"We were fighting against mind controllers and thought we caught them all, but someone was pulling the strings even further back." I grabbed Dick and checked his brain just in case, but saw no signs of compulsions if he had been given any mental suggestions. "Alright, I've got to go find Cassandra. Stephanie might be pissed when she wakes up because she's going to have a bunch of-."
She woke up instantly, screaming. "MOTHER FUCKER I'LL KILL YOU!" Instinctively, she punched out and smashed Dick right in his face. After realizing what she did, she put her hands over her mouth. "It wa-." I interrupted her. "Cass is still under control. I got to borrow your mana to find her." I put my hand on her back without asking and linked our magics together. I began to cast a tracking spell.
It was an altered version of the druidic spell as an ethereal bird took shape and began to head towards the door. I looked around the room. "We got any other fliers who can track me?" Beast Boy stood up and changed forms, becoming the same bird as the spell. Starfire and Raven were also there, but the brief mention, as I explained what happened, and they heard I was part of the 100, made them wary.
"Steph is going to be exhausted for a while, so she's out, and someone has to watch her. I don't think the controller would have attacked Batman, so we don't have to worry about him being under control. This man is dangerous. He is a ghost who hid his hand through other mind controllers over and over again."
I got confused looks, and one of the younger kids asked. "What the what?" I explained further. "He had a mind controller; he mind-controlled, control another mind controller who was controlling another mind controller. Think of your big bad guys like Lex Luthor, except that he could control people with mind powers. That's what we're dealing with, and I have to go right now. The tracking bird only lasts so long."
I don't wait for any more help as Beast Boy and I take off after the bird. It flies extremely fast, and I would have lost sight of it if it weren't so eye-catching and high above all the other buildings in the area. I had completely forgotten about the knife wound, but my mid-superhuman regeneration took care of it.
The bird began circling a warehouse, and I didn't waste time smashing through a window. I was in a hurry because if the mind controller could refresh the compulsions, he could tell Cassandra to flee from the sight of me or have her kill herself. The only thing visible in the entire empty warehouse is her.
With a creepy smile, she asked. "Was it as good for you as it was for me?" She pulled the knife across her throat, and I dove for her. Even while dying, she kept the creepy smile on her face and held the knife up in an attempt to stop me. I just guided it to a safer spot to be stabbed and pinned her down with my strength as I began knitting her throat back together before unraveling the mental compulsions.
The fucker put extra effort into Cassandra because she was already a low superhuman in terms of strength. If things were to go wrong when they confronted me, she would have the best chance to murder me. Altogether, there were fifty compulsions, with most being set around listening to Stephanie until things went wrong, then they were built around hurting herself and killing me.
My teeth made popping noises as I ground them together from anger. He targeted me! HE TARGETED MY FUCKING PEOPLE! Tears streamed down my face as I thought about what I was going to do to him when I caught him. He killed my kindness. He couldn't keep finding other mind controllers to hide behind. I'll fucking keep systematically killing them.
The second bad news I got was that the person looked different than he did in Stephanie's memories. I was so angry that I forgot to check for traps. I looked around the room, scared for a moment, but only saw Beast Boy, who looked at me with fear in his eyes. I could only tell him what I knew already. "He targeted me. All the mental compulsions I unraveled were there to try and kill me. He could do it with other people I know."
I felt sick leaving such an obvious enemy unmurdered, but I needed to find him first. The only way I knew of would be making a contract with a demon to find his location or contracting a fae to find him, but both of those would put me in a worse position than if I just found him myself. I portal us back right as Cassandra is waking up.
"MURDER HIM! I'LL FUCKING KILL HIM!" She thankfully didn't attack me and looked sheepishly at what she shouted out. Even someone who believes everyone should have a second chance instinctively knows that people who choose mind control out of all powers aren't worth saving.
I felt it again. I was behind again. I needed to become untouchable. I needed to develop my magical technology to a new level to find this fucker. "Raven, can you check them and make sure I didn't do any damage untangling the mental suggestions they were under? I…" I sighed as I knew this was going to suck. "I need to go talk to my boss."
Steph stopped me before I left. "How did you know?" I didn't need it explained any further. "It's how slow you were responding to me. Like your brain needed to check if what you were about to say fit into the exact plan he was going for. You're a goddamn Robin, that makes you a quip master compared to other people... I'd also like to think you wouldn't just randomly push an ultimatum onto me like that."
