shoot in Toph's mind.
Adele Rozenbach	Physical challenges don't really attract Adele, less out of a concern of inability, she's quite confident she has what it takes to take one up, and more out of a concern of 'I'd rather pick something more interesting' so at the crossroads she heads towards the rest of the estate, towards the more academic and perhaps more recent memories, if what she has heard about the girl and her new family is correct.
Toph Beifong	As Sokka kneels down next to her, the little Toph seems to pull back a little, raising her sleeves over the lower half of her face. "I... I can get out on my own!" she states, though not sounding all too sure about herself. "I've done so before!" Strange... her tone seems somewhat more formal than how she usually speaks. So rather than taking Sokka's hand, the little girl hurries on ahead into the hallway, ducking into a nearby room yet again, though this time making sure to keep her distance from Lao. And this time she seems to be far more cautious, intentionally setting off more vibrations. And she's not heading forwards the academic route, that much should be clear as she stays away from the windows, moves low and stays away from the others for now as she's in a hurry to move.
Tony Stark	Tony is clearly torn in which way to go. He IS almost certainly the most intelligent person here, which isn't JUST his ego talking because it's true. But he's also good at punching things and he's had experience punching Lao in particular, and he's also pretty sure he knows the nature of the root of Toph's nightmares and... ugh. But if there's a mental puzzle to be untangled here he probably WOULD be of more help there. It's with a frustrated growl that he lets little-Toph move on toward danger with Sokka and some of the others, turns and paces purposefully toward the other location.
August Kohler	Two different directions. One seems to lead towards the Nightmare, so that's the one August takes. Slowly making vibrations and pausing every short while, remaining entirely still when he hears any noises, he moves to catch up with Sokka. He stretches his mirrored bracelet up to his face, still able to see the reflection. "It's probably going to be a messy fight, but we need to kill the source."
Sokka	Sokka nodded to the little girl and, after a bit of talking, started following after the little girl. He... wasn't above cheating, either. He'd throw pebbles or something to distract Lao, if it came to it. But mostly he'd try to stick near the adora!toph and warn her if things got out of control or it seemed she might make a mistake. Either way, he had a handful of... wait. He realized he was going with a little kid and... a flame thrower. Oh this was going to be just -swell-.
Flamel Parsons	This is when things get weird. "Young lady. You know the rules." Lao's voice is sudden and abrupt. "Only near the walls, when you're puddling." As if that would ever be a rule! Apparently, the mind reacts with incredibly stupid or silly rules for whoever's in it, but so far they're only about navigation. The rings are flickering, but not active, and soon fade... Assuming Adele is willing to go through the inconvenience of swapping which side she's bio-horroring. Just because the dad issues are fine with her doesn't mean everything else is, though. Her strange way of exploring does let her 'see' far more, but it attracts attention! Unusual, heavy, furred creatures -- BADGERMOLES -- begin to seek her out. Not Stadler, at least, and thank goodness, because they can clearly see the vibrations. In one of the complicated, sprawling courtyard sequences ahead, Adele will have to find an unusual way of sculpting herself to evade the dangerous ground creatures and their blindsight, unless she wants to take them on in direct combat. Her blood-form enables her to detect the subtle presence of a few pieces of more modern architecture though, around the bases of walls or in hidden corners. Stadler has his own problems. Several critical couryards are lined with windows, projecting "beams" that will mean intense restriction and evasion issues, especially as the invisible 'sun' shifts. Tony finds even more reactive restrictions. There's a feeling like mind-Lao has a grudge against him, with some of the requirements that he stay in the middle of certain hallways, avoid certain doors of certain heights, avoid touching certain objects or even getting near them, avoid this, avoid that... He is somehow even more of a jerk in Toph's mind than he is in real life, but for what it's worth, he'd only have a grudge if the mental Tony had been giving him grief before. The group as a whole will wind up getting sidelined with incredibly silly and pointless rules on their way, as well, suddenly getting told "only take doors on the left", or at one point being told that they have to take a hallway that seems to narrow down to an absurdly small beam instead of a perfectly normal hallway that runs parallel. She has some deep frustrations with her family. One of the courtyards the group runs into has a large, ornately carved statue of young Toph, with her arms extended towards her mother and father, who remain solemnly turned away from her. Terrible, old memories. What gets odd is when the vibrations start lighting up a familiar silhouette. Tony will recognize it first: It's an ARC reactor, connected to all those powerlines Adele found before. There's a room hidden off a an area of the estate that starts looking far more like Malibu.
Staren	Eventually, they come to feelings of danger and challenge. Staren wonders if he can really fight inside another's head -- can he mentally call on his weapons? Would that mean anything? And then they come to... power lines? Staren recognizes the structure, although it's strange to sense them so clearly this way. He's mentally controlled robot bodies that can sense electric fields, but that's more like being able to sense a big fuzzy 'bubble' around wires, vibrating if it's alternating current. Even if software could extrapolate the wires' locations, this is much more direct. He moves to follow them. Lao's rules are annoying, but he is perhaps /slightly/ more able to accomodate some of them due to his small size. Staren doesn't comment on the statues. The ARC reactor looks interesting, though. What could be there? He makes his way thatway.
Eve	Eve simply pads along after Sokka and adora!Toph, actually quite content. She's looking after someone she could consider like a little sister. She's completely forgotten about keeping an eye on everyone. That's not precisely true, of course. Eve doesn't forget anything. But she'd never been invested in mistrust. She knew, intellectually, she should keep suspicion up... but no one here had proven themselves untrustworthy. Not even Flamel. So while Eve doesn't forget about keeping an eye on people, she doesn't consider it important enough to worry about, past the much more important issue of solving Toph's little nightmare problem.
Tony Stark	It is very, very difficult for Tony Stark to restrain himself from punching mind-Lao, and he has to keep reminding himself that he's only extra super irritating because this is Toph's mindspace version of the man. Of course, he recognizes the familiar contours of an arc reactor as soon as he 'sees' them; he's certainly built enough of the things to know one in his sleep. "Well, as long as we're still in Parentspace, I guess this is my section," he remarks, consciously un-gritting his teeth after all of those stupid rules he had to go through to get here. "So... now what?" he shoots a 'look' at Parsons, as the resident expert. Genius he may be but he has no idea how this particular kind of operation is supposed to work. He'd figured he'd be fighting a monster here.
Toph Beifong	A whine of utter frustration escapes the young Toph as Lao speaks up /yet again/, and she stomps her feet angrily as she's back in her bedroom, arms raised above her shoulders as she marches around in circles as if throwing a little tantrum... that soon evolves into her tossing some of her toys around before she heads off into the hallways again, clearly determined to not be confined to her room! And this time she's even quicker on her feet, as if she's learned far more just from the two previous tries in escaping. Her steps are precise, light when they have to, and she is more selective when she chooses to stomp and create larger vibrations through which to see. And soon enough she finds herself at the court yard, rushing past the statue as she seems eager to get through the gates awaiting them here, rushing past Sokka, Eve and August. "We have to go through here!" she insists. "This is the way out!"
