Heroes: Eve of Destiny

[LadyTevar]

Legacies caught the dagger, the power seeped into his frame once again. This was good. "You get better." He looked up at Argent. "Shadow lady. Get ready with the escape making."

A wave of annoyance crossed over into Saibot as Argent muttered "Does he honestly think I can move all of you right now? And where would I take you ... Liberty's crown? What's left of Grand Central?" The shared pain was making her testy, struggling to control and contain it was pressing her limits after such an emotional day ... was it only an hour ago?

[Dark Silver]

The annoyance filled him, mingling still with the pain he felt.

"Tell Blackheart..." he whispered to her, still between his teeth, the words hissing out as he did so. They were close....it was to late to let it all get fucked over by people getting testy.

[LadyTevar]

The annoyance filled him, mingling still with the pain he felt.

"Tell Blackheart..." he whispered to her, still between his teeth, the words hissing out as he did so. They were close....it was to late to let it all get fucked over by people getting testy.

She tried to absorb more of the pain, trying to stuff it down into the little box in the back of her mind ... the same box she'd had to empty twice in one hour, something that had never happened to her before.

"Blackheart..." she muttered, then spoke again more loudly. "Blackheart. He needs ..." she faltered as the pain made even her wince. "... medical aid. I need ... to vent it out." A target, she needed a target. Something that could feel emotions. Something that could survive a sudden blast of concentrated pain. "Something... alive. Feeling."

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart tapped his com. "Medical team on the double." He turned to Argent. "If you need someone to take pain, I can take it."

[LadyTevar]

Blackheart tapped his com. "Medical team on the double." He turned to Argent. "If you need someone to take pain, I can take it."

She did not ask if he was sure. She simply took one hand off Saibot's shoulder and reached out to take Blackheart's hand. As soon as contact was made, Argent became a conduit, pouring the pain from Saibot's internal injuries and exhaustion straight into Blackheart .. and unconsciouly adding what was escaping from her own over-full box as well.

Broken ribs, half-healed lung, the loss of a best friend; all mixed in a tight concentrated ball of physical and mental pain shot at synoptic speeds into Blackheart's system.

[Dark Silver]

When Argent touched Blackheart, and transferred to him the pain and exhaustion, things became clearer. Yes, he could focus again, but not enough to matter, just enough to be able to get out of the way when needed.

It never dawned on him that Legacies may not be able to use the sword's energy arrows, but he was certain the Symbiote could do it.

"Argent, focus...on Abaddon when he is in sight. " he said, as he started regaining full breath, "If we can distract him...Legacies and the gravity manipulator can get to work.

[Cynical Cat]

Fire seeemed to flow through Blackheart. He was no stranger to pain. Cobalt had shattered his bones, others had torn his flesh and spilled is blood. He had been sliced, burned, and electrocuted. Pain was no stranger.

Still, he was staggered. The black heart in his chest felt it through the tendrils that extended into his spine. It sent its own messages, soothing its host's pain.

Blackheart took a deep breath and shuddered.

[LadyTevar]

"Argent, focus...on Abaddon when he is in sight. " he said, as he started regaining full breath, "If we can distract him...Legacies and the gravity manipulator can get to work.

Argent was busy on her own, trying to seperate her own emotions from Saibot's pain and block feedback from Blackheart. She was also running out of strength, having pressed her powers far more than normal. "I don't know ... if that will work." she replied, strain showing in her voice. "His power may block me... I'd have to touch him to be sure..."

Empathy always was stronger with physical contact, Argent had learned this a long time ago. What she'd been wanting to try, however, was a trick she'd heard about from a news story about (of all things) a platypus. In breeding season, the male platypus has envemoned claws. When struck by the poison, the normal bodily reaction was for all the pain sensors in that area to ramp up to 11 with no 'off' switch. The pain could last for months. She'd not yet had the chance to see if she could do that....

Bad sign, her mind wandering. The conduit was getting shaky and she had to stop and concentrate again.