I portaled outside the entrance to SHIELD. I could have teleported inside Nick's room, but I decided that might be enough to piss him off and go the normal way. I'm let in by his secretary and sit across from him. I wait a few seconds before I finally ask. "Any chance we can speed up the construction of the magical department? I need people I can rely on, and I need to push the magical advancement like a million years forward, and I don't have the budget to do it myself."
Nick puffed his cigar as he looked at me. "You know, earlier today, one of the strangest things happened. One of my best operatives came in and asked to be moved permanently to the magical department. Do you have any idea why the fuck Natasha would want to move there?"
I almost respond. "Probably because she's pregnant." But it isn't my place to go around telling people. "I know why, but it's best you get it out of her if she wants to tell you." He had a babble cradle going already. I pointed at it. "You know that takes the magic out of the air to use, right? It's not something you should just leave on forever."
He gave another few puffs as he enjoyed the flavor. "I figured. Activated it when you portaled in front of the building. I want to say no out of principle." He drummed his fingers on his desk before sucking his teeth. "Yeah, I don't know what I can do for you. We can only work so fast. It'll still take a few more weeks to get your facilities built and faculty to staff it."
I plead for him to do something. "Listen. A man attacked and mind-controlled people I care about. The only way to assure their safety is with very expensive equipment, and the only way to find him 100% is the creation of a brand new spell. To do either of those things, I need more resources and people to test them on. I'm willing to legitimately work for SHIELD if you do this for me."
He ponders over the correct choice. It would only cost him an extra million or two to rush the project. In the short run, it would secure my loyalty to him. Is the cost worth my loyalty? He ashes his cigar before looking me in the eye, and I already know his answer. "Mr. Storm, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I wish I could, but we just don't have the budget to rush something that will be done in a few weeks anyway."
I can't help but smile at his inaction. I let him know exactly how I feel about this situation. "If that's how it is, then. I'm sorry for the mistake you just made, and you have my sympathy for what's about to befall anyone who tries to hurt someone that I care for." I give him my dead stare, dropping the fake smile and showing the monster hidden underneath.
He speaks to me, but it sounds like he's underwater. I ignore him and walk through a portal as I rethink my plans. I had to stop half-assing it and trying to be the good guy. For the next week or two, I was going to put a lot of people in my debt for the money I'd need as I made a call to Stephanie to get a hold of Batman for me.
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Barbara Gordon sat in front of her computer and did her normal work. She had several police communication lines open and was watching security camera footage at suspected hotspot areas. She took a sip of her tea as she watched the clip of a mugger ripping the purse from an old lady's hand, as she listened to the police get the incoming call for it, deeming it not important enough to push to her Bat Family.
A knock on her door brings her attention to it, and she wheels herself over to look through the lowered peephole to see who is on the other side. The man somehow knew to back up and let her get a good look at him as he spoke. "Hello. I was sent over by Bruce to look at your injury. He should have sent you a message on your phone."
She had set her phone to silent and forgot to ask for a moment to make sure he wasn't lying. A few dozen messages came in from Stephanie and Dick, and a few from everyone else she talked to regularly. Sending a message this way… It was the third time in total that Batman had sent her a cell phone message instead of calling.
She almost dropped her phone when she read the message he sent her. How would that be possible? It shouldn't be; it had already been a few years since she became handicapped, and years of losing hope of ever finding a solution. With trembling hands, she undid the latches on her door. She had developed a deep fear of people arriving at her doorstep without her knowing first.
It didn't even take five minutes for her to get the feeling back in her feet. She stood up and almost fell over immediately from the lack of use and the sudden rush of blood. He put his hands on her back, and the wobbliness faded. Her heart almost beat out of her chest as the tears flowed freely from her eyes. Before the man left, he asked her to look at the price of fixing her.
The sudden ding from her phone as both Cassandra and Stephanie began talking, as their mics were left open and they chattered, asking to do a FaceTime call, made her forget to see him leave. She didn't notice that her door locked itself as the man left.
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"Hello, is this Ms. Carter's room?" I gave her a big smile and a confused look on her face as she asked. "Hello deary, have we met before?" I walked over and put my hand on hers before using diagnostic touch. Her Alzheimer's and Dementia were at extreme levels, and she wouldn't live to see the end of the year. That is, if she didn't make a deal with me.
