Heroes: The Road of Good Intentions

[Cynical Cat]

"Nothing under surveillance," said Blackheart. Was he the only one here who had heard of trade craft?

[SirNitram]

"Then there's just a room they keep nicely for me in Aussie land. Ever wanted to see a place where the spiders can kill grown men in one bite?" Mike tilted his head. "Yes, I see you rolling your eyes. Not a spy, okay? Never was. Never will be."

[Hotfoot]

Blast blinked as he started drinking up Tachyon's energy, not sure exactly what to make of the sensation. There was a hint of several different sensations through it, even the invigorating jolt of Hotfoot's plasma shield was discernable. He stopped just after Tachyon shut down his shield, looking apologetic. "Sorry, it has a mind of it's own sometimes."

<blink>

"Whoa! Shit!" Blast grabbed onto Tachyon's hand as tightly as he could once he saw where they were. "A little warning next time?!"

...Meanwhile...

Hotfoot looked at the newcomers and their reaction to Argent's transformation. "Whoa, okay Spartacus, chill out, she's still her, and she's not going to eat you unless you decide to use that thing. We don't need another fight here anyway."

...Meanwhile...

<blink>

"Shit, man, don't get me wrong, it's a nice way to get around, but damn that scared the shit out of me." He looked at the group and blinked. "Whoa, what's with these guys?" Shortly after he finished his sentence, the familiar darkness of Argent's teleportation whisked him away to the hotel room.

...Meanwhile...

As soon as Argent gave the command, Hotfoot started moving, stumbling into his super speed and depositing everything into a central area before collapsing onto the pile of clothes with his eyes closed. "Dun' mind me, jus' gunna sleep for a few years." He had a few suggestions for bolt holes, but he doubted his mother would be very happy about that.

[LadyTevar]

Shadows writhed and moved, grabbing a certain set of bags from the pile without disturbing Hotfoot too much, as well as the large metal first aid kit. When you partner with a fire elementalist, you quickly learn to have a -lot- of first aid, expecially for burns.

Bactine and other spray-canisters for mild burns. NuSkin and the old reliable BandAid brand for cuts. A roll of what looked like a thin sports bandage, that was actually able to harden into a light-weight temporary cast for immobilizing broken bones. Argent may not have many boltholes, but she did believe in stocking well for emergencies.

She eyed the two ancient warriors before reverting to human form. Hands were better than claws for this, although dragonscales hide blushes better when dealing with a mostly naked man hovering in midair. If he was floating any higher than a couple of inches, jokes could be made. As it was, she stuffed those thoughts to the back of her mind and concentrated on replacing Blackheart's jerry-rigged first aid with real bandages.

"I can offer East Coast, West Coast, and Hawaii," Argent stated bluntly, throwing out the options. Hotfoot, Gravitas, and Legacies knew the East Coast, while Blackheart would have a good idea. West Coast would be her retirement home, which she did -not- want to have anyone but trusted teammates visit.

Hawaii... now there's an idea... dangle the prisoner over hot lava to give him a taste of what's waiting for him when he dies, and then offer to tuck him between where his patrons would never find him....

Not nice thoughts, but it kept her mind off how badly Blackheart was hurt, and how little he was wearing. NuSkin over the cuts, various sprays over the burns (as if it would help something that serious, but the pain was spread over to the hapless Lenox), and in a stroke of odd genius, the cast-material wrapped carefully around Blackheart's burned lower legs for protection.

While her hands were busy, two shadows seemed to be having an argument over button down vs polo shirt.

[Cynical Cat]

"Any place you don't mind having compromised if we decide to let these guys go," said Blackheart. "And thanks Argent."

[LadyTevar]

"Any place you don't mind having compromised if we decide to let these guys go," said Blackheart. "And thanks Argent."

The shadow tendrils stopped fighting as Li Na simply smiled up at him. Why waste words when her empathy answered before words could form? The buttondown shirt was presented to him by a silent shadow, while the other dropped the polo and went for a loose-fit pair of slacks to compliment.

What the rest of the team felt about this, she deliberately blocked out.

[SirNitram]

"As I said. All my places are, to one degree or another, compromised. I can do without this one safe haven. If I need true privacy, I can still get away from everything here in ways very few can." 'Mike' shrugged. "Whenver everyone is ready. And please make sure you are all bandaged as needed. I try to pretend to be socially acceptable at times."

