About two hours has passed since Jose was abducted by Hexen and the other vigilantes, his sense of awareness finally coming back as Hexen lifts her influence on his mind. Trying to look around at his surroundings, Jose realizes that he's been blindfolded as well as hand cuffed down to a chair. Though blinded as he may be sounds can still be perceived. Jose takes notice of a door opening up to the right of him with the patter of feet making their way in. Two different footsteps seem to stop just in front of him while one more stands directly behind him.
The blindfold is swiftly pulled off his face to see they're all in an old decrepit room with a table between him and the two masked vigilantes with no windows and only one door. The Magician and Hexen stand before him with both arms folded.
Jose turns his head as much as he possibly can and find one other man wearing a black mask with a reflective visor that covers the majority of the head except at the top allowing the hair to be shown. Also clad in black and blue leather like suit with armor padding covering the shoulders, chest, torso, knees and shins.
Jose looks confused having never seen this individual before. "Who are you supposed to be?"
"You can call me Horizon." The black armored vigilante replies walking to the wall opposite from Jose.
Jose turns his attention to Hexen who gives him a slight wave of her fingers as a taunt. "You're the one that got the drop on me on the sidewalk." He states before turning to The Magician. "And The Magician!? To think I would have such a big hot shot vigilante to come after me himself. I'm honored."
Hexen slams her hand onto the table causing a loud smacking sound to fill the room for a brief second. "Cut the crap, Jose! We don't have time for your shit! You're going to tell us what we want to know or el-!" Magician places a hand on her right shoulder making Hexen stop mid sentence.
Magician leans in closely to her ear. "What are you doing?" He asks, whispering softly into Hexens ear.
"I'm playing the bad cop." She replies whispering back to him.
"I-I was supposed to be the bad cop in this situation." Magician retorts, taking quick glance at Jose who just looks confused.
"Oh, I thought you were going to play the silent yet intimidating cop." Says Hexen.
Horizon, still leaning against the wall behind the two, raises his hand to interject in the quiet conversation. "No, that's my part."
The Magician nods once at Horizon. "You were supposed to be the good cop."
"And I was supposed to be some how coerced into answering your questions but that isn't going to happen. You all are terrible at this… except him, he was actually a bit intimidating." Jose says looking to Horizon.
The Magician lets out a sigh of depression, letting his arms drop from their folded position. "I guess we go with plan B." With that said, Horizon walks off from the wall and up to the table. He pulls out the other chair and sits down softly across from Jose.
"Tell me, Jose. Have you ever experienced a total sensory loss?" Jose squints at Horizon, not understanding the question entirely.
Hexen moves closer to Magician and places her hand on the left temple of his head. "Stay still or unless you want to get affected."
Soon black energy begins to move up Horizons body from his hands and feet until it covers the entire body. "Blackout." The black energy disperses, completely filling the room and even going past the boundaries of the walls. Jose's body goes limp in the chair with his leaning back over the top, eyes wide open, body twitching softly and mouth slightly agape as hush words escape the jaws.
The Magician looks on in shock at Jose's unresponsive body. "What just happened? Why is he so out of it?"
"That's Horizons power he calls 'Blackout'. He shuts down the senses in the brain. People caught in his range lose their sense of touch, hearing, taste, sight and smell." The explanation leaves Magician dumbfounded and slightly terrified. "You're basically trapped within your own mind.
Magician continues to stare at Jose as drools slowly begin to drip down his chin after overflowing in his mouth. "If that's the case why aren't we affected?"
"My power of neuroelectric manipulation can act as a shield from his blackout." Hexen replies, reaching over to tap Horizon. "Ok, I think that's long enough."
Horizon only nods before taking in a deep breath. As he exhales the black like energy diminishes until there's nothing left. Almost instantly Jose jerks awake from mental hellscape in a frantic uproar, twisting his neck around to look around the room.
"I COULDN'T… I COULDN'T DO ANYTHING!!" Jose turns his attention back to Horizon with his hands up, locked together and chin resting in the fingers. "I'll talk… I don't want to go back."
Interrogation of what Jose knows and why he is here went ever so smoothly for the trio. Taking no longer than a couple minutes to get the information they need, the three of them sit down in another room, masks off, all with the same blank expression on their faces.
Franny lets out a long sigh before picking up his head. "I had a feeling we'd find more of the escaped meta-humans near here but to have at least forty of them along with Transmuter and his group."
"Even if we were to call the rest of the Vigilante Association, we would have to tip off the Hero Organization to get as backup. There's no way we would efficiently be able to handle that many meta-humans." James states, folding his arms together. "It's your call, Freddie. What should we do?"
"How should I know? I'm usually the one getting the orders." Freddie looks at James and then to Franny. He heads for the door before taking out his phone. "I'm going to call Kenyon and let him know the situation. Hopefully he'll know the correct course of action."
Meanwhile back at the brewery Shay and Mat share a drink as they watch the revelry between the convicts and their crew below. With Keyshawn finally getting along with the rest of the group, laughing and talking amongst them, Shay can't help but grow a small smirk.
Mat notices the somewhat cheerful expression on his friend's face. "Is that a smile I see?" Shay quickly realizes what Mat was talking about and fixes the look on his face. "Uh uh, don't try to hide it now. I already saw it. Transmuter feeling happy? Now that's a rare sight to behold."
"I wasn't smiling. You're just drunk." Shay said, taking a sip of his beer.
"Please, you and I both know that one beer isn't enough to get my alcoholic ass even close to buzzed." Mat jokingly nudges Shays shoulder then takes another sip from the beer. "Look, we got the Hero Organization running around like idiots, the Vigilante Association was never really a threat to us before and the rest of the world is in a state of chaos after the stunt we pulled back in the city. All I'm trying to say is to enjoy the victories while you can." Shay stays quiet for a second then looks back down at to the others, his eyes focused on Melissa. "I know she would want the same thing."
Shay lets out a silent sigh followed by a soft chuckle. "Why does it always feel like you know what to say at the right moment? It honestly baffles me."
"Well… I wouldn't be your right hand man if I didn't know what to say, now would I?" Mat raises his beer to Shay.
"Touché." Shay replies, tapping his beer against his as they both down their drinks.