Heroes: The Road of Good Intentions

[B4UTRUST]

"Gravitas, how sure are you that this future is going to happen? We're not your version of this world. You keep talking like it's an inevitabilty. And while I agree that some of the recent news looks somewhat grim, I'm not convinced we're going down the road to hell that you seem to think we are."

[Dark Silver]

The armor sealed itself with another low snakelike hiss, as the pressure equalized with the outside. His mind was already interfaced with the armor, his brain one with the systems, as the optics came online, and he took in the others.

"Alright, sounds fair enough...show me what you got."

Warpath crossed his arms over his chest, "Though I should warn you, forming a empathic link with me may be a bit weird...you'll see why when you do it."

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart smiled grimly. What Gravitas meant was that he knew how to handle him, had ripped the mission off track last time and gotten away with it. Ended up paying no price for it at all. Of course he would prefer a man he knew how to manipulate to an unknown factor. "If you know how to convince Super Tumor not to eat my brain, go ahead and do it. Otherwise your desire to keep me around is as meaningless as my desire to live."

He paused for a moment, considering whether or not to say something and then decided against it. "We have our alliance of convenience. For now. My replacement and your questionable grasp of long term consequences will determine what happens after I'm gone."

[SirNitram]

"Long term consequences are what I am working to prevent, Blackheart. I merely understand that short term consequences with only one effected person.. Myself, within my mortal lifetime.. Are inconsequental if I can still acheive my objective." Gravitas shrugged slowly. "As for your little friend... Not my area. The fire could burn it out, but without the ability to regenerate, you'd be in danger of dying before the procedure was done."

Bowman received Gravitas full attention. "Crosstime parallels. Ultima and it's potential compromisation is one. Tarot is another. The increasing calls for registration and containment. The treatment of those whose power comes with mutations. If I could isolate Michael Donighal or his version in this timeline, I would feel better... Keeping a firebrand like him from emerging would mitigate the effects."

[LadyTevar]

"It's not that deep," Argent assured him. She promised herself to NEVER let any link get as deep as it had with Saibot ever again. Her draconic eyes looked around at the team. "Since I've been showing off.. mind if I continue?"

She didn't really wait for an answer, pushing her front legs off the ground and continuing upwards like an udulating eel, swimming through the air easily. Her elongated body looped upon itself, the very image of classic Chinese dragon-designs, and then vanished into a shadow near the ceiling.

Only to reappear fountaining up from the floor again, looping once in midair to dive back into another shadow, like a dolphin breaching playfully from the sea.

She dove again into a shadow, and did not reappear.

[B4UTRUST]

Bowman blinked and glanced at Gravitas.
"Who? Forgive my ignorance but that name doesn't ring any bells to me. Any info you can toss my way?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Lungs, heart, arteries, spine," said Blackheart. He shrugged. "Now my brainstem. All compromised beyond the possibility of function, except the latter, with the tumor gone. It was too late when I was fourteen. Far too late now. And your vision is flawed, your point of view far too pro-metahuman. If you were able to look beyond your biases you would realize who essential it was that metahumans take a hard stand against Freak Legion. The baselines must have really fucked things up in your home time line to leave you with a blindspot that big."

[Dark Silver]

"Teleportation through shadows, nice....combined with empathy, which is what your file says. Not bad at all."

Warpath watched the dragon's aerial acrobatics then waited for Argent to reappear.

[Hotfoot]

Hotfoot's giggles died down slowly, but by the time he was done, Argent had already disappeared into the shadows. The shield slid over him and he started looking around the room, deciding to experiment with Argent's shadowmancy. He walks around the room, a speedy zipping from place to place by anyone else's perception. He started looking for the silver eyes, and when he did, it was time to play a game...

[SirNitram]

"Michael was an individual who shared a key genetic mutation with myself in my home timeline. He was an adult in the nineteen twenties; whether his powers matured in this timeline or not is an unknown. I couldn't find any of his aliases with my resources. Firebrand pro-Meta." Gravitas smiles absently. "He founded what was called the Teragen. Their existance basically shit on the UN's declaration that my species of Meta was basically human. He proclaimed us Gods incarnate; that as such, we are not human, and thus laws made for humans cannot bind us. We are nations unto ourselves. I will admit, I borrowed from his philosophy of Teras and made my own advancements and research, but I never endorsed the violence he did. Somewhere in the forties he decided it was time to forge a new path for his brand of Metahuman."

"As for the baselines fucking it up.. Maybe. They formed a large agency to deal with crisises as only we could, but it turned out to be compromised and almost entirely subverted by those who wanted to contain us. Routine sterilization of all Metahumans. Metahumans used as cannon fodder on a global scale for wars, to thin the ranks."

"Perhaps I view it too pro-Meta. But on the other hand, Ultima has someone pulling strings, someone murdered one of yours, and you have nearly a century of hate for those who aren't human building up. Will they just ignore Genocide? Amberjohn? Atlas? The attacks that destroyed New York City? It'll only take one man acting rashly to set in motion an escalating situation where lines are first drawn between organizationally-backed Metas and those who are not. When the situation grows worse and worse, it will become human against Meta.. And you guys have all the nuclear weapons."

[LadyTevar]

Argent wasn't as concerned with Hotfoot zipping around. He would find her easily if he was looking for her silver eyes, half-slitted in amusement at her next trick.