I fixed her enough so she was coherent, and the happy old lady had turned into the steely woman she was when she led SHIELD. She gave me an appraising look before asking. "Are you an assassin sent to kill me after bringing back my lucidity enough so I would know you did it?" I was taken aback by her statement before she responded. "By the response, I can take it as a no then. What do you want?"
"Well, I obviously want to make a deal with you."
Mr. Freeze sat down across from the man who said he could cure his wife. He didn't look that special. He was tall, fit, and handsome, but he didn't have the pull he sometimes felt from other people. The pull he'd feel in front of Penguin, the Batman, or Joker, for instance. Still, as he began to talk, Mr. Freeze knew he was the real deal.
After signing a fairly easy-to-handle deal that would be done in a matter of weeks, the man got to work. He said the disease was easy enough to deal with, but the severe organ failure and cryogenic cellular collapse was rough. He said it was a very expensive process, but he managed it with a few close calls. As Nora opened her eyes for the first time in almost a decade, tears began to freeze on his face.
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Ironman met with these quack doctors sometimes to see if they could find a solution that he couldn't. His body was starting to fail because of the reactor in his chest; all the doctors who looked at it gave him less than five years because of the poisoning. Tony scrunched his face when his eyes met with the supposed man who could cure him.
25 million might have sounded like a lot to some, but for fixing one of the richest people on the planet, it was a drop in the bucket. Tony sat down and humored him before he'd embarrass him and kick him out, but that didn't happen. The man asked if he'd like to have the reactor in his chest still or go back to normal. Tony responded sarcastically that, of course, he'd want it removed. Then the man removed it.
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Deadshot yawned as he kept an eye on his target. He was happy with how easy the gig was. For the first time, he was hired to protect someone. A million dollars a day to make sure the red-headed smoke show wasn't bothered by anyone. He got another sip of coffee as he kept an eye through his telescopic eye connected to his rifle's telescope.
The woman was clothes shopping for babies at the moment, buying both boys' and girls' clothes. He took a sip of the coffee before heading back to his perch.
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I knocked on the door before peaking my head in. I gave Aunt May a big smile before saying. "Good morning! How are you feeling?" She looked miserable with big dark circles around her eyes from lack of sleep. When I walked in, she gave me a soft smile before responding. "Miserable. These nurses just ignored me, and I was in so much pain last night I couldn't sleep."
I put my hand on hers and healed all the easy-to-deal-with things before completely restoring her neck. "Alright, I completely fixed your neck. You should be fine to go home. Let me undo the neck brace and call in the doctor for you." She looked at me like I had a second head beside the first.
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"So he's in here?" Getting permission to visit the Raft was a long and tedious process, even greasing all the wheels with money. Even after discussing with the warden, who had to run clearance all the way up to the Secretary of Defense, that I could cure several of the more dangerous inhabitants, it took three days.
As I looked in the cell, Superman spoke from behind me. I didn't even hear him approach, so it scared me. "You know who's in that cell, right? Us fighting almost flattened a city block." I could only chuckle. "Yeah, imagine if he were fighting at full strength instead of the near-death starvation he's been on since he arrived in the dimension."
I began to try and talk to him. "Hey, big guy. The sun is getting real low. Wait, wrong big guy. Solomon, are you by chance looking for a protection job?" I pulled out the mana collectors that were fully charged. "Solo-. Solomon…" He looked depressed until I changed the mana collectors to push out their stored mana.
There would have been no chance of my being able to communicate with him if I hadn't gotten his memories. I looked at the guard. "Can you open this up?" Superman gave me another stare-down before asking. "So you know something about Solomon then?" I responded as the guard opened the cell and I walked inside, placing another half dozen mana collectors, spraying mana into the cell.
"I guess you could say that. He's a death knight from Avalon. He refused to sign a contract, which only meant that he would be put through torturous pain until he did. He managed to fight the contract placer who flung him into this world, severing the connection. While he wouldn't feel that pain anymore, he came from a mana-dense world to one without much, so ever since he's been here, he's been starving to death."
Solomon shook his head back and forth before heading to a mana collector and shoving it inside his mouth. I responded to him as if he were a child. "No, Solomon. That's not food. Here, come eat some mana-rich diamonds, yum yum." He carefully placed the collector back down and moved towards the mini pile of diamonds I dumped onto the ground.
As he did so, I looked at the frayed contract still attached to his soul and started making alterations. He would still be far too hungry if he were left to his own devices. I really shouldn't have been able to form a contract with him. The normal contract magic to make a death knight was the sixth circle. Morgan didn't use normal contract magic; she used a greater contract to make him a greater death knight, which was eighth circle.