Richard Stadler	Stadler looks over at Tony as he moves with him, nodding, slightly. "I... imagine this has to be difficult. But I feel we'll need some of the smarter people in this direction... which I am going off of based on intiution. I'm about as out of my element as you are, unless you've done this sort of thing before." He says, pausing. "And, in case you're worried about that man doing something, I wouldn't. Even if your security wasn't top-notch, I have a response team ready to go if any of these strangers get the wrong ideas." Though what they hell were they going to do if something bad did happen? THink good thoughts in the direction of the ocean? THrough the corridor they go, hallway after hallway, room after room... and a rather annoying shift in those rules. Meaningless rules, unfair ones added on the fly, and even the ones that were already established being non-adjusted was the circumstances got screwy. And It's not like they could /break/ them either. THey were guests in this mind itself, and that meant they had rather limited control. But he continues on. Pauses for a moment at one of the windows that had sun pouring through it. Attempting to time it, scurring along the ground, and at times having to launch himself forward to see if he could get past one beam without getting caught. Which admittedly led to his hat coming off as the sun switched around again, meaning a desperate grab at it before he smacked himself flat aganist a wall. "Goddamn..." He says, through gritted teeth. And there's the /rest/ of it. Pratically going into a circle with doors on the left. Squeezing through passageways tight enough he had to remove his jacket and throw it through first, before collecting it on the other side. Toph's father was- He had to pause at that though. That wasn't accurate. Toph's /image/ of her father was one who proclaimed aribtrary, senseless rules. A cruel task master, parents who didn't listen to her (he hadn't missed that statue). And, although what he had /heard/ bared that out... He was very aware that she was turning 16 next month. And teenagers... had a way of seeing the world. It might explain why they were here now instead of sooner. But, that thought was derailed from what they saw next. He had enough intelligence to know what the facility he saw here was. "The electrical lines make more sense, at least. I assume this is you work, Stark... and I'm wondering how accurate it is." He turns over to Tony. "Given that... maybe we should be asking you if you notice anything particular about this reactor? Anything that might be useful?"
No. 9	Staren's pat on the back actually calms down the big guy. No screaming, no pitchforks. Cool. The radio is a constant buzzing sound in his ear, so with a sigh he turns it off, his eyes a strange glazed dullness in the gloom. Blink. Turning to move, he winces from the sun-not-sun, his movements slow. He might well trail behind the group, slow as he's going. Any impulse pushed upon him would be obeyed almost without thought; not these doors? Not these doors. Not this hallway? Not that hallway. What is your name. Not doors of this height. What time is it. Narrow beams and careful steps. What is your purpose. It's all familiar, and Nine never knew. So many things he never knew, and his face grows troubled as his slow steps take him through the unfamiliar maze of a landscape. He is trying to follow the group, but it's all getting scrambled up in his head. Closing his eyes doesn't help; he doesn't see the way Toph does, now he's just the boring old blind like this without any talent or help. His eyes open again, face twisting into something ugly as he tries to feel out a path for himself, some way to help the odd little girl who's given him so much trouble and given him so much joy.
Sokka	Sokka lets out a sigh of relief when the girl manages to finally get through. He... is sure it won't cause any troubles. "You're pretty smart, Toph," he says with a smile. "Not letting him hold you back like that." He walked besides Eve and... "Hey, thanks for coming with me. I wasn't sure i could keep Toph safe on my own. Happy I've got you as back up." That's right, give the little kids praise and make them feel good about themselves. It is the sokka way. Also, hopefully it keeps Eve from doing something Sokka eventually regrets.
Flamel Parsons	Minitoph is guiding perfectly. The other direction is a similar gauntlet, but it's heading for the front gates of this awful estate. The rules are always only what one can deal with, at least, but they are specifically designed to frustrate and annoy. August gets restricted from any hallways or rooms with fire hazards, for example, or Nine gets restricted from any areas with anything even vaguely edible in them! Eve, unusually, gets subjected to a number of different restrictions related to height, ones that she shares with Toph as they work to navigate... Sokka... Wow, he must despise Sokka. Sokka gets given several rules about how to walk, when to speak, where to walk, more incredibly stupid limitations on doors, the issues are endless. Dating his daughter is one thing, but this seems more... Intense. That probably has something to do with someone they meet along the way. Various mental images of Beifong Estate servants, twisted into warped monsters and then further twisted into heroically slain monsters, litter one of the courtyards. There is a distinctly Space Sword like series of wounds in them, though not one bit of gore to speak of. Several walls have /incredibly/ helpful and convenient holes torn in them, letting the group get a respite from the awful maze. Toph won't run into too many more escape issues if they use that help. What they will run into is... Someone at the front gates! It's Sokka. The blind-mental-image kind of Sokka. Tall, powerful. He even looks... A bit older than he really is. His trademark sword glows in an awe-inspiring way, even in the blind dark. "Hey!" He calls out to the group, even noting real-Sokka. "Wow, mirrors usually don't work in here, am I right?" Pause for laughter. Yes, even his sense of humor is moreso. This is Toph's mental image of Sokka! "I heard some help was coming this way, so I carved out an easier path for you. Are you seriously going to take on the pass and get Toph to Ba Sing Se?" That must be where the Nightmare was nesting. Toph, of course, looks so much younger than him right now. He looks vaguely uneasy about that. He seems avoidant of giving her too much attention, with their age difference. Weird.
Tony Stark	Tony shrugs. "It looks like an arc reactor," he replies unhelpfully at first, but he does move off to slowly walk around the thing and examine how it's connected to the power lines. The general physical dimensions of the reactor's makeup are remarkably accurate, which is unsurprising given Toph's unique familiarity with the miniaturized one in his chest. The really intricate details, of course, aren't, since she hasn't got the degree in electrical engineering to fully comprehend them. But what is he supposed to resolve here? Clearly the reactor represents his influence, but how does this relate to banishing her nightmares? His brow furrows, and he experimentally stomps the ground adjacent to the reactor to see if he can get a picture of anything beneath it.
No. 9	Frustrate and annoy? Nine? Rules? Nononononono, arbitrary stupid aimless pointless rules do NOT irritate Number Nine. If they did... pointless rules do not irritate Number Nine. He is nothing if not very flexible. He doesn't need to know why. Why is not at his paygrade. Why is not important. Only doing. Without hesitation. Without question. Without thought. He used to- he is here now. Arbitrary rules do not bother him. He is a tool always, and moves as he is bidden. There is a period or two where those nostrils flare, a glimpse of something beyond- NO, NO no no NO no, he's fine he's FINE. He's FINE, he doesn't question he's fine! He's fine... But Nine... given that the group splits? Nine... stops. He isn't getting arbitrary rules telling him where to go and what to do, only where NOT to go and what NOT to do, so when he moves first one way, then the other, and there is no imput one way or the other telling him not to go there, the eyes turn a sort of sandy gray, his ugly face growing all the uglier as he turns to look, caught in some twisted courtyard for the moment, big boots squeaking as he hesitates. Too much longer and he'll be left completely behind.
Sokka	Sokka blinked a few times. Then face palmed. "I do NOT make jokes THAT bad!" he says, motioning both hands towards that guy. "A-and my sword is way cooler! And I am WAY better looking!" No it wasn't, no he wasn't. Awwww, he was actually jealous of the mental image in Toph's head. It was an all new low for him. "And yeah. We're going to get Toph to Ba Sing Se," he grumbled. "And we can do it by ourselves." To be fair, he was also incredibly frustrated after dealing with Lao's issues. Even more so than he had been in the real world. And then he got thrust into a mental image that, frankly, he couldn't live up to. He then blinked and... tried drawing his sword. Was it going to glow here, too? "Come on, Toph, let's get you where you need to go."
