Heroes: Shadows over Millenium

[Charon]

Legacies had left the building after the speech and for three days after, he was gone. No agents could spot him, he made no contact with anyone, the silver figure wasn't even seen in the skyline, zipping across to rescue someone, despite his not being seen it did not mean that the after effects of his dealing with criminals were not still seen. But it seemed that Legacies had truly disappeared from the public eye.

Legacies sat in the back of an alley, his suit taking on the form of old ratty clothes the meta relaxed, happy to be able to reveal his face to some people, the other dregs of society. He didn't have to live like this, he had the money to rent himself a rather large apartment, but he kept to the streets to humble himself, and to occasionally surprise one of his bum friends with a crisp hundred when they woke up. He sat back and thought. How we have changed. How we will continue to change. There was a constant shoving match over what personality would be in control, the emotionless symbiote, or the human mind, it was sort of like multiple personality disorder, one mind, with two personalities. The mortal mind had a bit of an edge now. It was time to check on Saibot. The bum slowly got up, it was dark now, getting really late. Good thing he didn't have to sleep much anymore. A few moments later Legacies disappeared, swinging silently and invisibly through the skyline eventually he came to a stop outside of Garth's residence.

He reappeared, the silver figure slid down to hang upside-down outside of Saibot's window, simply watching as the two lay in bed, there were movements, they were still awake, he could even see their lips moving in concord. Legacies waited, considering Argent, it wouldn't be long for her to notice that an extra emotion, or lack of emotion where a mind was, was hanging outside the window.

[LadyTevar]

It did not take long for Argent to sense trouble outside the window.

"Garth, don't go to sleep yet... we've got company." Lei said softly, just loud enough that Garth alone should hear her. She herself stretched her empathy out, trying to 'taste' who was there and why. "I'm not sure... but I think its' Legacies..."

Either way, she was reaching down to make sure she was decently covered by the bedsheet. Hopefully Garth would also think of grabbing something before he rolled out of bed.

[Dark Silver]

At Lei's urging, Garth glanced under half closed eye towards the window. Indeed, there was someone out there, and while the fact that he lived there wasn't much of a secret, the number of people who would have the balls to come up to his window in the middle of the night was few.

He slide his hand behind his head, beneath the pillow as Lei fixed the quilt to make sure she was covered. He lifted his head, placed a kiss on her nose, and slipped out of bed, the curve of the dagger-form Saber nestled against his forearm, the tip at his elbow.

He strode out of the bed, naked as the day he was born, and walked to the window, and looked out. The moonlight glistened off of him, framing his frame, the few scars showing faintly in the silver light.

Of course he was greeted by the rictus grin of Legacies. Garth's eyes narrowed for a moment, before he smiled.

"Sorry Sir," he half-teased, "Drive thru's closed, please come through the lobby."

It was a joke, a late night team up years ago between them which involved a fastfood drive-thru in a blue solid energy car. Back before he was like he was.

[Charon]

The slim mouth smiled in response. Being around Saibot lent his mortal personality strength.

"But we came all this way and had to make a car ma'am." That had been their response those years ago. If memory served one of the workers had then pulled out their camera and taken a picture of the duo, the picture still hung on a wall in that place.

The figure dropped from his upside down state, hanging on his left arm as he dangled at eye-level with Saibot.

"We are not interrupting are we? We can return later, we simply wished to speak with you." The eyes flickered back and watched Argent for a moment before scanning the rest of the room behind Saibot.

[Dark Silver]

Saibot chuckled, shaking his head, "No...come in through the lobby, I'll unlock the door."

Garth grinned, as he turned toward the bed, not waiting for Legacies response, and stood infront of Lei.

"Get dressed beautiful, company is here," he said before leaning down to kiss her gently, then moved to grab a pair of jogging pants to put on.

[LadyTevar]

Lei clutched the bedspread closer around her body, not knowing how to react to Garth calmly standing in front of the window stark naked, talking to Legacies.

A wave of her free hand, and a shadow peeled away from the floor to wrap itself around Garth's lower half like a towel, granting at least a little decency. "I can leave, if you two would like to talk privately..."

[Dark Silver]

He shook his head, his hand smoothing that black hair lightly, "Don't be silly, This is your home now, as much as mines....besides...whatever needs to be said to me, can be said infront of you."

He said it so gently, before he slipped on a shirt, and moved out to open the frontdoor for his friend. It wasn't often Legacies, or Mark as it where, came to one of his apartments.

But he was glad his friend showed up.

[Charon]

Legacies slipped onto the balcony silently, the suit remained over his face as he looked into the room. Getting the feeling that Argent didn't like the idea of someone else being in the room and possibly looking at her while she was changing he turned his head. It wouldn't really help considering how he saw now, but it was the thought that counted.

