Heroes: Endings and Beginnings

[Agent Fisher]

Mike wandered back to the security room, watching the monitors. He flipped on his comm. "Inferno, this is Gordon, all exits are covered and nothing is moving on the cameras. Want to me to anything or should I just sit here on my hands?" He asked, getting a bit antsy at nothing to do.

[Charon]

"Probably a survivor. Hopefully not one of the potentially dangerous ones."

Inferno turned on his comm. "Keep our survivors company, Gordon. See if you can learn anything more from them about what exactly was going on and what happened."

[LadyTevar]

There was the one man who wasn't screaming and running. We still don't know where he is.
Heidi's mouth twisted as she recalled that. "Jerri reminded me of the one man in the video playback not freaking out. We don't see him anywhere else on the tapes."

[Charon]

Inferno looked over to Gemini. "Yeah, I remember. But I include him on the list of potentially dangerous survivors."

Nothing of this situation was particularly good, and the fact that he was actually hoping that all of those bums had died rather than having to live with that pain meant quite a bit.

"Legion and Alpha know what they're doing."

[LadyTevar]

"Doesn't that fall under 'Famous Last Words'?" Heidi asked facetiously.

[B4UTRUST]

NeXT's data raid began to prove fruitful as he transfered the data to off-site storage for further analysis and review. Many of the systems that indicated failures were revealed to be crashed disk drives that had significant portions of their disk become unreadable, most likely due to a read/write head impacting the platters, and would require an intensive data recovery operation preformed against them.

However, what he was able to copy was a rather full list of drug tests, trials, research and development logs, forums, records, lab results, etc on things ranging from pain killers called 'Visonopain' to a new line of anti-depressants known simply as 'Happy Tymes.' Judging by attached documents, the drug would take the shape of a small yellow round pill with a smiley face stamped in red across the front of it. Side effects included nausea, dizziness, mild to severe headaches, fatigue, drowsiness, mild joint pain, irritiability, death and bouts of severe depression. The FDA was currently going through approval for the drug.

And amongst these gems of medical maliciousness was something more. A documented created on the system that was a complete chemical breakdown and full lab workout of a new drug identified under project name 'Alter.' The summeries and the log files by the few perseonel assigned to the project described the drug as a breakthrough and nothing short of revolutionary in terms of potential. It was designed to unlock any metahuman potential within a grown and mature human being, allowing them access to any powers they may have naturally had, had things gone slightly differnt.

Amongst the notes and logs were a few more personal notations, some concerning the legitimacy of this project and the origins of the research material, as one person noted 'this doesn't match any of our gene folding techniques at all...' What some of the more detailed data meant would require someone with a background in genetics to properly understand and appreciate.

---------------

The floor shoot as Alpha's metal feet struck with every step. The sobbing grew louder as Legion and it progressed further back. Reaching one of the lab rooms, the sobbing grew quicker in pace almost as if the person was going to hyperventilate. But with the sound of a multi-ton death machine coming towards you, you could be forgiven for being a bit paniced.

The pair reached a point where Alpha could no longer progress forward without significant structural adjustment to surrounding walls, however his many lights penetrated the darkness within, allowing both to see the contents of the room.

The lab room was a disaster, equipment and miscelanious office paraphanelia littered the ground. Chairs and desks were over turned and broken. And in the back corner a single solitary figure huddled in on itself, eyes wide in shock and unseeing fear. One of the overturned tables was in front of the figure, shielding it. It clutched at its hair, pulling on it, though not hard enough to yank it out. It was rocking slightly back and forth. It appeared to be male and his clothes were torn to shreds, giving little indication to what he had been wearing. He was breathing rapidly, despretely in between the sobbing. When the two appeared in the doorway he began to let out a low keening wail.

[General Havoc]

Alpha considered what he was looking at for a moment, his scanners pulsing silently as they took in the surroundings of the room. The human at the far side seemed extremely disturbed at present, though Alpha had not the cynical wit to determine that he was stating the patently obvious. He could not, at this distance, ascertain the subject's physical condition, nor determine whether or not he was the catalyst for these horrific (in the clinical sense) events.