Flamel Parsons	The Reactor Chamber seems beyond the reach of Lao. Tony is absent; he's currently dealing with business elsewhere. "Now, I think, we get access to whatever... 'Power' is here. Your mental image seems missing, but if we can use this right, I think we can alter some areas further ahead and affect the Nightmare." It's not just the arc reactor, it's several segments of workshop. Adele and Staren can easily work with this. Screens and displays around are blank in the blindspace, but just like with Toph's ability to read, it's not entirely visual, one has to scan their hand over what's to be read in order to "see" it, the way Toph does with her reading gloves! What seems to be the issue is a matter of two things. One: An incomplete armor, still unfinished. Two: What looks like a massive power supply issue coming out of the arc reactor. Something, somewhere, isn't getting enough power! And third: A large series of medical diagrams for a massive chest shrapnel wound, with extensive, futile brainstorming around it... With signs of a struggle in that area of the workspace. Tony's mental image was likely abducted amid Toph's trying to contemplate this problem. Solving it may be relevant, or at least provide a clue. Also, everywhere where it would normally say ARC REACTOR, it just says "EGO REACTOR". Yes indeed, the visualization of Toph's sheer confidence is a massive, slightly dysfunctional power system. From here, it's possible that they may be able to energize or de-energize parts of Toph's mind to improve her mental health and cause issues for the Nightmare nest.
Eve	Eve seems more than pleased by Sokka's flattery. She's not terribly easy to trick, and she generally hates condescention, but she seems to take Sokka's praise as her due. "I'll keep her safe." Eve states firmly. Because of course she will! She gets annoyed at the restrictions though. Her feelings on this no doubt mirror Toph's. Not just because she faces the restrictions, but because she's felt the frustration of living under nonsensical restrictions in her past. Ones that only seemed far more wrong once she got away from home and first experienced freedom. She's game though, agilely crawling where needed, or playing a fine game of The Floor Is Lava in those places where people under a certain height aren't allowed. And encouraging Toph at the same time, by example and gesture more than by word. The silly restrictions are, again, not exactly forgotten when she meets huge!Sokka. It's just there's something more important, more compelling. Not putting the NORMAL Sokka down takes some effort, but Eve just narrows her eyes and shakes her head. Poor little guy. "We'll get her there, yes." she agrees. "The pass doesn't scare us." she adds. Wondering if perhaps this giant Sokka is the physical confrontation they're expecting or just another projection along the way.
Toph Beifong	The 'sight' of the mind!Sokka does seem to catch Toph's attention, and she happily skips over towards him, not minding getting dirt or even blood from the slain guards and servants on the skirts of her dress. "Sokka!" she squeals with glee, and unlike him she seems only too content about hugging into his legs, though she does let out a frustrated sigh when he says where she needs to go. "But I don't want to go to Ba Sing Se!" she protests loudly with a huff. "It's stupid there! I want to do something fun! Not to stupid walls and... and..." At that she kicks the mind!Sokka a bit in the leg, all before she turns away and crosses her arms defiantly over her chest, clearly pouting by her bodylanguage.
Flamel Parsons	For some reason, Toph's youth unsettles Sokka. There's a solid chance this means something about the broader issues of their age difference, but they're not here to solve that. "C'mon, kiddo, we gotta deal with that weird monster one day or another... Tell you what, instead of the tough way, I'll cut a path to the fun way." Real-Sokka gets a perfect mirror of his usual intentionally-overdone despair responses. "Aw, what? My jokes aren't bad. They're morale-boosting!" Then it's back to smiles, and he peers at Sokka's sword. "Yep." He says. "It's pretty cool. I like it! You've got good taste, for a mirror. Well yeah you can do it by yourselves, but you'll be here all night with the nonsense. I'm just here to make shortcuts. It's my thing, you know? I turn tough stuff into easy stuff, so you magic types can do your thing." It is, in a sense, pretty much what Sokka does to problems in the real world. "Speakin' of which, instead of having you go through the dumb front entrance, I'm going to cut through to Serpent's Pass. That should get you to Ba Sing Se without going the longer, tougher way, and you'll get to go through Earth Rumble IV. That should cheer Toph up! You'll need to take on some tough guys. I'm not allowed to compete, since I can't bend." Neither can this group, but that doesn't seem to matter much. He pulls out his sword and deftly smashes the lock with it, releasing a wave that seems to abruptly shorten the massive stone path ahead, and a large stone structure rises out of the ground just in front of it. And the gates open...
Richard Stadler	A few steps here, a few steps there, getting the information from the steps themselves. Stadler tried to follow what Tony was looking at, observing... but his skills was more biology and beauracracy, not technical, and it showed. About the only knowledge he had was this was a power generation system, going off to different areas. So why... Hmm. "I didn'tthink she'd have screens over here. Not that she can see what's... hmm. Wait." He says, bringing up a hand to touch it. "Ahh. That's..." And then a brush over. "Clever. Like that glove she's wearing." At least that might bring up some more information... well. It did. BUt that doesn't provide much more informtion beyond the basics. Armor? She wore that, sometimes. Power issues... and a wound. He could latch on to that, at least. "Stark... might want to take a look at this. This looks like you. Or what you have." He says, pointing to the screen itself. "I think she might know more about that shrapnal than a doctor would..." He notes, backing up. "And there looks like their was a scuffle here. Armor, too. I think this is where you live. I don't suppose you can do anything with this... power issue? Staren, you've dealt with armor before, right? Well, so has Stark." And he's back to the medical issue. He felt like he could make sense of this.
Staren	Nine's just standing there when the group splits up? "Protect her." Staren offers an objective, if Nine only needs a nudge. In the workshop, sooner or later he touches a computer and starts figuring out how to deal with this. "Geeze, this is weird." "So... we have a power problem, an armor problem, and a doctor problem. I'm no doctor..." He discusses with Tony how to handle the other two.
Flamel Parsons	Sokka gives an impressed look to Eve. "Not scared? I mean, I guess that's how benders work. You guys are never in trouble like that, seems like. Mind if I tag along on the pass even still? I think I could help out some." And he does, it seems, look like he can help, based on that shortcut, but he's not going to force it on them. As always, Sokka, even in mental-image-form, seems to consider himself a bonus and a facilitator, albeit apparently one that Toph thinks highly of.
Sokka	Sokka blinked, and couldn't help.... getting a liiiiiittle more jealous. He crossed his arms and huffed. "I-I was never THAT blind!" he said defensively, gesturing with both hands. "I would NOT have missed something that obvious!" Yes. He did. Repeatedly. He then sighed and knelt down with Toph, smiling. "Don't worry, Toph. I tell you what. I..." Blink blink blink. "W-what? I don't... do that. I... ummm... I just..." Oh gosh now he was actually blushing. "Toph.... really thinks that about me?" Then... "Through earth rumble? Oh YEAH! And we can see Toph kick some BUTT!" he said with a grin. "I bet that's where her ego is, heh heh." And he blinks. Ohhhh, something big was coming... "Yeah, fine, just... come along and don't cause us any trouble. Toph? Here. Why don't you come with me." Oh he was SO jealous. "Or how about you walk with Eve, okay? Think of her like... a big sister or something." He'd TRY to get between this sokka and the other guys. What? He didn't trust this guy...