[Charon]

Legacies looked back at the others. Saibot was down, the shadow woman was not looking very steady, and Blackheart looked like he'd just gotten the wind knocked out of him. So much for the powerhouse backup. Legacies focused on the kid, Blast. "Hey, Blast. Get ready to hit him with everything you've got when I tell you alright? As soon as this guy is in view we need to hit him with everything we can all at once." Now if the kid didn't get an itchy trigger finger they might be able to take Abaddon down.

The symbiote ran circles in Mark's mind, trying to deduce how the knife fired the arrows, that would help more than could be imagined right now. He knew all the maneuvers, but there must be something else, it couldn't be that easy. His luck just wasn't that good today.

[frigidmagi]

"Right" Blast replied and began scanning the rubble. Internally he began to gather up energy. He must have done something wrong last time for him to be able to drop a building afterwards. No matter, he'd hit him hard enough this time.

[B4UTRUST]

He smiled as he watched Avatar scream, pain wracking the meta's body. His smile never faltered as he spoke.
"Now now my dear, betrayal does not suit you. Perhaps if you would care to come out of hiding and have a seat I can find you something useful to do so these thoughts of yours don't get out of hand..."

There was little choice in this matter. He pulled his hands out of Avatar's body and used his voiding power. Cam reappeared firmly in the room. All the thoughts she could have picked up were closed to her and she was firmly trapped in her mind. He had canceled her powers out totally.

He picked back up his scapel and resumed his work, blood now welling up out of his incisions as Avatar struggled to regain control.

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

Abaddon heard them in the stairwell seconds before they vanished. So they escaped. He smirked. He glanced up and cleared a space around him. With a final smash with his makeshift club the building came apart. Debris rained down upon him and buried him alive. Tons of steel and stone lay on top of him. He no longer cared. He was beyond the simple pains of such minor inconvienances. He waited, collecting himself before he would begin to dig his way out. He would do it, of that he had no doubt.

But the trouble of that was saved for him. The rubble shifted and rose in the air, moving a significant portion of the rubble from him. Light filtered through cracks and crevices leaked down to him, letting him know that he was close. He tensed then exploded upwards, the lowered gravity aiding his movement. He broke through the debris, sending a rain of concrete and rebar into the air.

He stood. He saw the assembled heroes once more. He smiled.

The entity that was Abaddon before was gone. The average height man with expensive tastes in clothes was no longer. In his place was this monstrosity, the proof of his power. At over nine foot tall Abaddon stood in all his glory. His alabaster skin caught the light and gave it an internal glow. Gaunt and stretched thin he appeared as a looming corpse from hell, his bones and long decayed organs visable inside his withered husk. His eyes reflected nothing, everything sinking into the endless night that existed therein. Runes and symbols of dark arcane rights were carved all over his body, bleeding, oozing. From inside of his body, though his mouth never stopped its smile, came the screams of the damned. His lips, dried and rotted black, parted as he whispered. His voice carried across the field.
"Oblivion awaits..."

[SirNitram]

"Christ, you're a walking cliche." Gravitas said simply. He let go.

There was no style to it, no panache, no flare. He just let go of all the rubble, and let it embrace gravity's call, right onto the monstrosity. It might not kill him, but it would certainly inhibit any attacks.

"That'll buy us.. Oh.. Thirty, forty seconds." He commented dryly.

[Dark Silver]

When the rubble lifted upwards, Saibot looked at the being which stood before them, in all it's awesome, fear inspiring power.

He thought he had seen the most vile of things back in his stint with the Guardian Force, this outshined it all.

And as nonchalent as can be expected, Gravitas acted. As the dust and rubble coughed up from from fallen wreckage, Saibot looked to Argent, "Think you can...get us out of here beautiful?"

[LadyTevar]

Through the link, Blackheart and Saibot both felt a surge of fear/panic/"ohshit" erupt from Argent as she stared at Abaddon. ".... demon.... (burst of fearful chinese) .. he's a demon ...." Still unconsciously emitting the burst of fear, her eyes turn to Blackheart. "We run. We have to run."

