Heroes: The Road of Good Intentions

[Hotfoot]

Hotfoot's shield flared into place. The mention of ten thousand dollars took him a bit aback, he wasn't sure what she meant by that. After all, he was just registering himself, wasn't he? It wasn't like that meant that he was part of Ultima...he still wasn't sure he wanted to join this madhouse, especially given his experiences over the last twenty four hours. Regardless, until he signed anything, he was fine. He waited for Argent to teleport him to the apartment, keeping the shield strong enough to prevent anyone from getting a solid look at him when he came out of Argent's teleport.

---0---

The place was a mess, idly he wondered how much of the blame belonged to Saibot and how much was Argent. On further inspection, it was clear that the mess was more from violence than general clutter. He shrugged and started looking around the apartment, trying to find the box Argent was talking about, figuring he could find it faster than it would take her to tell him. He was off with a blur, looking through the apartment.

[LadyTevar]

She should have known he'd take off like that, before she could tell him which room. With a sigh, she waited for him to do his own little search. Amusing he'd taken off to the bedroom first.

There was no bed in the bedroom ... just more broken, crushed furniture and a large hole where the window should have been, as if something had been thrown out with force.

The bathroom was not much better, the floor covered in water where the sink, toilet, and bathtub had all been smashed as if by a sledgehammer. Someone had turned off the water at some point, but the water was mixed with the contents of shampoo bottles, aftershave, and other toiletries. Whomever had trashed the place was thorough: nothing had been left untouched.

Except for the door that Argent moved to stand in front of, looking at it with trepidation. "If you're through, Hotfoot... this is the room."

--0--

Officer James Hardy hated being stuck on watch, especially when it was just a trashed up apartment that looked like a hurricane had gone through. But something in there had to have impressed the detectives, since they'd locked it up tight, covered it with police tape, and set his lonely ass outside the door to make sure no one got in. What a great job ... sitting on his butt and going out of his mind in boredom.

Wait... was that... a voice?

[Hotfoot]

"Man, talk about a wrecking crew. This place looks like it told Legacies it just wanted to be friends." He was already on his way to the room Argent was looking at when she suggested it, rushing inside to find the box, unaware of the police officer outside. He saw the box easily enough and reached out to it. The reaction it had with his shield was strange to say the least. As usual, he lowered the shield enough to avoid burning it as he reached over to pick it up, but as the shield passed over the box, a strange tingling sensation passed over him and his shield went from a bright orange to a bluish-white. "Whoa...weird stuff." The shield quickly returned to normal shortly after the strange sensation passed, leaving the young metahuman looking at the box curiously.

He shook his head and looked away from the box, looking around the rest of the room. Numerous pictures of people that looked like Saibot when he had gone insane. Something about them felt like he should know something about them, but nothing was coming to mind, save one thought, Man I hope that none of them come looking for him, because they're going to be pissed. The rest of the trophies were especially weird, bits of twister metal, things that looked like deformed animal parts, and a medallion encrusted with what looked like bits of clay. He knew some supers kept momentos of their fights, but this seemed a little over the top.

There was another box, and Hotfoot shrugged. Two was better than one, after all. He reached to pick up the second box, and yet again he felt a strange sensation wash over him, this time it felt like he was watching his own body move in slow motion, even his eyes didn't respond as quickly as they should have as he glanced up and down his own form. After what felt like several agonizing seconds, the sensation was gone. He keyed his transmitter and blinked. "Um, okay, got boxes. Shall we get a move on?"

[LadyTevar]

Argent was still outside the room, hands over her eyes from the sudden white flash she'd seen as soon as Hotfoot picked up the Box. "that...... wasn't supposed to happen..." she muttered, trying to blink away after-images. "What was the flash just now, Hotfoot?"


--0--
Officer Hardy listened closely at the door to the apartment. Yes... that was a voice, a woman's voice. What was a woman doing inside? He keyed his mike, identified himself in a low voice and gave the situation. "I'm hearing voices inside, opening the door to investigate."

The doorhandle jiggled as Officer Hardy inserted the key to unlock the door.

[Dark Silver]

The black hats and mirrorshade outfitted men walked up the stairs of the old building, in their hands were clutched black briefcases.

Reaching the floor of their target, they noticed the police guard and the tape. "We've one local law enforcement, the domicile has been secured. He hasn't noticed us yet."

His partner nodded, reached into his coat, and pulled out a badge as he moved to the Officer. "I am Agent Jay, this is Agent Kay. You are releived officer, this is now Government business."

The voices coming from inside the barricaded apartment caused the two to look at each other, though their faces remained emotionless. The one thought passed between them without one word 'Ultima'.