Tony Stark	Tony wasn't really expecting to find his mental projection here, anyway. If this is Toph's nightmare, then dream-him is probably somewhere else being shredded by the shrapnel that factors so largely in Toph's anxieties about him. Possibly with an evil dream-Toph controling the razor like shards and laughing maniacally. 'EGO REACTOR' gets a snort from real-Tony. "Okay, so..." he thinks aloud, "either this is TOPH'S ego, or it's just another manifestation of what she thinks of me. Either way, we should probably fix it." But how? If this was real life he'd be able to diagnose the problem and repair the thing, but this is mindscape. How would TOPH imagine the reactor to be malfunctioning, and what would her understanding be of how Tony could fix it? He pulls thoughtfully at his goatee, and finally shrugs. "To Toph, most of what I do would just seem like a lot of handwaving. I work a lot with interactive holograms she can't see, and programming would just be 'computer stuff' to her. So I don't know. Take a look at the armor, Staren, I'll see what I can do with the reactor." As for the medical diagrams and the rest... he feels rather helpless. "We can try to build a magnet? That's how I keep all of that stuff under control in real life."
Eve	"I thought you wanted to get out?" Eve asks the Tophling. The question is sincere, Eve talking to her as she would an adult rather than (another) pre-teen. "Well, either way is fine. I don't know that we HAVE to get to Ba Sing Se. Just that whatever's going to try to stop us is something we'll deal with." For now, what's gotten in their way has been Lao's silly rules. That didn't need combat. And it doesn't look like giant-Sokka is going to get in their way either. Too bad. Eve wouldn't mind a chance to whack Sokka when he's fully deserving it. Unlike most of the time when he only mostly deserves it. And this one, going on about how awesome he is... really deserves it. Even if he's only doing so because Toph thinks so highly of him. "Do you WANT to go to Earth Rumble?" Eve asks Tophling curiously. "We don't have to go, I suppose... and I'm not a bender." she adds to the oversize Sokka. "Not unless metalbending counts at least. And you can come if Toph says you can." she claims. She's not entirely sure, but she THINKS maybe the Tophling will accept Sokka coming along. Sigh.
Adele Rozenbach	Making it through here was a challenge, but when she makes it to the diagrams and slithers past them, still in a form of essentially blood, and analyzes the diagrams. She compares them to her close acquaintance to human anatomy, her understanding of the various ways damage to the heart can hamper its function, to try to come to a conclusion about what may be wrong with it, and thus how this might eventually be fixed.
August Kohler	Well, these rules are annoying, but August can deal with them. He keeps up the same pattern of tapping his foot slowly, following the vibrations, and continuing along. This means he's likely the last of the group when they get outside, and he just stares at Giant-Sokka and his art for a moment. He doesn't speak until the group talks about possibly not needing to go to Ba Sing Se, where he asides towards Actual!Sokka and Eve. "If the Nightmare nest is that way, we need to go there. Don't forget why we're here."
Tony Stark	Tony can't help but press a hand to his astral-chest and frown for a moment at the diagrams, before he turns away to focus on the power situation. What would Toph's understanding be of an arc reactor undergenerating power? ...he starts to walk around the thing again, looking for an unplugged power cord.
Toph Beifong	"Yes! Let's do the fun stuff!" insists the little Toph, turning towards mind!Sokka again and looking rather eager. And the mention of Earth Rumble VI? She practically bounces at that, nearly dropping her shawl. "Yes! Yes! I want to go there!" Seems that the mind!Sokka does know her. Which he ought to, considering he's part of her mind and all. As a matter of fact, she seems so enthusiastic that she seems to forget her initial shyness and suspicion of her two friends. Why, she even reaches out to take both of them by the hand as mind!Sokka deals with the pesky lock on the front gates. "Come along!" she calls back to August, all while she eagerly yanks Sokka and Eve along! Who wants to go to stupid Ba Sing Se when you can go to Earth Rumble VI? HAH! The front gates open up not to the outdoors, peculiarly enough. But the area itself is quite spacious; a large earthen area, the earth they're standing on is raised up from the floor, and all around them are stands that extend up towards the crystalline ceiling far above them. Sokka, Eve... and August. Because suddenly the little Toph is no longer there, holding their hands. There are people here, lots of them in the stands as they cheer loudly. Ahead of them there are some more people, but it's easier to make them out since they are closer. Two large men, not to mention Toph herself? At least it seems to be Toph, considering her short height, though she's older than she was before. Unlike her usual confident stature though, she seems tense where she stands, outright dwarfed by the men in front of her. It doesn't help when one of them speaks up in a booming voice that echoes throughout the spacious cavern. "Ladies and gentlemen! Tonight we have a new challenger here at Earth Rumble VI, a fresh new face to face off against the almighty Landslide we all know and love! On his way to challenging the champion however he's agreed to show off his skill and talent against our newest fighter the Blind Bandit!" As if on cue the young girl swallows nervously where she stands, and the Landslide takes a step closer. "Isn't it a bit too late for a young girl like you to still be up, little lady?" he asks as he leans down a little, amusement and insult both evident in his tone of voice. Perhaps a bit surprisingly to the people who know her, the little girl tenses up before she speaks up. "Well, isn't it a umm" Well, she tries to. At the same time the trio might notice that they have something in their hands small rocks that seem to have words written on them, though the letters shift and fade, never settling. At least until a coherent thought has settled into their heads. And those same words appear on the rocks they are holding. Rocks that practically beg to be thrown!
Sokka	Sokka blinked a few times, then grinned. On his stone it appeared a few times. 'Don't worry, kicking your butt don't take long enough to keep me out too late." Okay, maybe not his best work, but really, it was the first that came to mind. Second was 'You'd know better than I would, princess.' He probably should have gone with that one, to be honest. He then chucked the rock as hard as he could at the other bender, aiming it right at his head!
Flamel Parsons	Adele and Stadler focus on the medical issue. Their combined expertise, with enough work, is going to be able to find something extremely unusual. All of the notes show that the body ceases to function as soon as the shrapnel is pulled out. And obviously, that's /incredibly/ awful. It takes some thinking and some heavy mental work. Adele and Stadler's combined biological expertise does wind up finding something... Rather unusual. It's like the shrapnel is being used as a series of sub-organs to the heart. Blood vessels lead right into and out of them. The shards are unsettled right now, not in proper position. But if they put their heads together, they might be able to solve the issue of re-arranging them. But all of the Toph-Tony's brainstorming was about removing them. Every inch of the scribbling. And there's a basic assumption that the heart can't withstand their presence. It needs more VITAL ENERGIES and POWER!
Eve	Eve has no clue what to do with her rocks. This Toph before them... isn't the Toph she knows! Her rival Toph would never be so uncertain or so passive! She studies her rocks, watching the words flicker. Words... words are something Eve's good at! As she sees what Sokka's doing she catches on. "Oh!" she abruptly says, holding up a rock. "Landslide? More like mudslide!" she reads. Rearing back she pitches it. "Mudslide! From all your tears when I beat your butt!" she reads on the next before flinging it with fierce intent.