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost sat, picking up a stack of papers and began reading.

Half a hour later, he put down the papers rubbing his face. "I think Mindborn is right, there is a connection. With few exceptions, most of these attacks had a huge public image. The bank robbery, the attack on the park, the job that Freak Legion did. Reminds me of one of the good Tom Clancy books, someone was paying terrorist groups to launch attacks, to raise fear of terrorists. I think this is the same thing, only against meta's."

"As for it being connected to Cascade's murder, maybe his was a warning against new recruits from joining up. Less metas in Ultima, easier it would be to take it down."

[B4UTRUST]

Prophet tossed a stack of reports on the table and pushed his chair back with a sigh of disgust. He pulled out a silver case from his pocket and opened it, extracting one of the home rolled cigarettes from within and placing it between his lips.
"Fuck if I know. This entire thing gives me a headache to be honest. I need a fucking smoke."

Negator snorted humorlessly.
"Y'know, those things are gonna kill ya. Though I'm not sure if it's gonna be skin cancer or lung cancer in your case."
"Fuck it, live only once, enjoy it while you can."
"Spoken like a true defeatist."
"Whatever, you're right. Let's take a break. We need to examine the evidence anyhow. Meet down stairs at the evidence room in thirty?"
"Sounds good t'me."

The group started pushing their chairs back, groaning as the stretched stiff muscles.
"I'm voting we requisition massaging chairs at the next budget meeting."
"Fuck the chairs, I want an inhouse massage parlor."
"Yeah, but what chick would want to give you a happy ending, Bookworm?"
"Your mom didn't seem to have much of a problem with it last night, Deadhead."
"Oh you little bastard!"

Mindborn took off out of the room, laughing as Negator chased after him. Astral giggled.
"Well I guess that means we're breaking..."

[Charon]

Legacies stood and looked at the others as they began to move. "If we may remind you all, we have a prisoner to be taken care of." The blob surrounded by silver seemed to squeeze tighter.

"If you wish, we can go somewhere... secluded with him and extract information about Raising Caine."

[LadyTevar]

Argent was putting away the meidcal kit, but suddenly her head jerked up and over to look at the imprisoned Lenox. "What did you guys say?" she asked. "The prisoner's suddenly very determined to kill himself."

[Haizu]

Hotfoot looked at the newcomers and their reaction to Argent's transformation. "Whoa, okay Spartacus, chill out, she's still her, and she's not going to eat you unless you decide to use that thing. We don't need another fight here anyway."

With a look of utter disbelief on his face, Tholos turned and faced Hotfoot. "By the Gods! You are the most ignorant person I have ever met! Let me fix that. For starters, Spartacus was a Roman slave who fought in the arena. I am a Spartan warrior. Spartacus led a slave rebellion, he failed and was killed in the process. I have been in many major battles, including Thermopylae, and have killed both men and demons in the thousands. Don't ever mix me in with the likes of Spartacus ever again!"

"You really don't want to do that," said Blackheart. "Death ray glare beats spear."

Remembering the advice he had given to Tasat earlier that day, Tholos chuckled. "Yes I suppose you are right." Quickly sobering, he glanced down at the shadow lady. "I apologize for my initial reaction, you look like one of the ancient guardians of Delphi,..." he paused, searching for the right word. "Ladon. I guess that is the best translation for it."

Without further warning, Argent lunged, stretching in seemingly impossible ways to encircle the crowd and transport Mirage Team, the two Ancients, and the hapless Lenox Between...

Out of pure reflex, Tholos dropped into a defensive crouch, thinking that the shadow lady was lunging for him. All of a sudden he was enveloped by darkness. "What in the name of Erebus is this!?" He heard laughter and crying, as if someone were slowly sinking into hysteria. Above all of that he heard a thundering heart beat. All that he could see was the shadow woman's eyes, glowing silver in the darkness. In the space of three of those heartbeats, they dropped out of the darkness and into a room of some kind.

Looking around wildly for a moment, Tholos realized that everything was alright. Calming down he took stock of the situation. The silvery creature was still holding the one that they were calling Lenox and appeared to have taken no harm in the engagement. The one that Tasat had called Freeman Thick appeared to be a little worn, but otherwise in good condition. The fast one who had just returned with clothes and some kind of briefcase with a red cross on it, collapsed on top of the clothes, obviously tired out. The two energy beings were looking a little haggard, but looked fine. Really the only two that had sustained damage were the shadow woman and the burned man. Seeing that Shadow (he doesn't know here name so he's calling her that) had the man well under control, he took a step closer to see what had happened to her ears. Seeing the blood that had dried on the sides of her face, he could make a pretty good guess as to what had happened: the explosions had made her ears bleed and deafened her. Waiting until she was done with the man, Tholos approached her.