Protect me. Protect my family, especially the kids, and I would feed him my entire mana pool twice a day. He has to listen to my commands unless it is at the cost of innocent lives. Finally, I would give him a mana-dense room to live in where he might actually start to recover. I asked him. "Would you like to make the deal with me, Solomon?"
I snapped my fingers as he was still distracted, eating the diamonds. "Hello? Solomon, accept the contract, and I'll feed you. You protect my family, and I feed you, okay?" He stops eating for a second before agreeing. The moment he did, I realized how bad I fucked up.
I felt the single skinny ring I had made to start my fourth circle snap in an instant, and that was the only reason I lived. Mana was sucked from my body to complete the contract. The same amount that a sixth-circle mage would have. I didn't have that much, as an entire circle's worth of magic was sucked free in about ten seconds. I sat down and began meditating.
It was a losing battle. I could feel my mana draining faster than I could recover it. Even in this mana-rich area with six collectors depositing mana, I couldn't recover fast enough to equal out the drain. I refused to quit and let the contract fail, though, as I kept going, fighting against it. When I ran out of mana, the pain ramped up to unimaginable levels. It made it almost impossible to meditate, but my indomitable will made it at least possible.
I kept gaining mana, which was drained the second it entered my body. As I felt my organs start to shut down, the contract was finally fulfilled. I coughed up blood as Solomon's eyes fluttered and he fell over unconscious. Superman, who had been watching, asked. "What happened?" I wiped the blood that was leaking from my eyes and nose off my face as I gave him an answer.
"He's been starving for years. What do you do when you're fed a big Thanksgiving meal? He's sleeping peacefully for the first time in over a century." I felt like shit and was fading in and out of consciousness. Sleeping on my feet. I let them both know. "I'm… Gonna take a nap now. Don't let this big guy run around until I wake up." I barely made it to the bed before I collapsed.
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"I knew it!" I couldn't help but speak out loud that one of the fan theories I had about Ben Grimm from The Fantastic Four was true. It didn't make sense that his power was the only one that couldn't be toggled on and off like the others. A quick mental check let me know that it was based on a mental limit he placed on himself. All I had to do to fix… I should probably tell him what I want first.
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I walked into another hospital room after having tracked down someone I needed to make sure they weren't part of the mind controller's plans. With a knock on the door, I walked in with a big smile. The miserable look on her face as her broken leg was raised turned to one of shock, then fear as she recognized me. I started the baffle just as she burst out into screaming.
"Hey now. None of that, I just want to check your head real quick to see if you know anything about the person I actually want to murder. You're fine, and I'll even heal your leg if I find anything of value."
Alice stopped screaming as I flooded her body with enough endorphins that it was like she was on morphine. I began by checking her memories and the mental compulsions set on her. It was truly sickening. I thought that the extra mental compulsions on Cassandra were bad, but it was clear that the longer the person worked with the mind controller, the more he would implement.
Many contradicting ones were causing immense stress on her already destroyed psyche to try and solve themselves. Most of his compulsions were for his own protection. She wouldn't be able to recognize him if he entered a room. If the man said certain code phrases, she would bark like a dog or act like a rabbit or… The darker ones didn't need to be mentioned. He even gave her the compulsion to lure potential super-powered people through… Well, it was best not to say.
As I unraveled them, I made sure to look through and see his face from the beginning. With this, I knew what he truly looked like before he gained many superpowers. I could only smile as my plans and a pattern of his methods came into my head. With this, I could start destroying his mini-empire one mind-controlled victim at a time.
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How did everything go wrong so fast? One day, he managed to mind-control most of the city's superhero and criminal organizations, and the next, all of his plans lay broken and scattered to the wind. The two main who he used to strengthen himself were killed, and that was the start of his downfall. He managed to have one of the men he had under mind control figure out who did it.
Another one of us, of the hundred, thwarted his plans, and he couldn't let that go unreciprocated. His original plan was to get one of the man's female companions to lure him to a different location to mind-control him next. Using the same methods he had used against many others, he thought everything would have gone smoothly, but the man saw through it in an instant.
Not only did the man break his mental compulsions on those two the man started to systematically tear down any he came in contact with from then on. As if a hound with the scent of blood, he was relentless. Out of stubborn pride, the mind controller refused to leave the city as it would have shown he lost… Now he had grown to regret not leaving the moment his other men were killed.