Richard Stadler	Richard Stadler checks the display itself again. Notes the positio of them... a bit odd. Not unexpected, though. Removing them would kill him, so she understood that. But... Wait a moment. "Miss Rozenbach, was it? Doctor Rozenbach- Princess, fine. Lord, and I thought I was good with titles. The notes here seem to talk about removing it. A dozen different ways, all of them failing... but notice how the blood moves about them. Around them, almost threw them... You don't think it could be a system, could you?" He thinks for a moment... and that /would/ make sense. Instead of removing a problem, working to change how one looked at it. And if it was a system... "Help me here." He says, placing a finger on one of the pieces, moving it around the display, placing it in another position. "If that is meant to go there, then... perhaps this one was to move here. And if /that's/ so..."
Flamel Parsons	There are plenty of cords for Tony. They are poorly labeled, and seem shaped like several strange and somewhat abstract representations of others. Tony's magnet and chest reactor is one. There's Sokka's sword, there's some for powering up the armor, there's all sorts of different things! Apparently, from here, Tony can use Toph's ego to fuel different entities and concepts, but the connections at the other end may not always be fully fitting together. It'll be a tough job, getting the power grid to accept the power right, since the bandwidth and capacity is always so dynamic, and since there's so much ego to work with that he can only safely use a few adjustments at a time... Though he could easily upgrade the reactor some too, from what he's "seeing" here. It makes sense, in the sense of making no sense at all but being very intuitive.
August Kohler	August has no idea what's going on, as the group is given rocks inside the massive arena. He doesn't know Toph well enough to figure this out or what he should be doing, but Eve and Sokka lead by example. It takes him a minute, but the words finally form on his rock, as he lifts it, and throws it at Landslide. "'Man, you're so ugly, I can't bear to look at you!'". He thought it was funny.
Flamel Parsons	An odd note as Adele examines the heart. She'll find that her fleshsculpting powers can actually detect a "heart" here. Sort of. It's only depicted on the paper, but if she tries to follow along with her usual flesh-sculpting, she'll find that the images move to adjust with her influence.
Adele Rozenbach	Adele reforms to a humanoid being, clad in armour made out of fingernails and hair rather than the clothes she left behind, and nods Stadler, "Just use whatever is comfortable, my principality is mere formality these days, and the others are more descriptors of what I am than who I am." She first starts to kind of make sure the guy doesn't worry too much about the title thing, that's such a side concern. Then as she examines more she finds that it reacts, and so she starts to move her hands carefully, using her normal, precise and measured movements when dealing with delicate organs of living creatures to get a much better look at it in action first, and as she goes over it, she carefully traces the bits of shrapnel, trying to see if the pieces of shrapnel could come together to a coherent object, and if so, if any parts are missing.
Staren	That leaves the armor for Staren! Tony makes a good point about how he usually works with holograms he can't see... So how will working on the armor present itself in Toph's mind? Staren takes a look.
Toph Beifong	As the rock from Sokka hits the Landslide, the man sputters and steps back a bit, the rock growing bigger! And Eve's too, the insults are effective as they stagger him. August's... doesn't grow much in size at all, merely a 'plonk' against the guy's forehead as he's still reeling from the two previous rocks. Amidst this Toph looks confused, not really getting it quite yet... "And... and I'll put you to sleep...?" she ventures carefully, as if testing this new thing, kicking into the ground as she adds her own small rock. A small rock that seems to just be slightly bigger than August's. This one is deflected easily by the Landslide, and he kicks into the ground himself, sending an earthen spike towards Toph, knocking her back as she lets out a cry of pain. Above them the ceiling of Earth Rumble VI quakes, rocks and dust falling down around them. As for the Landslide himself, he is suddenly no longer there. Instead another man takes his place, holding his arms up into the air. From the sidelines, the announcer from before calls out. "Ladies and gentlemen... AVALANCHION!" This guy is smaller, but he still seems to be a formiddable opponent as he towers over Toph as she gets to her feet. "Shouldn't you be wearing pretty dresses and drink your tea?" A harsh wind overtakes the arena as the ceiling crumbles more and more, and the smell of water, as well as the feeling of rain can be felt by the people there. Even more so, a statue of a kneeled over Toph shoots up ahead... and further ahead towards the edge of the arena another one of Toph holding onto her arm, in clear pain... more painful memories.
Eve	Eve's pretty quick off the ball this time, picking up a rock and chucking it almost immediately. "I'll leave the pretty dresses to you, Mister Avalanchovie!" the rock says at it hurtles for the newcomer. Now, if only there's such a thing as an anchovie in this world to make the insult have ... impact.
Flamel Parsons	Staren can get a good look at the armor. It looks like it's missing a few pieces. They're not absent by any means, there's just too many! Some are for Sokka, some are for Tony himself, some are for various others... It looks like the armor frame needs to be engineered for a specific person, to increase their presence! Given the way it seems linked to the ego reactor, it's very likely that this armor will endow whatever part of Toph's mind that wears it with some significant segment of her ego power. Tony can dynamically charge the mind, but if this workds, presumably his mental image will take over later and adjust it to Toph's needs on the fly. The armor, on the other hand, will stick with whoever it gets made for. Staren can probably fill in the gaps on the armor with his own robotics and armorcraft expertise. Trying to figure out what to empower permanently is a different issue entirely, though. Flamel and the others are there for consultation about that, of course.
Tony Stark	Tony begins digging into the tangle of cables and circuits, his fingers feeling intuitively for something that just 'feels like' Toph's sense of confidence. Probably something to do with her metalbending. While he searches, he picks up a few other pieces and slots them into the reactor where there are gaps in the flow of power. A glove shaped bit representative of her ability to read. A globe of water to represent swimming. These are things he's taught her himself so it makes sense they'd be able to fit into his reactor design to boost her available supply of ego. But how to channel it into self-confidence, specifically? He peers around cluelessly at the vaguely formed shapes. Something meows at his feet and there's a clatter of metal as dream-Buster bats around a small toy. Tony stoops to pick it up and finds the bantha marionette he brought home from one of his recruiting trips for her. It's metal, representative of her metalbending talent, and it was a gift, representative of affection and family. Seems like a good starting point. He stuffs the power cable into it to see what happens.
Sokka	Sokka blinked a few times and clenched his fists. He grit his mouth and... "HEY! CHUMPION!" he yelled, before running forward and... Throwing his boomerang at the guy's head. "How about you pick on someone your own size!" Okay, so protective mode had been engaged! He tried to jump onto the stage and just charge the guy. "How about you go try to live out your lil princess fantasies somewhere else!" And if he managed to get close enough he'd try to slam the hilt of his sword in the man's face.
Staren	Staren nods a little to Tony and sets to work trying to change the mixmatched pieces into parts Tony can wear. Whatever method engineering is done by here...
No. 9	Nine is just standing there when the group splits up. But 'protect her'. Those are orders. Nine looks briefly towards the smartening area, but in truth even if his job was to protect scientists and other brainy types, his job is also to protect Toph. It's why he's here. And with that he takes a deep breath and moves to follow where braver smarter folks had gone before. He finds a rock in his hand? He's for the moment more occupied in the word, trying to pin down the words that seem so elusive...