Getting her attention, he slowly spoke "M'lady, I can fix the damage.." he pointed to her ears "to your ears. Will you let me do so?"

[SirNitram]

"Normally I don't mind sending people who kill innocents off to their final judgement, but I figure this guy knows where he's going, and has friends." 'Mike' said absently, before looking to the Spartan.

"She's a dragon from far to the east of Persia. Don't worry, she's on our side. So no spearing her. It'd be counterproductive to you two making us beleive we should work together."

[LadyTevar]

Seeing that Shadow (he doesn't know here name so he's calling her that) had the man well under control, he took a step closer to see what had happened to her ears. Seeing the blood that had dried on the sides of her face, he could make a pretty good guess as to what had happened: the explosions had made her ears bleed and deafened her. Waiting until she was done with the man, Tholos approached her.

Getting her attention, he slowly spoke "M'lady, I can fix the damage.." he pointed to her ears "to your ears. Will you let me do so?"

Argent's wariness was clearly carried to Blackheart as she rose from kneeling to standing effortlessly. While she'd been aiding him, Tholos had seen she did her best not to lose physical contact with Blackheart: the rare times she'd had to seemed to cause the man pain.

Now, she again slipped her hand into Blackheart's, strengthening that tie until they could give him a chance to rest. Those dark pupil-less eyes, like black marble set in frescos, eyed Tholos carefully before she spoke. "I will be healed before nightfall," she stated quietly, still trying to modulate her voice without the ability to hear herself talk. "If you can heal, why offer it to me, when Blackheart is clearly hurt more?"

[Marcao]

His eyes slid around the gathered group upon his and Blast’s arrival. His eyes lingered on Argent he was still not quite used to seeing her in that form but her smile was reassuring. It was good to see that she seemed to be alright. He heard Blast’s outburst and had been about ready to give him a response when Argent lunged around them. It was still a process that he was still trying to figure out the specific details but it worked and as such when Argent snared herself around them he did not even twitch.

The darkness swallowed them, his eyes closing for a moment in order to try and compensate and adjust to it. The silver light which shone from Argent was comforting as they moved through the darkness. He heard the voice again and this time there was no doubt in his mind that it was human. It was the sobbing that gave it away and he felt his skin crawl. What the hell was this place?

Their arrival was met with a deep breath; he took a handful of steps before his eyes focused on the smoke rising from the block that they had left. It was an impressive ability no doubt although his thoughts flickered to how many people had died this day down there. He pushed the thought aside; he had done everything he could have. Regrets could come later. He glanced towards Blast for a moment before his attention slid towards Argent, catching sight of her wrapped around Blackheart. Hmm, was she doing so due to need or something else entirely? Blackheart did not seem much better for wear but the Meta could regenerate could he not? At that moment he struggled with two separate emotions, sympathy for Blackheart’s injury and a touch of jealousy.

He did not like the latter emotion nearly as much as the former. What right did he have to be jealous? Would he really want to be in Blackheart’s position? He had no regenerative abilities; if he were to be that wounded at one time he doubted he would be conscious. He pushed the thought aside, his eyes returning to Blast as he spoke.

“Sorry about the blinking Blast, I wanted to get us out of the street and close to the group as quickly as possible. I will give you more warning next time, and trust me odds are there will be a next time.â€

[Haizu]

"If you can heal, why offer it to me, when Blackheart is clearly hurt more?"

"Well to be honest," Tholos replied humbly,"his wounds are beyond my capablilty. You see, one of the words that I recieved is the Word of Blood. Now, this being a demon's weapon, it was not intended for healing, but I have been able to find limited uses for it in that area. I may not be able to heal him, but by your leave, I can heal you."

[Bloody Good]

Tasat had spent the last few moments leaning against the wall, dry heaving and bent over far enough to touch his toes, if he hadn't been busy holding his gut. From his corner, he watched the scene unfold as he recovered.

"I don't know what you did, but a warning would be appriciated. That was too familiar to be pleasent."