"Stand aside officer," Kay said as Jay kicked the door in, pulling from his own coat what looked to be a standard issue 9mm with a strange batterylike attachment on the side of the barrel. "Freeze, Department of Defense, Sector Seven. Drop any weapons, power down and come out with your hands up."

[Hotfoot]

"Well that's simple, the magicles interfaced with the energtrons of my flameocytic sheath, resulting in the nullification of the anti-glowmotron barrier. Or, in layman's terms, I have no idea, but I'm not dead, so I guess it's not that bad. Picking up the second box was weirder, it felt like I was in slow motion for a moment. Anyway, I have the big ticket items, if you wanna grab the rest, feel free."

[LadyTevar]

The door crashed open, preventing what Argent was going to say next. If there was one thing that Argent had learned in her long and checkered career is that if the Police are coming in, they're usually not expecting a fast teleport. It was so ingrained into her that as soon as the door was kicked, she was already elongating into dragon-form, snaking herself more by feel around Hotfoot's body, hissing as she did so from the closeness of the Box.

Then they were gone as she automatically dove into the nearest shadow, hitting the shelf that held various action figures and knocking them in the floor. One figure hit the floor and the glue that had painstakingly repaired it over so many years shattered, the piece of foil that had stood in for the missing saber crumbling and skidding across the floor as just another piece of trash. Just another broken hero ....

--0--

The dragon fountained out of the floor of the gym, landing awkwardly, shaking her head to escape both the after-images of the flash that hindered her vision, and a weird shakiness that hit her as soon as she grabbed Hotfoot.

Hotfoot himself reappeared about a foot off the floor as Argent misjudged the distance.

[Hotfoot]

Hotfoot's eyes went wide as the teleport left him without anything under his feet, for a moment, he flailed, not enjoying the thought of ending up splattered somewhere due to a really bad teleport. Superspeed was nice, but flight it was not. By the time he realized how far up he was, he was already halfway down, giving him some time to calm down and right himself. His shield dropped as he hit the ground, leaving him with little but a racing heartbeat. "Well, that was interesting. I guess we drop these off at the lab or something?"

[LadyTevar]

"Just tell me I brought us back to the gym," Argent griped, resuming her human form. She knelt on the floor, rubbing her eyes and blinking, still seeing nothing but a large splotch from the flash of Hotfoot's aura meeting the Box's magic. "Did you get a look at whomever busted in the door? They didn't sound like police."

[Dark Silver]

The Mirrorshades looked at each other, before the one who identified himself as Agent Jay moved quickly to the trophy room, as Argent teleported herself and Hotfoot out.

"They took the Box. And the duplicate placed by the last team."

"I'll inform our superiors. Go pull the hard drives and storage devices from the computers. Then get ready to torch the place."

Jay and Kay moved off, each going to do what they were ordered.

[Hotfoot]

"Yeah, looks like, and those guys definately weren't the boys in blue. Black suits, crazy guns, something about some department sector or something. To be honest, I was worried for a moment that those guys from the meeting somehow followed us there. Anyway, where do I plop these?" He hefts the two boxes and shrugs, still not completely aware of what they were and their true function.

[LadyTevar]

"These?" Argent asked, looking blindly over in his direction. The afterimage was starting to fade, but still had the world tinged bright orange so she couldn't make out details. "What do you mean, 'these'... what did you grab besides the Box?"

[Dark Silver]

"Officer," Agent Kay called out, as he stepped into the living room, "Could you come in please"

Officer Hardy was about to radio in the arrival of the two government agents, when he was called. He walked into the apartment, just intime to see Agent Jay move out the front door, and back to the stairs. "Yes agent?" Hardy asked, he figure it'd be a good idea to co-operate.

"Did you report our arrival yet?"

"No sir, I was just about to radi...."

Hardy's body slumped to the ground, a smoking hole through his forehead where the energy bolt had entered.

"Good."

Kay moved from the body, and began setting the themo-charges, keying up his radio. "Jay, you have seven minutes - get the data dump and set the thermo's. No evidence."

[Hotfoot]

"Another box. They were on sale, and I figured why have one if you could have two for the same price. I think the first one would look great on the mantle, and the second would go great in the crahppieh." For a moment, he was tempted to juggle the two boxes, just to show off, but he fought the urge.

[LadyTevar]

Argent's eyes squinted, trying to see the boxes in his hands. "Two of them? Just alike?" she asked in confusion. "But... there should have just been the ...." she trailed off, then her eyes went wide and she hit the radio.