Flamel Parsons	Adele manages to skip about two extra stages of puzzle-solving when she correctly identifies the fact that the shapnel needs to be re-arranged into a shape that is currently shattered. Indeed, it does look like... A bracelet of some sort! An odd metal bracelet. It takes some time to wrap around, and it appears to be missing one link. But the arrangement she can make with that paradigm already looks so, so much more healthy as it wraps around the illustrated heart.
No. 9	Nine is evidently having a disagreement with his rock, because he is bashing it against the nearest hard surface.
No. 9	Nine isn't looking at big and insulting... he's looking at Toph. And his hand closes, head shaking... a pause, and then a nod. And Toph might feel a rock fall near her feet. Should she brush it or touch it, the thought that would ease through her head might well read; 'Oh man, if you knew the life that was coming, you wouldn't hardly be able to sleep. Wonder and beauty, power and joy; it's all coming. Better than a thousand christmas' to come. Don't let this chump get you down. All that he isn't, you are. And even if you can't see the bright new dawn to come, you'll feel the warmth, trust me.'
Richard Stadler	And there it was. Adele managed to create one of the shapes that was needed... or /the/ shape that was needed. A bit of a puzzle, but this looked a /lot/ better than the last one. The sound of a rampaging Bantha up above was concerning but cartheritic. At least Tony was getting somewhere. "Could it be on the bottom, here? Somewhere in this room?" He says, of the misin peice.
Flamel Parsons	That Ego Reactor is looking far more healthy now. It can't sustain too much shifting, still, but the capacity for varied adjustments is vastly improved, and it'll be a big help to mind-Tony when he returns. For now, the toy is massively boosted. The result of this is that the toy bantha, somewhere elsewhere in Toph's mental estate, crashes out of one of the buildings, roars like a kaiju, and begins kicking over some of the more unhealthy and visually cancerous segments of the beifong estate. It might not stick to just those later, and it looks like Lao's strange influence is starting to fight it back, but right now, Tony gets to hear the wonderfully satisfying sound of Lao shouting rules and getting really mad at a kaiju-sized tin Bantha, which doesn't seem to be doing any actual damage to parts of Toph's psyche that are good for her... For now. Might be a good idea to unplug that before it gets out of hand though.
Toph Beifong	Whatever Toph's world has when it comes to anchovie mixes, it must be relevant somehow as the rock turns into a small boulder that knocks the earthbender back with a pained grunt. And it distracts him enough that the boomerang makes a 'bonk' sound as it hits him on the head. Avalanchion lets out an annoyed roar as he turns on Sokka. "You can live out your fantasies of getting squashed right here if you like!" he threatens. However, the younger Toph seems startled as Sokka puts himself in danger, and she gasps. Perhaps they are saved however; around them the rest of the ceiling falls down, as well as the stands. Large boulders knock Avalanchion aside and into... water? Right now they're no longer in Earth Rumble VI alone, but also an area that Sokka should recognize well enough... the Serpent's Pass! Around them the icy water and howling rain whips against them, chilling them to the bone even as the rocks keep on coming. Behind them the road is crumbling, forcing them onwards even as more earthbenders appear, not of them clear whether they have names or not. They are flinging boulders and rocks at the party and at Toph herself, who is struggling to keep up with it all, clearly overhwhelmed at it all. As they make their way along the path more and more statues shoot up from the ground here and there, all of Toph in various stages of defeat, though she looks less and less beaten for each time, not to mention more stubborn. It is clear that Toph will need the others to keep on throwing their rocks with insults on them at the opponents, as well as make their way through the rocky pathway. It seemingly takes a long while, but finally... they're there! In front of them the gates of the mighty, stalwart city of Ba Sing Se rise. With the elements raging at it it falls down easily enough, opening for the weary travelers, who suddenly find themselves alone once again as Toph has vanished into seemingly empty air. Well, there's only one way to go now... Welcome to the glorious city...!
Toph Beifong	A city that is not there as the team steps inside the wall. It's a large, barren landscape, the earth all dried up with nothing growing, no life whatsoever. Why, there isn't even a single bug sending tiny vibrations throughout the ground for them to pick up. For what seems like a minute it's only them in the quiet darkness. A scream breaks the calm however, resonating as something hits the ground. A human form, an adult male one who doesn't seem to keen on staying on the ground for long. A second form prevents him from doing so however, despite its smaller size as it sits down on his abdomen, pressing a hand to the larger figure's shoulder. "Please, I let me help you!" There is no doubt who that voice belongs to, but it's not often that Toph's voice is so pleading, so full of fear and hurt. It might be even more bizarre when the figure on the ground screams out in what is undeniably pain and tenses up, struggling against the smaller figure. And it doesn't stop when the creaking sound of metal can be heard along with something tearing. At the same time that it continues pleading with its victim to not struggle. Perhaps it's for the better that the team gathered is unable to see the details rather well, as the screams only intensify and the adult man struggles more against the bodily harm that's being inflicted on him. Yet the girl who inflicts said pain doesn't seem to be faring much better, her breathing choked, her arms shaking even as several metallic shards finally tear themselves free one after another, digging just slightly into the skin of her right hand. The sound of something dripping can be heard just faintly too if one decides to listen. A wet, repetitive sound as it hits the ground. After what feels like a slight eternity the struggles cease, and only a gurgling sound can be heard from mind!Tony as the smaller figure Toph, now at her current age, rises to her feet and turns towards them, still finding it difficult to breathe as she quivers. The scent of metal is heavy on the air, and not just because of the shards stuck in her hand as she extends it towards them. "I... only wanted to get them out," she rasps, her throat sore. Up around them metal spires rise from the ground.
Tony Stark	Tony unplugs the Bantha. Okay, that was fun but he needs something a bit more constructive here. On his radio, he hears Sokka shouting at him to 'power up' but what the hell represents himself? Swearing under his breath, he runs through the clutter dragging the ego power cable behind him, and jams it into whatever progress Staren has managed to make with the unfinished armor.
Sokka	Sokka blinked a few times, his fists clenching and then... He ran forward. Assuming he could, he'd grab her and pull her close, hugging her to him. "Toph," he whispered. "This is Sokka speaking. That Sokka. The one who was too blind to see you for... for far too long. I need you to listen to me. I need you to trust me. Believe in me." He took a quick, sharp breath. "Your dad is okay. He's going to be okay." One hand reached up to grab her hand, the one with the metal in it, to wrap his fingers around hers. "He is going to get help. He is going to be okay. And I NEED you to hear me on this." He leaned in close, and whispered into her ear. "You can't fix this. You need to accept that. You are the most wonderful, amazing person in the world. But you can't fix this. Not like this. I know it sucks. I know it's scary. But your dad is a smart guy. He knows all kinds of different tricks and things I could never dream of. Things that could change everything the world over. And he's dealt with his heart. He's stopped the metal. There's nothing you can do, here. You need to accept that. To understand that. Your dad is going to be fine. He has a problem. But each and every single one of us have problems and issues. And we deal with them. Your dad has a bit of metal in his chest. But so what? He's also incredibly smart, powerful, has awesome facial hair and two amazing kids. The metal isn't going to stop him. It isn't even going to slow him down. So... you need to accept that this is something you can't change."