His eyes spent most of their time on the silvery thing trapping the prisoner. He'd seen stranger beasts, but not many. If no one else was going to panick over it, he decided he wasn't going to either. "If he won't talk, let me have him. I doubt he is strong enough to remain stubborn after I finish."


"You see, one of the words that I recieved is the Word of Blood. Now, this being a demon's weapon, it was not intended for healing, but I have been able to find limited uses for it in that area."

"Tholos, we haven't told them anything yet. They do not know of the Word, unless they are better informed than I suspect. We did not know of it until we began our research, and seeing as most of it has been locked away with us, I doubt any man alive knows of it. Lasciel would not leave enough evidence for them to discern the truth, that much is certain." He turned his attention to the horribly burned, very irate man who appeared to be the commander. "If you will allow us to bathe, I will share our story. As there are more of you than us, custom dictates that we explain ourselves first." Back to Tholos. "And I am telling the tale. No more exaggerated war stories. You damn greeks turn an afternoon in a boat into an epic tale, given the chance."

[SirNitram]

"Definately Spartan." 'Mike's' lips twitched. "Word of Blood.. Don't know anything specific on that, but the concept of words with supernatural power is old hat. There's a book of the damn things on Olympus, not that anyone there ever has time to sit down and read."

[B4UTRUST]

In a place that was unfamiler to most of the party, all too familer to others, a man appeared. He screamed as he fell and suddenly collided with hard ground that wasn't there an instant before. He slowly pushed himself up to his hands and knees, breathing hard, wondering what had just happened.

He looked around and answered his own question. A look of fear crossed his face.
"Ahem."

His head turned around so fast he nearly gave himself whip lash. Then his head kept turning of its own volition, the snap of bones and tearing of muscles very loud in an otherwise silent space. He tried to scream but found he couldn't.
"I'll assume you know why you're here and that'll save us all a lot of time that could be used for other more fruitful pursuits. Now, you do know why you're here don't you?"

The man nodded as best he was able, which wasn't very well. But the point was gotten.
"Good. And you know what you did to get here, right?"

The man's voice cracked and sounded strained and unnatural, which wasn't surprising given the current predicment his head and neck were in and the sure stretching and breaking of his vocal cords.
"I-I told them nothing!"
"Ah, yes. There is that. You did tell them nothing before you died. Which I suppose is a small plus in your favor. But you also failed in your mission which is a huge negative. So you can see my dilema here. You failed in your mission but you didn't give in and give the enemy intel. And you've been a rather loyal lacky to Hell so far. Huge dilema obviously. So I tell you what. To be fair, taking into account your years of dedicated service, your punishment will only last a thousand years instead of the ten thousand that you would normally recieve for failure. How's that for a deal? Great isn't it? I thought so too. Now let's begin shall we? And to think, you only have nine hundred and ninety-nine years, three hundred and sixty-four days, twenty-three hours and fifty-six minutes to go till you can try again. Isn't that great?"

Without even a motion Baden's body was picked up and hurled against an outcropping of rocks that appeared for this purpose. He was smashed against them over and over again until every bone in his body was broken in multiple places and in many cases jutting painfully through his skin. He screamed. And his body healed, the bones resetting themselves and knitting back together, his flesh wounds sealing closed. And then he fell into the river of fire.

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

"You know, I have watched humanity for millenia. Millenia upon millenia. And in that time I have come to one absolute, great truth. Humanity has no sense of responsibility. Every great wrong, every great evil, every great atrocity is somehow mine, somehow it's my fault. Sure, a human caused it but he must have been manipulated by me or mine somehow into doing it.

"Because humanity could never be that truely wicked."

The figure glanced down at the man before him. The man was strapped into a torture device that seemed impossible as most of the things it was designed to do were rather impossible in the mortal plane.
"Comfortable? Good."

"There's the rub right there, you see. Humanity takes no responsibility for its own acts. It would rather foolishly believe that there is some higher power directing every action, for good or evil.

"But humanity seems to forget things. Whether this forgetting is accidental, coincidental or a part of some mass delerium of theirs I'm not sure. But they forget. Any clues on that? No? Oh well, always a chance for enlightenment. Where was I? Oh, yes...

"They forget things. Namely that Deus has a hands-off approach to management. He doesn't really micromanage things like they believe. Most of the time he doesn't do much in the way of macromanagement either. He's just there in case something really goes wrong.