[LadyTevar]

"I hope he thinks so as well..." she muttered softly as she made sure Legacies was no longer at the window before rising and throwing on the nearest available clothing.

Which turned out to be a part of her biker shorts and one of Garth's shirts, which nearly fell to her knees. Well, if Legacies wanted her to be better dressed, he could show up earlier in the evening.

Of course, this lead to the thought of 'how long had he been out there watching'. She hoped not long at all.

[Charon]

Legacies made his way to the front door. Cautious of attracting attention the suit shifted into a nice looking attire, there was the small problem of his scruffy beard and rather dirty appearance was a bit of an oddity, but it was unlikely he'd run into anyone.

Getting to the door Legacies shifted back to the silver figure as the door openned. "Thank you Saibot." The figure stepped into the room and looked around. "Your place looks different. We assume Argent has changed a few of your unsavory habits."

[Dark Silver]

Garth smirked as he closed the door behind Legacies, and walked to grab a couple of beers.

Walking back into the living room, he handed one to the silver skinned symbiote, "Of course..Lei has a knack with decorating....she should be out in a minute..."

He settled himself in a recliner and leaned back, watching his friend, "I'm sorry about the other day...at Ultima......I know you didn't have anything to do with those nanites.."

[LadyTevar]

In fact, Lei was just coming out as Garth admitted that. "I believe I told you that then.." she simply said. Noting that they both had beers, she started for the kitchen herself. "Do you want anything to eat while I'm in here, Garth? Legacies?"

She still did not know his name, nor would she use it until he considered her worthy of that friendship.

[Charon]

Legacies leaned against a wall and looked up. "We understand your outburst. But you still should have known that I would not have been involved in something of that nature." Legacies did not speak for Blackheart. Though he trusted the man to a point, the fact remained that the way he had gotten Saibot and himself into this mess had not exactly been something that would negate his possibly being involved at a first glance.

Legacies looked around the room again. Seeing Argent enter Legacies turned back to Saibot. "So what do you think of Blackheart's offer?" Glancing over to Argent Legacies spoke up. "No, we're fine. Don't eat often recently."

[Dark Silver]

Garth nodded, sitting back in the chair, and took a sip of the beer, "I'm fine Lei..."

He looked back to Legacies, "I know you wouldn't...I was pissed...those things were tearing me apart, and for Lei.......it had to be even worse...she would have been feeling my pain, and her own...."

He looked square on the silver coated being, "I wasn't thinking straight..."

He set the beer bottle on the coffee table, and rubbed his eyes.

"As for blackheart's offer...Ultima tried to kill me, kill Lei....even after we worked with them. What do you think I feel about thier offer? They can go fuck themselves."

[LadyTevar]

Lei came back out with a soda. Alcohol and Empathy do not mix well at all. "Blackheart did not know about them. When he picked me up, I felt that. He was as ready to kill Tarot as you." She walked over to the couch, since no one else was sitting there, sitting down, leaning against the arm, and curling her legs underneath her.

"On the roof before the mission, I spoke to Blackheart privately." Finally she had the chance to tell them both at once. "He thinks that Tarot is deliberately sabatoging missions. He also believes that Tarot wants him dead ... and thinks its' because of something Tarot's foreseen happening."

[Charon]

Legacies slowly nodded. "We think as kindly of their offer as well. You know We hate working with the government after what we've seen. But the fact remains that there are big things happening, and if we are to do something about it we need to work with them. Just come on for a mission like us. That way, once it's done you can bolt. We'll never deal with them again."

Legacies looked over at Argent. "It would make sense. The man is likely insane considering what he sees."

[LadyTevar]

"He is insane. His mind is closed, there is nothing there but thoughts of himself. Even the Astronomer was thinking of something outside himself... something bigger than himself." Lei stated flatly, barely suppressing a shiver.

"The last thing Tarot told me before I was taken to the conference room was 'don't try to run, it will only be messy'." Her black, irisless eyes locked on Legacies' faceless mask. "I had no plans to run, but Tarot didn't see that. He saw me running... and I think that's why he put the nanites inside Garth and I... So that if I ran, we both died."

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart walked through his hi-rise apartment humming softly to himself. He had a stack of DVDs by his entertainment center by the bucket's worth of chicken wings. He really should get into the habit of cooking more, but he never fucking had the time. He pulled a cider out the fridge and stretched out on the couch.

He had gotten too used to being alone, he decided as the credits of the first movie rolled and he sucked the flesh off a honey-garlic wing. It wasn't just that super tumour gave some people a vibe that most people uncomfortable around him, although that didn't help. His schedule was an inconsistant, emergency ridden hell guarrantee to tank any relationship that managed to grow. Sport sex and one night stands had been much more attractive a few years back than now. It was pleasant, more than pleasant, but empty. He didn't need any help feeling hollow.