Eve	Eve's not much for flinging rocks or insults. The dreamscape helps with the first and her memories help with the second... but she loses interest as the group starts going through the pass. Instead she mostly focuses on keeping from being pelted with boulders and guiding the others. She does, however, look with contempt at the statues of Toph in beaten poses. This isn't HER RIVAL! And the more Eve looks, the more she decides this isn't part of a healthy Toph's mind. Features firming, Eve holds out her arm as she continues running, manifesting a huge stoneworker's mallet in her hand. Bringing up both arms she delivers a running SMASH against one defeated-looking statue, just to see what'll happen. Also to express frustration and annoyance. She comes to a halt when they finally enter the city. The dead nature doesn't seem right. This whole thing seems very wrong indeed... and Eve has no idea how to deal with it or what to do. Slowly though, she begins to get the idea. The nightmare that Toph faces... it's this. It's death. The whole dead city, not to mention Tony Stark himself. She doesn't fear death itself, she fears the death of those she cares about. Having no idea what to do about the apparently-dying Iron Man, Eve looks with gratitude as Sokka comes up with what seems to be a good idea. She nods, and turns to Toph, watching her and Sokka together. That is a bit irritating too, but she decides it's best that Sokka comforts her. Though he seems to be getting parts of it wrong. Eve's not sure Toph's afraid of the metal so much as ... well, Toph's a metalbender and she clearly wants to help, but she's afraid she'll be the one responsible for her dad's death. Not good with speeches, Eve doesn't say any of that. Instead she grips her mallet, shifting it to a more-familiar sword and shield as the metal spikes rise around them. Let Sokka comfort Toph... Eve will protect her. "Don't hold onto that metal." she advises. "I don't think it's anything you want right now. Also, be ready." she adds, gripping nanoweapons and preparing to fight for Toph's life. Or at least her mind.
Flamel Parsons	Mind-Sokka has followed. "Watch it! Guh, this is what happens when kids get this kind of power." There may indeed be some kind of dysfunction about the age difference, but there's other matters at hand. The mind-Sokka rushes forward, blade out, into Ba Sing Se. Here's where the Nightmares spawn. A crashing wave, a mass of the sort of water that Toph fears, rushes out of Serpent's Pass behind them. As the water flows, it forms, gradually... Into PERSONAL DEMONS! With a cascade of bodies, they're heading towards Toph! Mind-Sokka's immediately at work fighting them off, giving his real self room to work, but only for now. They need to make sure the tidal wave of personal demons... Or it'll spawn another Heart Render, presumably! This is the nest where they form that awful creature! "Try to get those fragments back! I think Tony needs them! I'm not any good at this magic stuff, argh... Come on, space sword, don't fail me now!" It looks like his sword has some meaningful effect here, with its magic-like shining. He looks a bit underpowered himself, though... As before, he's only a facilitator, someone who makes things easier, not someone who can solve things himself! Oddly, though, Sokka's speech -- his speech, itself, strangely -- seems to make mind-Sokka faster, and more precise, with each word. "I've been trying to fight these things off for months! They get everywhere, you know. I'm practically drowning in them!" He tries to joke while another personal demon punches him in the head. "Ow ow ow." Thankfully, with the boosting of Sokka's words, he's starting to make more headway. The water's rushing in more and more, though, and even enhanced that much, it won't last.
No. 9	Fighting to defend someone better than he is is something Nine at least understands. Even if he can't understand, can't ferret out the answers, can't do what needs done in the intellectual field... he can smash things. He can take damage. And if need be, he can die. Though he wouldn't want to clutter up Toph's personal mindscape. And so as one of those cascading personal demons comes barreling forward, Nine comes barreling just as fast. And though he doesn't have the fear of water Toph does, he's not happy with it. But it's not his fear. His life. He's not the focus, and thus he BURSTS through the first one, rounding on another one, his eyes blazing points of light in the dim and his teeth bared. "C'MAAAAAAAN!! //THIS// I CAN AT LEAST DO." Though he, will, smell like Wet Golem now. Um. ._.
Flamel Parsons	The armor's been configured for Tony. It 'looks' nice! Like a hyper-positive caricature of Tony's own Iron Man armor. Lots of rockets, tons of heavy shielding, the whole works, after Staren's engineering. Tony throws the switch. There's several other switches in an elaborate puzzle Agent Parsons has been working on, so he winds up throwing his switch too. "ALRIGHT TOOOPH, PREPARE YOUR MIIIIIND!" The completed armor lights up brightly, and blasts off elsewhere, rocketing right through the roof of the reactor chamber and off towards Serpent's Pass, and Ba Sing Se beyond. Looks like it might deploy right onto Mind-Tony. "If I had to guess, it's probably up ahead...?" Flamel mutters, awkwardly, to Richard Stadler. "Toph might have it herself. You know, solution in the last place you look, that sort of thing. You could--" That's when several disheveled-looking wrestlers wander in. Two of them are especially beaten up, but there's sort of a lot of them, for some reason. "...Don't know where she got those-- Ghhhk!!" The mental images of those wrestlers that got beaten up earlier stop in their tracks, frozen, staring at the group. "...Usually we come back here to recharge. Uh." One of them mutters, awkwardly. It looks like the combat team beat them up on the way through. "...Can we have just a little juice?" One shouts from the back, "We'll help whatever weird thing you're doing if you let us have some." "Y...Yeah! What he said." It looks like there's one extra thing the group can do. If they want, they can purge these insecurities completely, but if they'd rather, they can try to recruit them, provide some orders, and leave them to hunt the problems too.
Tony Stark	Tony exchanges 'looks' with the rest of the group. "Well, it's not like we don't have ego to spare," he remarks. He did juice up the reactor a fair bit after all. But he squares his shoulders and confronts the wrestlers belligerently. "You guys were just beating on Toph. What kind of assurance are you gonna give me that you'll help her from now on?"
Flamel Parsons	Eve's preparation is a good one, though she winds up fighting off the Personal Demons with swords rather than the spires. Nine joins her, and good lord is he ever in his element. Their vicious, close-combat nature, and semi-explosive tendencies, mean melee is the most efficient tactic, and yet simultaneously the most risky. Ripping through the tidal wave of foes that bleed water, the pair should be able to shore up Sokka's defenses for now. For long enough that Tony's armor can get to him. If Sokka's speech worked, hopefully those fragments will be given up soon, hopefully that armor will be arriving soon... This is a brutal bit of survival going on here. Nine finds that their small size and high numbers means he can charge through crowds, while Eve will find her best work done in picking off the ungrouped clusters. Mind-Sokka is having a much better time picking off strays with his space sword at least. The trio ought to be able to hold it back, just long enough...
Flamel Parsons	The wrestler-like fighters look concerned and awkward, seeming to not comprehend. Flamel speaks up briefly. "They don't have a ton of psychological depth." He says, plaintively. Then he waves at them, saying something like, "Uh... The other Tony will beat you up if you hurt her again." "No!! We'll just fight each other instead!!" "Okay, yeah, I think they're probably gonna be fine." Parsons gestures awkwardly. "Secret agendas like ours always work best with fear as a motivator. Anything you want them to do while they're left behind in here?"