"Citizen," said the enormous robot. "This is Ultima unit XC-001 Alpha. We are here to contain this disturbance. You are requested to raise your hands and approach this unit. Failure to do so will be interpreted as a request for immediate extraction and medical assistance."

Whatever this person was, Alpha was not about to simply shoot him, even if he completely ignored the instructions. To do so would violate protocol.

[SirNitram]

"Heidi, gonna need your better half to get any further in this info.. But it looks like along with drugs that'll treat your headache by killing you dead, there's stuff about unlocking metahuman potential in humans. It's not my speciality, so I'm moving the info to a server homeside."

[General Havoc]

A sub-microwave radio broadcast to the others was short and to the point.

"Unit has encountered one life form, human or metahuman, unresponsive to verbal commands. Unidentified human may be injured, is expressing signs of severe emotional disturbance. Building structural integrity will not support unit retrieval of subject for medical assistance. Requesting instructions."

[LadyTevar]

Gemini looked to Inferno after both AIs checked in. "Jackpot."

"Do you want me to get upstairs and try to sweet-talk our 'life-form'?" Heidi continued. "Someone cute and female might get a better reaction than either Alpha or Legion."
You just don't want to turn the body over to me and get sent back to HQ.

"Jerri also said that while she could help out, there's other techs at HQ who could also get the info on the drugs."
........... You little bitch!

[Dark Silver]

Legion listened, approaching the sound of the crying. When the Meta and the Robot located the emotionally disturbed, crying person, Legion reflexively made sure his personal force field was surrounding himself.

"Belay that," Legion said over the comms, "Let me try to approach him. While the room is to small for Alpha, it is perfect for me."

Legion took a step forward, bringing him in front of the Killbot, "Alpha, reduce to minimal lighting, take a few steps back, but keep a beam on me. I'm going to approach. Use of restrictive force is authorized should the subject attempt something."

Of course, those words were spoken just loud enough that Alpha's sensitive mics would pick it up, and only he could hear it.

With that, Legion stepped forward, being careful of his steps, keeping his sharp eyes always on the look out. 'Beware the Witch..she'll turn on you and shred you apart...' he recalled the description from a old video game he played a few times, about one of the enemies.

"It's ok, I'm Agent Legion, Bureau of Meta-Human Affairs. There's no need to be alarmed, I'm here to help." Another cautious footstep, and soon he was within arm's length of the huddling hobo.

"Come with me, Everything will be alright..."

[Charon]

Inferno looked over at Heidi and smirked. "Sorry, but Legion is the one with experience with this sort of thing. We're just the hammers."

[LadyTevar]

It was never a long trip for Heidi to reach the gutter. "So what would you like to be hammering right now, Inferno?" Heidi asked with a wide grin. Jerri was sputtering incoherantly inside their shared mind, which only made the joke even better.

[Charon]

Either Inferno missed the joke completely or he ignored it. "The heads of whatever sick sons of bitches were doing this."

For a moment, flames began to sputter around Inferno's body, before they died out as Inferno got control of himself again.

[B4UTRUST]

The figure continued rocking and sobbing, though the wail subsided as he looked up towards Legion. Towards was really the only way to describe it, except perhaps through him. The look in his eyes was a vacant one, one that said whatever he saw wasn't what the other two were seeing. Nor was it something they probably wanted to see, judging by how this one was acting.

His voice was soft, barely above a whisper.
"Make them stop... Make them stop... Make them stop... Make them stop... Make them stop... make them stop make them stop makethemstopmakethemstopmakethemstopmakethemstopmakethemstopmakethemstopmakethemstopmakethemstopmakethemstopmakethemstop..."

He went on like this, as both noticed little trickles of blood leaking from his ears and his eyes.

[Dark Silver]

The man was talking, softly at first, the words coming louder and quicker as he got closer. When the man looked "at" him, Legion say the blood, and realization dawned on him.

He'd seen this before, a few times in his past.

Run away mental powers.

The man wasn't used to them, he didn't know how to use them, and they were driving him insane.

"It'll be ok, we'll make them stop.." Legion said, the glove of his contact suit retracting on it's own, the individual "threads" of the material seeming to peel backwards and retract into the sleeve.