He took a swig of a cider and leaned back. Tarot was up to something. He wasn't sure quite how to deal with it. Most problems he faced were solved by killing things, either earlier when he had been black ops or now that he was Ultima. Tarot didn't put on a costum and rob banks or back extremist religious movements. This problem required different skills.

What did Tarot see when he looked at him? He had never said anything about the black heart? Could he see where it would lead or was that blocked to him? Did he see possible futures where the space wasp hatched or he degenerated into a monster or one where he flash fried Tarot?

Too many fucking questions. He headed back to the fridge for another cider.

[Dark Silver]

Garth shrugged, grabbing his beer, and finishing it off in one long chug.

The empty can was replaced on the coffee table, and starred wordlessly for a moment, before looking to Lei, then to Legacies.

"It's funny....I said I had enough of being the hero....how do we know Tarot isn't the cause of all this shit?"

He said it calmly, without any anger, only as a observation, noted in his particular way. He distrusted Tarot, all of them did, so that wasn't news to them.

"And if it is....how do we take out someone who can see every future and undoubtedly has some intricate plan to put us out of his misery?"

[Charon]

Legacies listened to both. "Maybe he's seeing the wrong most probable path. That would be why he installed the nanites. If he is the cause of all this. It's still possible to deal with him. When he met Gravitas, he said that in a number of the futures where they fought right there, Gravitas won. So if he is planning for us to attack him. We need to play the part of not. Get him confused enough and he may not know which path to follow."

[LadyTevar]

Lei nodded, agreeing with them. "And if Tarot has foreseen Gravitas being a threat to him, we'd do well to get him on our side."

Amusingly, a shadow snagged the empty beer can from the coffee table, removing it to the trashcan, all without Lei seeming to notice. Nor did she seem to notice the second beer can that replaced the empty one.

"What of Blackheart?" she asked as the shadows moved around. "He would have the most information on Tarot's weaknesses and strengths, and trusts him no further than we do."

[Rukia]

Cam was forced to keep herself amused by watching T.V. It had been a few days and she hadn't seen hide nor hair of the Blackheart guy that the nurse had mentioned. And fortunately she hadn't been poked or prodded like the lady had said, least not too bad. She had found out that whlie she was out she 'attacked' the MRI machine and scattered some tech's across the room. Cam had tried to tell them that she had never done that before but they didn't believe her. They ran some tests and were waiting on the results. Meanwhile, she was enjoying the three meals, and cable t.v. She hadn't had that since... well before she could remember.

The nice lady nurse came back that night. She had been Camie's only visitor since she had woke up, not that Cam was suprized, just a little lonely.

"How are you dear? They haven't bothered you too much have they?" She sat next to Cam's bed, then pulled out a plate of cookies. "Now you have to keep this quiet, I'm not supposed to bring the patients outside food, but I know how bad the food here can be." She smiled.

Cam took a cookie, "Mum's the word. I get it. Your secret's safe." The two talked occasionally interruped by Suzan's commitment to do her job. When she came back for the last time before her shift was over Cam told her that she hadn't seen Blackheart.

"I think I know who you're talking about though. He was the one who was leading the group that came to the Astronomer's place right? It's a bit hazy but I think I remember."

Suzan nodded, "That's him. I haven't gotten a chance to being myself to bother him on his time off. But I'll give him a call today before I leave. I figure if he gets to you before Tarot does, you'll be better off." With that she left Cam by herself again. She watched a bit more t.v and finshed off the last cookie before going to bed.
====
The nurse hoped that she wouldn't wake Agent Blackheart up with her phone call. She had put it off for too long as it was. The girl was lucky she hadn't encountered Tarot yet. Least Blackheart would prepare her for the worst, or send her on her way before she even had to meet him. She pulled his file up and dialed the contact number.

[Dark Silver]

Garth looked to Lei, then to Legacies, they seemed to already have thier minds set on it. If they were going to take down Tarot, which Garth had already decided he was going to do, he would need the resources of something like Ultima.

He eyed the new can of beer before him, and shook his head. Of course he would have to get used to living with a woman who controlled the shadows and set him afire with passion.

He smiled to Lei, took the beer, and popped it open, taking a quick drink.

"If any of you know how to get in touch with Mr Media Darling....let me know. We could use him though, especially if Tarot is afraid of him....."

[LadyTevar]

"He has been making several public appearances," Lei pointed out. "We could simply approach him there."

She felt more than saw Garth's smile at her before he picked up his new beer. For some reason, just doing that for him made her feel happy. Of course, if he wanted more than two beers this time of night he could get the next one himself... she thought as she sipped her soda. No need to go overboard on the drinking.

[Cynical Cat]

There was knock at Blast's door. He opened it see Blackheart with a twelve pack under his arm. "You up for a talk?"