Toph Beifong	To Eve's satisfaction the statues are easily smashed, and well... some rubble is left along of them, but they're not that clear nor easy to make out, fortunately. It might seem that Toph didn't expect Sokka to come running at her though, and she freezes up, arm still extended when he grabs her and pulls her close for a hug. Her right hand twitches, the dripping sound still there. Though she seems to lose the strength when her hand is grabbed, and she lets out another choked sound as the whispers in her ear starts. So much reason, logic that should make this place impossible to begin with, words she's told herself... but still she seems to have problems accepting what's going on, shaking her head as she leans into Sokka and just /sobs/. "I... I can't do it, they're... they're too many, please... I... I need help," she pleads, reaching up with bloodied hands as she grips onto Sokka's arms. "I can't... control it!" Right now she doesn't seem able to focus on much, not the influx of the personal demons, not to Eve as she's got her nanoweapons ready... nor Nine smashing up personal demons left and right. It all is rough, and the personal demons rush over the walls in even greater numbers. The noise is deafening, and she whimpers as she leans into Sokka, tightening her right hand even as he holds around it. Carefully it begins to shift, moving out of her skin as it begins to take the form of something else the last piece of the metal bracelet before it suddenly disappears. Only to reappear back at the Ego Reactor and in front of the people who worked on the puzzles there. When all seems to be hopeless... hope arrives as something /crashes/ into the center of the area, something dense and metallic. The very next second the previously prone figure of the beaten and dying Iron Man rises to his feet, standing far taller than his real life counterpart. How much of this is because of the armour is unknown. This is no time for words however, as a familiar sound of something powering up and several beams shoot through the darkness from the Iron Man armour, tearing into the personal demons that threaten to overtake the area and the fighting forces. Apparently the work the brainiac team did really came through while the offense force held out and got through to the area itself. Still holding onto Sokka and looking startled, the still shaky Toph seems more confused and shocked than terrified right now, going quiet as she stares, her feet taking in the absurd amount of vibrations as the personal demons all fall to the ground. A blast from his hands here and there, another from the chest reactor the Iron Man doesnt let up until the final one drops and the area remains quiet save for the things that Toph let in here on her own.
Tony Stark	"Yeah, uh," Tony scrambles for something concrete for these bozos to focus on. "You can be Toph's bodyguards. Hang out with her. And when that rules-spewing asshole tries to bother her, you can chase him off. Don't hurt him," he adds hastily, thinking that perhaps it may not be in Toph's best interest to have her mental image of her father beaten to a pulp, "But -- help her fight him off with insults and stuff." He picks up what looks like a championship belt that he figures represents the Earth Rumble avatars, and glances between it and the power cable. "Deal?"
Staren	Staren steps back and shields his face with his hands as the armor rockets through the ceiling. Then he clicks his tongue. "Guess I should have expected it to work that way. I wonder where 'you' are?" And then, wrestlers! Staren is about to speak up, then gives Flamel a concerned look. "Do we really want to add more fear to any part of Toph's psyche?" He turns to the group of fighters and takes a deep breath, thinking of Twilight, should that add any mental power here. "Hey. She's the best Earthbender around. Wouldn't you like to be friends with her? And think of how much better you could get at the noble art of... wrestling... if you ALL worked together as friends to refine it in friendly competition?"
Flamel Parsons	The last segment of the bracelet slides easily into the map of Tony's heart where Adele left that space. And with that, the issue is completed, and Toph's uneasy acceptance of the heart's shrapnel is set into place. The boosted Tony, himself, keeps it wrapped around, the odd part of his body now embedded, a match for the medical diagrams he was so caught up on before. "Phoooowh... Well. That was a real... flood of emotions!" Mind-Sokka cracks another joke as he recovers from the stress of battle. Now, though, Mind-Tony can set to work on keeping the personal demon levels low enough that they never threaten to create another Psychohazard again. "...Huh, I guess Tony will get the rest of this dealt with. There's not anyone to deal with the Ego Reactor now, though. Huhhhh... Well, hey, I'm a smart guy. I can probably figure it out." He seems ready to get to that. The Mental Tony probably won't be disapproving of that any time soon. Tony and Staren successfully recruit the insecurities to try to deal with Lao! They seem eager to try, though Staren's offer to have them all work together doesn't entirely make sense to them, since apparently the only thing they know how to do is fight. There's a lot of traditional earthbender signs of excitement and triumph, bropounds and things like that, before they realize they're all incredibly sore and shouldn't do that. "Yeah. That sounds good to us." And with that, a little extra breathing room in Lao's psychological impact is created too, a wonderfully convenient barrier. That's when Sokka walks in. But it's the taller, cooler one, Toph's mental image of Sokka. "Oh, you guys must have been the ones who boosted Tony! I think he's busy with dealing with those Personal Demons now, I'm gonna handle making sure the ego reactor works fine while he's doing that. That okay?" A few last images seem to stick in the mind. Young Toph is helped and escorted through her home by old fighters with earth-pun names. Sokka deftly works his engineer abilities by helping to use the upgraded Ego Reactor to fuel Toph's mind in quick response to its needs, running jokes over the mental PA. Tony, in a set of long-term heavy armor, patrols the air of Serpent's Pass, constantly firing on nests of awful personal demons, neutralizing dangers and making sure his daughter can move through it safely. The mental image of Lao Beifong curses Tony Stark, angry at the destruction of his awful, mentally cancerous fortress. Any last business here can be done swiftly, but Agent Parsons is pulling out soon, and so will the rest, as he breaks his Astral Projection.
Staren	Staren looks over mind-Sokka curiously. "Uhh, okay." When Flamel indicates it's almost time to go... well, they did what they came here to do, so he has no objection to getting back to a world where he can see everything!
Flamel Parsons	And Parsons cuts his astral projection. The door on Toph's forehead pops back open, everyone launches back into their bodies and settles in, and Toph regains her focus, able to speak and cognize clearly now. Her head should settle down and become indirectly aware of some of those changes shortly...
Toph Beifong	Who knows how long time has passed by since they first entered her mind... As the mind explorers settle back into their physical bodies they should see Toph slowly becoming aware of something happening. Her hands still their work as she has obviously been working on something intricate, though at the moment her focus changes somewhat. Raising her head she looks slightly uncertain for a bit, then she blinks, clearly pensive as she considers the events she seems to understand. And she swallows a bit even as things seem to be okay. At least from what she can first tell by their comments. But she's still a bit tense where she sits, not moving to get up from the couch. "... I... guess thanks is in order," she says, not really expecting a response back. If they cleaned it up, that's well and good. And especially if Tony himself didn't see the nightmare itself.
Flamel Parsons	"You're welcome, Toph." Mr. Parsons gives a pleasant, friendly smile, and offers a hand to shake. "And thanks for... Distrusting me slightly less than before!" He gently tugs the door off and back into his hand. A short, gentle "beep!" signifies that the override code is now cancelled. "Whether you like me much or not, it still makes me happy to help solve problems like this for you. If you ever feel like it might help again, give me a call. I won't hold my breath or anything, but the option will always be open, okay?" Thanks are also given to Tony, and Sokka. "I can tell you two care about her a lot. I won't call what you did trusting me, but it was at least giving me a chance to help her, and that's all I should really ask for." One last quick smile, and then he flicks his sunglasses back over his face. "Anyway, I'll go ahead and leave before Sokka remembers that he really wants to punch me." And with that he just turns invisible on the spot. And starts levitating, just to make sure Toph can't see him and give him the punch either! And he's gone! Escaping out to his van!