His networks were crippled, and in the few instances he saw the man working, he wasn't destroying them. No, he was taking over his criminal empire one brick at a time while freeing those under mental compulsions who then quickly turned against him. If he hadn't moved locations the same day he tried to mind-control the man, he'd have been found out.
He could only lie low for now until things blew over, and then he would ambush the man when he finally dropped his guard. No matter what powers he picked, he couldn't be good at everything. The mind controller only had so many powers because he had a team, unwittingly working nonstop to get him more powers.
He wasn't sure which sex slave he wanted to sample. He had grown fond of the heroes and villains under his control. The man felt that raping people you knew from comics was just a different level than other women. He loved trying to choke them to unconsciousness just as he orgasmed. The man loved making the heroes feel weak. He loved to do more evil things to the villains because, in his mind, it's what they deserved.
A sudden explosion as half of the wall of one of the buildings was ripped off, and three men entered. The main problem person he had been thinking of how to destroy was a giant undead zombie and an orange stone man. He tried to use his mental powers against the three, but they were useless against them. With a smirk, the man asked. "So, you're probably wondering how I found out about you. Ben, can you go and rescue the damsels in distress two floors down? I have to talk to him for about ten to fifteen minutes."
Solomon ran over, and the man tried to attack, but really just stood still as he let Solomon run up and bear hug him. The power he was using fizzled out as my containment plan came into play. I walked over and slowly took off his shoe as Solomon squeezed him in a bear hug. I could tell that he had been gifted mid-superhuman strength and was using powers to augment it up to high superhuman. Solomon's strength was at least a rank higher, and he had the bonus effect of not being affected by magic or mental compulsions. I felt my mental shield swat away attempt after attempt to enter as I grabbed his now bare foot.
He kicked and thrashed as he screamed and yelled curses at me, and I took a step back to avoid it before saying. "Solomon. Break his legs." One of Solomon's arms stopped bear-hugging him and reached down slowly, grabbing at his leg. A moment later, he pulled his hand back up and did the same with the other leg. Solomon was on Superman's level of strength. With a casual effort, he pulped the man's legs, and the only reason he didn't cry out in pain was most likely a power to reduce sensations or give him more willpower to not cry out.
Already, his leg was showing visible signs of recovery, but it wouldn't recover before ten minutes were up. "Now that I can hold on for the ten minutes without interruption, I'll tell you what's going to happen. I'm going to steal your powers first. That is going to happen, and there's nothing you can do about it. Then I'm going to heal your legs."
The look of surprise on his face would be quickly washed away with horror as I explained. "I don't want any of the damage done to you to be from anyone else. All the pain you'll feel from the moment you are stripped of your powers will come from me." He flailed around again, but with his legs broken, it was easy to hold his leg with no power behind it. I continued.
"After you're fully healed, I'll do the normal torture stuff. You know, the stuff you see in movies. Rip off your toe and fingernails, and maybe pour sand into your eyes. Just the basic stuff at first, you know." I had to calm myself down and control my breathing as I continued. "Then I'll smash your knees and elbows. They're some of the hardest bones to heal properly, and every time you feel a tweak of pain from moving a certain way, I want you to think of me!"
Once again, I had to calm myself down as I almost shouted the last part. "I need to make an example out of you so that's not all I'll do. I'll cut off your fingers a knuckle at a time, while leaving one index finger so you can kill yourself when you get sick of the pain. I'll cut your face and leave you horribly scarred. Finally, I'll slice your Achilles tendons, making it so you can't walk properly."
The fear in his eyes slowly grew, and his body continuously fought for its freedom on some self-preservation instinct. I continued. "You don't need all your organs either. I'll take your kidney and a lung to help pay for your mistakes. Normally, I'd smash your teeth, maybe cut your tongue out, but I want you screaming my name in frustration. I want everyone in earshot to know what I did to you so they know I'm not someone to be trifled with."
I started to dig into his leg with my fingernails, so I let up on my grip so I didn't need to heal that as well. I calmly asked him. "Do you know why I'm doing all this instead of just killing you? Why would I leave a potential threat alive when I have you dead to rights? Because I know how useless you'll be without your powers. It serves my purpose better if you're left alive than dead in a ditch. Anyone who comes at me will be given a swift and easy death, but if they come at me through people I'm close with… They'll wish they were dead."