Legion was next to the man, his hand reaching for exposed flesh, "Sleep now..." Legion said, as he touched the hobo's cheek, and he felt the tingling rush travel up his arm - his the corona of his eyes swirling for a moment, as he absorbed the man's power and memories.

[LadyTevar]

Either Inferno missed the joke completely or he ignored it. "The heads of whatever sick sons of bitches were doing this."

For a moment, flames began to sputter around Inferno's body, before they died out as Inferno got control of himself again.

At least someone's got his mind on work Jerri said as Heidi took a cautious step back
"You're right," Heidi said, whether to Jerri or Inferno was unclear. "NeXT, have you grabbed everything in here?"

[B4UTRUST]

As Legion touched the bum, the bum's eyes glazed over slightly and he lost conciousness. The bum slumped to the ground, his breathing turning from frantic gasping to the soft sounds of slumber.

The transference of power left two things clear in Legions mind. The first was that his head was not going to explode like an over-ripe melon. He had too much prior experiance, training and personal willpower to be so consumed by what he absorbed. The second was that, assuming he survived this experiance otherwise unscathed, unscared and undamaged, he was going to have one hell of a collosal migraine later.

A moment later he got a sneak peek into the bum's mind-rending Hell.

All around him spectral figures appeared, moving, talking, interacting with a lab that was just as spectral. A full motion picture of people who weren't there, couldn't be there, but appeared as real as Alpha standing near the doorway. He stumbled under the initial mental onslaught as he tried to clamp down on the power before it ran away.

As soon as he did, his brush with the overturned lab table next to him triggered another mental onslaught as he had the intimiate knowledge slammed into his frontal lobe of every last hand to ever touch its wood, every experiment preformed on it, every piece of lab equipment set upon it, every naked body during bouts of after-work sex had on it. Everything this wood had seen, felt, heard, a jumble of feelings and emotions pouring in faster than his brain could figure out. A second later the voices kicked in, drowning out the visions that were still pouring in and the spectral movies dancing before him. The voices that were loudest were those of his other teammates and the security. He heard the soft demure voice of Jerri and the louder mental voice of Heidi, though Inferno was strangely dull and an undicpherable whisper in comparison. Alpha's was a blank, though he did catch something of NeXT's mind as it shifted through the data he was transfering.

Behind him, pieces of equipment still on the shelves began to shake and the window to the lab began to vibrate by an unseen force. Legion gasped for his next breath as he began to experiance the vast depths of the ocean that was this power that was coursing through him and he no longer had any wonder how such an untrained, untried and inexperianced mind such as the poor man before him had broken. Every bit of his training, his experiance, his will, was required just to seperate himself, his sense of self, from the sensory overload that was overwhelming him. It was enormous, impossible, the feeling of barely staying afloat in a cat-five huricane.

But he managed, barely, to hang on. He wasn't going to be consumed wholely by this, but it would be close. He might gain more control once the inital onslaught subsided some, but for the moment, he would be to busy trying not to tear himself, the lab and everything around him apart.

[SirNitram]

"Everything but the physical backups. Data recovery can handle those in cleanup. I'm good for disconnect, left Little Brother in the system just in case."

Little Brother was a tiny program designed to act as a troublemaker in a system if certain people logged in. He had assigned it to ruin the day of any corporates or lawyers before the recovery teams got into the guts.

[General Havoc]

Something was wrong.

Legion's pulse suddenly elevated, his breathing became erratic, his involuntary muscle movements increased sharply in both quantity, duration, and intensity. Situational analysis would tend to indicate that metahuman powers were being employed, and all of these symptoms were consistent with that analysis, but Alpha was not a pocket calculator. He was an Artificial Intelligence, one of the most advanced ever deployed, designed not to simply take facts and regurgitate canned responses, but to apply evidential and experiential "shine" on those facts, quantified digitally of course, but through non-linear heuristic algorithms. He was not simply supposed to address facts. He was supposed to draw his own conclusions from them.