"Gravitas? If Saibot's still in the room with you, Ask him why there are TWO ring boxes."

[SirNitram]

Gravitas sighed and opened his eyes. The earbud was unignorable. His mind came down from watching the complex tapestry of reality, and back into the room. "Hey. Hey, Garth. There were two recharge boxs. That normal?"

[Dark Silver]

Garth opened his eyes, then tilted his head up off the pillow to look at Gravitas, "Two boxes? There should only have been one....who was touching stuff in my apartment?"

[SirNitram]

"Your hot girlfriend." Gravitas replied simply. "There should have only been one, Argent. This doesn't smell like Ultima, though. Gaia, another group to throw into the mix..."

With exceptional care, from among the personal effects brought into the infirmary to keep him from going mad, his laptop floated into the bed and he opened it, gently flexing his fingers.

[Dark Silver]

"Seriously doubt she's my girlfriend anymore Phil... why are they in my trophy room anyway? they better not be removing anything..."

[Hotfoot]

"Well, they weren't perfectly identical. This one made me a flashbulb, and the other turned me into slow motion." He hefted each box in turn, shrugging a bit Gravitas came through on his headset. "Anyway, it's not like we're keeping these, right? Why not let the experts figure it out?"

[LadyTevar]

Argent hoped that the 'hot girlfriend' comment hadn't gone to all the team. "He stabbed me, remember," she snarled, anger making her voice harsh. "Tell Saibot there were two agents in black suits that broke the door down while we were inside. Someone's very interested in him. Oh... and his furniture was all destroyed, ripped and crushed and trashed."

That was petty and she knew it.

She also knew, as soon as Hotfoot spoke, that any Mirage team member on the frequency had heard every word Gravitas had said.

[SirNitram]

"Two guys, black suits, and they trashed the place... That's just awesome. That's just great, honestly. Look, I'm gonna see what I can do to delay them from getting any more of the stuff." Gravitas sighed, shaking his head. "I know he stabbed you, Argent, allow me to be a little less than deadly serious while I have to type with these fingers..."

The laptop bounced into a wireless network that hadn't been secured properly, rebounded a few times to throw off tracking, and finally made the ascent to space. "Looks like your old enemies, friends, or possibly a mixture of both are moving in, Garth. Gonna throw some mud in their path for while I can."

The signal had to be bounced expertly to actually get to the far side of Luna. But once there, the old authorizations were revoked, and any attempt to use them began spitting back increasingly archaic, technobabble-filled error messages. Gravitas was particularly proud of 'Ionic activity preventing sensor lock. Standby...' which never actually left standby. It'd do for now.

[Dark Silver]

"Hard to say which, I've made a lot of enemies in my day...and not very many friends. Phil, the moonbase, the security codes are on the USB key, they'll give you full access to the systems, consider it on loan incase something happens to me."

---- o ----

"Data Dump complete. Thermo-charges set and remote triggers activated. I'll meet you on the landing."

The two Black Hats and Mirror Shades left the respective apartments, and met on the landing two levels down - the ground floor. They exited the building as they entered it, stepped into a unmarked black car, and drove off.

Two minutes later, the thermo-charges exploded, what was left of Saibot's apartment went up in a explosive fireball which blew out the windows, ejecting fireballs and sharpnel into the streets. The gas lines in the building proceeded to feed the flames, which traveled down their lengths, and exploded into the other apartments.

Within a minute, Garth's old building had gone up in an inferno.

[SirNitram]

"I won't be a homeless bum on the slopes of Mount Marilyn anymore! I am so moving up in the moon..." Gravitas grinned.. And the grin was shattered as his screen flashed. It had apparently picked up the live news.

Millenium City, once New York City, was no real stranger to explosions. But they tended to show up anyway. It meant crowds. There was no information yet, just a view of an apartment building in Little Italy in flames.

"....Guys? A building in Little Italy appears to have just exploded." He spoke over the comm.

[LadyTevar]

Argent's head jerked up, eyes huge. "wha... what?" she gasped, then it started sinking in. "they... they wouldn't... there's children...... Ms. Gibbs... Mr. Timms...."

Six stories, 4 flats to each story, and probably 10-15 people who had no job to take them out for the day: mothers with toddlers, elderly people who lived there for years.

Shock was a normal reaction, unless you're an empath. Then it starts spreading insidiously, like a cold fog wrapping out around her, laced with the horror of knowing people you knew are more than likely dead. All for what? To hide Garth's trophies?!

Shock became rage. "Garth! Who were you working for you sunnavabitch?!" she shouted, forgetting that Saibot no longer had an earbud to hear. "Who Did This?!"