"They forget that. They forget that the worst evil in the world is humanity itself. Leopold II, Mao Zedong, Hitler, Stalin, Saloth Sar, all absoluetely and completely human.

"I've got to tell you, the things you do to each other is baffeling. I'm sure you'll find this nicely ironic, but most of the things you see down here, all the horrible and ungodly tortures, you all are responsible for. We simply copy you.

"So there you go. Man forgets that even the best of people are capable of horrible things. After all, I was once an angel and once the light of Deus filled me..."

The figure pulled a lever and the device moved into a new unnatural position, twisting and contorting the body strapped into it into another excrutiatingly painful position.
"I'll give you some time to reflect on that. See you in a year or so."

The door slammed shut, sealing the tortured man into darkness. His only company was the screams of the damned. And he weeped for his sins...

[Cynical Cat]

A Spartan. Blackheart's training had deliberately been focused on drawing on mystique of stoic warrior cultures while making sure he knew the realities behind the myth. It wasn't enough that Blackheart be strong and brave, he had also had to be moral and smart. For the most part his trainers had succeeded.

Ancient Greece meant more than words to Blackheart. He wasn't impressed. Sure they were tough in the rugby scrum contest of phalanx warfare, but these were the hyper conservative geniuses that disdained intellectual abilities, crippled their population base rather than change their customs, and needed to import Athenian engineers to deal with a fucking improvised fort erected by their helots. Hell, once the Myceneans got their freedom Sparta was never able to rise again.

"Heal her," he said. "Besides my tumor is territorial. Might not work very well on me regardless."

[LadyTevar]

"Heal her," he said. "Besides my tumor is territorial. Might not work very well on me regardless."

Ok, yes, she had been waiting on Blackheart's comments before she said yes. But once again, what he was feeling (contempt, superiority) was not equaling what he was saying. Her hand tightened on his a little, her mistrust of the demonic Spartan leaking through, as well as a feeling that could best be summed up as 'damn you, why'm I the labrat?'

But Argent turned towards Tholos her head lifting slightly so she could meet his eyes. "Fine. Do it."

[Haizu]

Back to Tholos. "And I am telling the tale. No more exaggerated war stories. You damn greeks turn an afternoon in a boat into an epic tale, given the chance."

"Excuse me!" Tholos said incredulously, turning to face Tasat. "I'm the one who makes epic tales?! If you start talking about a man with a pointy stick, he becomes Gilgamesh!" Approaching Li Na he said "Now this is going to feel rather...odd. Please remain still." Placing his hands on either side of her face, Tholos closed his eyes and concentrated. Suddenly the dried blood on the sides of Li Na's face liquified and started to flow back into her ears, quite an eerie sight. As the Word pulled the blood back into her veins, it also pulled the bits of skin that made the eardrums back and fused them together, not unlike taping a ripped sheet of paper back together. "Not quite as good as new, but better than before, yes?"

[LadyTevar]

Outside, there were only two reactions. One was how her eyes had widened like a terrified horse's, showing a white ring all the way around the black iris. The second was how she suddenly leaned trembling against Blackheart, her hand white-knuckled where she held onto his tightly.

Empathically was another matter entirely. First, was the sheer -wrongness- of the demonic magic: a sick oily feeling that was far too close to her face for comfort. Had Tholos not held her head in his hands, she'd have jerked away immediately to escape it. It was like a dew-heavy cobweb clinging to her face and neck.
Second was the spine-shivering feeling of sluggish liquid crawling up the sides of her neck, back -inside- her ears, surging and crawling in ways that liquid shouldn't do as her flesh was forced to repair itself. Slugs came to mind, oozing across her skin, slipping inside her ears.

"Not quite as good as new, but better than before, yes?"

The answer was breathed more than spoken, but backed by a reservoir of dark emotions. "Get. away. from. me."

[Cynical Cat]

"Better do what the lady says," said Blackheart. He had bet that the demon tainted would be eager to get in their good books, but evidently the powers he had employed hadn't been pleasant. "Now."

[Charon]

Legacies shifted his body again, the silver suit undulating dangerously as he watched Tholos. The head turned to look at Blackheart.

"What do you want done with the prisoner? Torture may reveal some things, but then again, it is a servent of the depths, hard to say what will work." The mouth on the mask seemed to almost grin for a moment.