She let go of Blackheart and Saibot, breaking the conduit so she could gather her power. "We Have to GO..." she shouted to the rest of the team as she gathered her power. Six people... where to go? Far away as she can and still be in the city.

[Cynical Cat]

Rage flooded Blackheart's body. "Fuck that." Already the rubble was shifting out of the way. He had a solution for that.The agent took a step that transformed into a flying leap, full force at Abaddon. He raised his fist to deliver a devestating blow. He should get there a few moments after Abaddon emerged.

[Charon]

Mark looked at monstrosity. Well that was much worse, but then again, Legacies wasn't worried in the slightest, that was comforting. As the figure disappeared under the rubble Legacies spared a glance at Gravitas. "How long do you think you can keep that up? Or at least keep him stationary once he is in the open again?"

Legacies looked back at Argent as she began to freak out. God damnit not now. He had to keep the nutcase occupied. "Shadow, get Saibot out of here and keep him safe you hear me?" Legacies could feel a doubt beginning to gnaw at him. He could see both Blackheart and Saibot were beginning to feel it too. It could spread to everyone else, especially if their leader broke. "Get out of here with Saibot! Now!"

[frigidmagi]

"Damn it Blackheart you're blocking the shot!" Blast yelled, as he saw the agent take off heading directly at the... demon that had just been incased in the rubble.

Blast began to manuever trying to get an open and clean shot at the guy. He likey only get the one after all.

[SirNitram]

"I'd suggest you all follow the nice lady's advice." Gravitas replied, still concentrating. "Sure I can hold down. Holding down is easy. But it's quite possible I'll die horrifically, and you all should really be elsewhere then. Start running, and don't look back for anything. If it gets ugly, do like you lapdogs always do and nuke the bastard." That last comment was out of left field, as he focused his attention on the pile of debris and ramped up the gravity.

"If I survive this, I am gonna need a week next to a particle accelerator to recharge.."

[LadyTevar]

Legacies looked back at Argent as she began to freak out. God damnit not now. He had to keep the nutcase occupied. "Shadow, get Saibot out of here and keep him safe you hear me?" Legacies could feel a doubt beginning to gnaw at him. He could see both Blackheart and Saibot were beginning to feel it too. It could spread to everyone else, especially if their leader broke. "Get out of here with Saibot! Now!"

Blackheart was attacking. The rest of the team was staying to fight. She was being ordered to take Saibot and leave by the person Saibot himself said he trusted. One person was far easier to teleport. The choice was easy for Argent as she took her dragonform. "Just live to give him back the sword..." she told Legacies as her wings gathered Saibot to her. "... its magic is your best weapon..."

She dove into the closest shadow, carrying Saibot away to safety ... which is an interesting concept when a meta has been surviving as a thief. She didn't go to hospitals, they held too much emotional background noise, and often just as many cops. When wounded, she and Ember had her own hideyhole...

Every major coast city seemed to have a ChinaTown, and every Chinatown has a place where you mind your own business and do not ask questions. In a small studio apartment in one of those areas, the shadowdragon reappeared, the wings laying Saibot carefully down on the bed.

Ember had liked having safehouses in major cities, places where Argent could teleport them anytime of the day thanks to boarded up windows, but it did not mean it was a flophouse. The women had a taste for good living, and Argent's room looked like it belonged UpTown, decorated with a delicate oriental touch.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Well, it seems I misjudged her... I will have to apologize later, avatar thought as he struggled to regain control of his bleeding and pain.

The incisions were nothing compared to what he just felt, which was more fear than physical pain. This son of a bitch had to die.

He shifted blood away from his extremities and concentrated it in vital systems again. It didnt take much, the value of having a variable four chambered heart. The bleeding slowed to a trickle.