And right now, he was drawing the conclusion that something was wrong here. Not because the pulse rate he was detecting had exceeded a discrete threshold nor because he was programmed to worry once the subject's muscle twitches exceeded 1.9 instances per second, but because the combination of data on evidence indicated in a nebulous, non-proven way, that something was wrong.

The programatical skill on display from Omnicorp engineers now long-dead or incarcerated, the sheer engineering, the years of painstaking effort by teams of computer scientists, neuroscientists, and mathematicians, none of it could truly be appreciated without a thorough grounding in the subject. It was not possible for anyone who was not an expert in AI technologies to understand just how incredible, how difficult, how miraculous it was that the programmers from Omnicorp had, after years of research by the best minds in their fields, building off the shoulders of giants from before, managed to create a robot that was actually capable of doing what Alpha did just then.

"Agent Legion," said Alpha, "Are you experiencing difficulties? Do you require assistance?"

[Dark Silver]

Legion felt the power of the hobo flow into him, at first invigorating him, energizing him.

Then the meta-human powers of the hobo struck him. It was only through years of contact and use of various psychic abilities that Legion didn't go insane or destroyed the entire building in the opening seconds.

It took minutes to keep his mind ordered and strong, and the entire time, his body showed signs of extreme exhaustion, as if he was running a fifty mile marathon.....and still going.

"Alpha..." he said, even as the images flowed through his mind, and he saw the glimpses into the surrounding people in the building, then the block....

"I'm....fine..." he said, through gritted teeth, slowly, he was bringing the powers under his control, but it was taking every bit of energy while he attempted to seperate the powers away - to make them managable.

"Call to get some help up here....full evidence team....and medical....make sure they are carrying Power Negator collars....and to put them on the suspect..."

Slowly, shakily, Legion was getting back to his feet. "And tell them to be...very......very...quiet... I think I have a migraine..."

That was when he discovered, unintentionally, a new portion of the power, when he broadcasted out a very base emotion, as his mind brushed up against Heidi's...

[LadyTevar]

The sudden pressure against Heidi's mind caused her to nearly fall over (again).
Heidi? Someone just hit us with some... ... Heidi?

Heidi sank down in the computer chair, eyes closing as the chair tilted back. Her hands rose to her head, running slowly, sensually through her short wavy hair. She breathed out, almost a purr, her body arching against the seat.
... crap. Empathic attack. Jerri caught a glimpse of their watch as Heidi moved; the reversal would not be anywhere soon enough. HEIDI! This isnt' real, it's a mental attack! Got it? We're under attack! This was the first time they'd been attacked like this, and Jerri was unsure if she could stop Heidi from acting on the emotion.
If you touch him, I swear I will ...

"You'll what, Jerri...." Heidi drawled in a bedroom voice, her head turning slowly and looking over to Inferno. Look was a misnomer. The phrase 'undress with eyes' was closer.

[Charon]

Inferno did feel anything that was happening. He was, himself, only aware on the basest of senses that there were barriers and locks around his mind. Heidi collapsed into the computer chair and he didn't spare her a glance, figuring that it was just the impetuous meta sitting down while she was forced to wait.

The purr got Inferno's attention and he sighed, figuring that Heidi was once again playing games with him in an attempt to seduce him, he pointedly was looking the other way, keeping an eye on the servers and examining them.

When Heidi started undressing Inferno with her eyes, Inferno finally looked over at Heidi, one eyebrow raised in confusion. "Is something wrong Agent Gemini?"

[LadyTevar]

Of all the times for him not to be paying attention to her...
Amusingly, that was a joint thought for Gemini, abet for different reasons.

"No-es..." was the answer, as Jerri tried to push over top of Heidi's voice. The sudden frown on Heidi's face made it clear something was going wrong. She tried to answer again, with Jerri's override attempt slurring her words. "Shu-ouble ... Troubl-Erri! Stop th-RUN!"

[Charon]

Inferno was looking more and more confused as Gemini started speaking in half words, but by the time she got to run, Inferno figured that some sort of mental attack had occurred and now he was in danger.

The meta turned and ran for the door, slamming it closed behind him as he got on the radio again. "This is Inferno, Gemini is under mental assault. I need assistance in detaining her."