Because Warpath had been so focused on her flight, he'd not noticed the shadows at the feet of his own mecha. Shadows that suddenly rose up like the petals of a great, dark flower and slammed shut around him.

[Cynical Cat]

"I'm quite aware," said Blackheart. "That you can't see why a metahuman rights activist cannot have mainstream credibility while hindering the arrest of flagrantly criminal metas is rather surprising. Your world slid into hell. Genocide and Black Arion did their best to push it there and I personally don't think there was coincidence involved in that. Until we can come up with a better solution we have to prevent the pot from boiling over.

"For that to work we not only have to be the public's shield against renegade metas we have to seen to be the public's shield. Your stunt with Freak Legion dragged us closer to that pit by undermining both the perception and the reality. If you weren't so damned strong and I didn't need you, we would be done. But I don't have the luxury of cutting off my nose to spite my face. Raising Caine is potentially much, much worse so I'm stuck with you. That's it."

[Hotfoot]

Hotfoot found the eyes and grinned, tapping his hand on the shadow holding them, careful to keep his plasma field to managable heat levels. "Tag, you're it!" He transmitted the message over his specially crafted radio before he zipped off again. It would be interesting to see what Argent was going to do next...

[SirNitram]

"Ah yes, the media frenzy that will soon emerge..." Gravitas actually smiled. "I will require seventy two hours, a good scapegoat group, and someone camera-friendly from Ultima's front line teams. I will not pretend what I am about to embark on is atonement; that it would somehow wipe my slate clean. But it will prove that I can offer more than just supernatural power. In return I will need to know how far I can trust Ultima itself in upholding it's goals. But I can fix our little PR problem here."

[Dark Silver]

The shadows closed up around Warpath, and he didn't move, didn't panic. She was showing off, just as much as the speedster kid was showing off.

Fair enough, let them show off their powers. He waited, safe inside his sealed armor.

[Cynical Cat]

"Not my department, thank the merciless gods," said Blackheart. "Anything else you want me for?"

[LadyTevar]

Argent laughed, and it came from all the shadows, especially those around Warpath. "Hotfoot's wanting to play tag, it seems. He found the shadow I was hiding in." The silver eyes appeared on the shadowed bulk covering Warpath. "Anyone else want to play tag with him?"

[Dark Silver]

"considering my current position, and the speed he was moving when I last saw him...no thanks" came the reply.

[B4UTRUST]

"I don't think our world will suffer the same fate as yours. For one thing the metahumans of this world aren't nearly the fearsome powerhouses that yours possessed. We're not gods, nor do we claim such. We're mortals, fallable and human.

"Here, humans and metahumans work side by side without fear or worry. We work towards a common good. We don't neuter metas or send them out to die in the stead of humans. You need better evidence."

----------

Kyosuke watched from door to the men's locker room at the showboating of this team. Reaching into his pocket he pulled a handful of sand from a container of it at his room. He crouched down and let the sand stream from his hand into two seperate, almost complete circles. The remainder he poured into two piles, one in each of the near circles. He spread out the tiny mounds, tracing symbols into them. Casually he put one of his index fingers into his mouth and bit down on the tip, drawing blood. With his other hand he brushed the circles closed. Using his thumb to push out drops of blood he let a single drop fall onto the sand of each circle, activating the ritual spells.

The spells flared to life, visable to all with the right vision to see power. Two circles of binding surrounded WARpath and Argent, holding them from moving.

[SirNitram]

"I thought that way when I first began down this path, Bowman. But I will still make the PR adjustments. If I damaged Ultima, I will repair it." He bowed his head slightly. "I will leave you now. I need some more hospital time." Space folded, and Gravitas was gone.

[LadyTevar]

'What the... !!!" Argent shouted, true fright in her voice as she forcibally returned to human, falling to the ground at Warpath's feet. Her head jerked, seeing the walls that had appeared around her, feeling the weight of the wards that held her in place. "Get me out of here!" she shouted, reaching out to her teammates with mind and hand.

To those without mystic vision, the only saw her jerk her reaching hand back as -something- just in front of her face seemed to shock her. Of her Empathy, nothing was felt at all.

[Cynical Cat]

"Save the hand job for someone who will believe that bullshit," Blackheart sneered. "Ultima is as defective as all hell and my whole team is walking on eggshells because of the stunts like the Bobs, Tarot, and the little bit of theft of Legacies' tissue. It's affecting team performance and will kill the agency. Hell, I might outlive it at this rate."

[Dark Silver]

Warpath didn't see anything, either with normal optics, or any of the sensors included in the suit - yet he couldn't move.

"And this would be.....who exactly" he asked, trying to see who it would be in his limited view, now that Argent wasn't covering him in shadows.

[LadyTevar]

"Hotfoot! Unknown attacker, Mystic!" Argent snapped out. "Someone call Blackheart down here!"

There were times when her experience working in tandem with Ember, or with a larger group of thieves came out. When you had to give your partners what information you had, and trust that they could do the rest themselves.

Buddha, as you stand before the Jade Emperor, if you've ever heard my prayers before, -please- let this team work together once again!

[B4UTRUST]

Kyosuke exited from the locker room doorway. He reached into the interior of his shirt and pulled free his bokken. He stepped into view of Argent and WARpath.
"Such trust in the technological is the path to hubris. Consorting with demons is the path to damnation. One should be weary of both. I am Shingure Kyosuke."