He bit his lips until the point of they bled as I continued. "In just five more minutes, you'll have all your powers stripped from you, and we can begin the fun." We sat in silence with only the sounds of grunts coming from the man whose name I didn't even know. To break the tension, I asked. "So you see that big clash with the Justice League and the Light? Crazy stuff makes you really see how tiny we are, doesn't it?" We sat in silence for a few minutes before I remembered. "Oh! I also got to cut off your dick since you came for my women."
He started begging for his life after that.
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I wiped the blood off my hands as I finished doing clumsy surgery. If I couldn't keep him alive with biomatter control, he'd have died five times over. I wonder how coherent he still is since I didn't put him to sleep to do the surgery. I let out a sigh of both exhaustion and contentment as the black market dealer I contacted carted away the organs I harvested.
I looked over the changes that gained his powers again and could only let out a soft smile at how everything turned out. I had to make many deals with people to get everything set up to easily find him, but it was worth it in the end. My new analysis power allowed me to give a rough estimate of a person's ability. Knowing exactly what I could do let me see my stats perfectly.
Mid superhuman strength
Mid superhuman dexterity
Mid superhuman endurance
Low superhuman intelligence
Peak human charm
Growth
Power siphon+
Perfect mental defenses
Self biomatter control
Diagnostic touch
Energy storage
Telekinesis
MSH(Mid superhuman) regeneration
Increased magical affinity/knowledge
Plant control
Dual cultivation
Earth control (Sand limitation)
Extreme muscle expansion
Indomitable will
Mind control
Flight +1
Item box
Power bestowal
LSH (Low superhuman) senses
Weapon storage
Camouflage
Mind reading
Psychic battle form
Mental communications network
Pyrokinesis
Physical enhancement boost
Environmental adaptability
The statistical increases weren't so important, and I didn't remember what they were before I checked, but the powers I showed were what I had before absorbing the man. Besides the repeats in all the psychic skills, I looked at what I got from siphoning him.
Analyze
Fire control
Earth control (sand limitation removed)
Wind control
Force field
Mental compulsion
Mental recall
Hyper cognition
Psychic shock
Psychic dead zone
Psionic blast
Psionic reinforcement
Aura of rending blades
Soul strike
Bound weapon
Dream walk
Mind link
Bind familiar
Energy shield
Electric generation
Tremor sense
Blind sight
Battle focus
Accelerated perception
Accelerated body
Speed burst
Electrokinesis
Strength reduction touch
Magnetoreception
Bioluminescence generation
Moonlight absorption
Gravity control
…Good lord, that's a lot of powers. Now, why didn't he use any of them, someone might ask? It's because he was inexperienced and sat there trying to mentally control us while Solomon ran up and gave him a bear hug. Solomon happened to have a dampening field around him with a similar effect to the dampening collar I had taken from Sandman. It leaves your strength and mental powers alone, but turns off the uses of other powers.
Director Carter sent me out with the prototype version of it when I told her my plans to capture a superhuman. The big problem with the field is that it didn't stop psychic attacks or weaken the person, so I could only come with people who couldn't be mentally controlled. I'll have to give the old lady a box of Cuban cigars so she can act like the previous director of SHIELD did.
Fucking over Fury and having him pushed to just the leader of the AVENGERS initiative of SHIELD while Carter was remade director wasn't my end goal but it was still a huge slap in his face that it happened to him. It also meant I didn't have to deal with that jackass anymore, and his budget was cut down to less than ten percent.
I made a few calls, the first being the bodyguards I placed on Nat, Cass, and Steph. They'd still be paid their millions even though I found the psychic in less than a week. Slade, Deadshot, and Bullseye were expensive, but having a sniper overwatch to make sure they weren't targeted was necessary in my opinion.
Another half a dozen calls to let people hired to find the psychic and calls to my girlfriends to let them know the man was found finally had me breathe out a sigh of relief. The man I left behind was not only crippled physically, but I also read through his memories and found he had no plans for revenge after I started torturing him. He was a defanged snake that would slither away if he was given his freedom… He'll still rot in a cell for his life for what he did, though.
I took a deep breath as I thought of my future plans. This man pushed them forward faster than I was really comfortable with, but he needed to go before he could go underground. The mental band I put on myself slowly started to unfurl now that he was caught. I made my last call to SHIELD for his capture and walked to the nearest restaurant to get a celebratory meal.