[Shark Bait]

Demise spit a mouth full of blood into Seven’s optics, covering them in a red film. Seven attempted to blink to clear them but got an error message, the fragmenting grenade had apparently damaged several small motors in his face. The skin on his hands was completely obliterated, he couldn’t clear them that way. The frustration of not being able to clear his own damn eyes began to well up in the back of Seven’s mind, out of anger he swung back handed, at half speed, at his captive’s face. He felt his hand connect possibly to the mid jaw area, then hoping Demise was equally occupied seven rubbed his face on the remains of synthetic skin on his shoulders. The blood cleared away and Seven reached back with his right hand to grab his combat knife as he reached down and placed a hand on Demise’s chest to hold him in place, and finally looking back in his captive’s face…

[B4UTRUST]

Abaddon glanced up as the building again fell on him. He no longer cared. He no longer felt. The press of the building burying him again was insignificant next to the torture's he had endured. Gravity increased, pushing the buildings down harder on him, crushing the stone and steel against him, crushing him.

His anger spilled out, driving his rage. Where his power was once checked and controlled, finely manipulated, now it was a raging torrent instead of a steady trickle. What would have taken hundreds of years or more was accomplished in seconds. The concrete and stone eroded, weathered and crumbled to little more then small rocks and dust. The metal rusted and became brittle. He shifted the material away from him, fighting against the ramped up gravity trying to force him back down.

He looked forward to watch Blackheart fly towards him, trying to close to attack him. This was one of the ones that had tried to kill him. He waited. He didn't have to wait long.

Blackheart hit the gravity well and kept coming. He barely slowed down if he did at all as he came closer to Abaddon. The fist came back and launched forward towards Abaddon. A titantic haymaker designed to level him in a single blow.

Abaddon took the blow, stumbling slightly from the force behind it. But he did not fall. He righted himself. He looked at the smaller Meta. His arm snaked out and grabbed the impertinant one by his throat. He squeezed.

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

Demise's head rocked with the force of the blow. It had been pulled and restrained but it hurt none the less. It felt like his jaw had been dislocated and for all he knew it might have been. He turned his head back spat another mouthful of blood onto the torso of his attacker.

The guy had pulled a knife and tried to push Demise back down to pin him. As soon as the guy looked down Demise locked eyes.

He died. He lived his death again as he did every time he used his power. His body filled with the memory and he projected it into the mind of his attacker. Every second of pain, the feeling of the heart beating slower and slower until stopping, the lungs not drawing breath, the pain as the blood burned through dying veins, the mind piece by piece shutting down forever. Weakness, the inability to move, to breathe, to fight, to run. The pain and the knowledge of inevitability, the realization of the futile struggle of life. All this was felt and sent. All the anger, the hatred, the pain, the suffering. And in this release to another he felt relief...

[Cynical Cat]

Pain was something Blackheart could endure. Oxygen was something he could go without for several minutes. A cold and terrible rage suffused Blackheart's body, a desire to inflict total and merciless destruction. Abaddon held him out beyond arm's reach, but Blackheart had more than two limbs. He kicked Abaddon in the throat with enough force to shatter concrete.

[frigidmagi]

Shit. Fuck. Damn. A torrent of curses flooded through Blast's mind at the sight. There wasn't anyway to get around it and if he waited Blackheart could die. Fuck!

Blast sighted down the length of his arm, his mind feeling strangly empty, he had no idea what would happen if he threw this much power at the guy. He took a deep breath and let it all go.

There was a boom of diplace air and a roar of sound, energy blazed forth from him like a tidal wave. So bright it was as if a new sun had risen and it was under his command. Blast hurled it at the enemy and pushed into it, giving more and more...

[SirNitram]

Gravitas grunted, and forced every iota he had through his M-R Node. It was a horrific experience, the power burning through the enlarged gland and through his body at the fastest pace he could, and he knew prolonging it would warp his body and mind, but he did it anyways. His three-peice, a colony of living eufiber, warped and twisted under the strain, sensing it's symbiots strain.

Beside Blast, he abandoned pinning Abaddon and unleashed what he had been holding back. Without any civilians in the area, he focused the shape of the push and pull of the universe into a coherent shockwave. Around him, pavement tore and shattered, skyscrapers creaked.

Then, joining the new sun, came a shaft of darkness that swallowed anything that approached, hurtling towards Abaddon as Gravitas fought to contain his own power.