Heroes: The Road of Good Intentions

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart picked Tasat up by the throat and squeezed. The metahuman held the damned man dangling in the air easily. "Your temper tantrum does not impress. Neither does your recklessness or irresponsibility. Your entire life now rests on convincing us that you are not a danger to the world at large, you dumb bronze age motherfucker. Fits of temper and threats don't help your case. Now nod if you understand and are going to play nice."

[Bloody Good]

Tasat was quick to turn his irritation to Mike. "Unless you plan on showing off for the benefit of the poor savages, go sit on a pike. If you wish a show, then find for me somewhere to perform, as your owner is so fearful of damaging the garden."

Either he had been hiding a philisophical streak, or anger was lending him eloquence. "Mankind must pay for his strengths, and those such as yourself who recieve it on a tray of gold rarely have the ability to command it fully. Age and magic do not equate to wisdom, and all I have heard from you is arrogance. The wise man remains silent and allows others to think him a fool, while the fool opens his mouth and proves it. You have barely closed your mouth since I met you, so a fool you must be."

Blackheart picked Tasat up by the throat and squeezed. The metahuman held the damned man dangling in the air easily. "Your temper tantrum does not impress. Neither does your recklessness or irresponsibility. Your entire life now rests on convincing us that you are not a danger to the world at large, you dumb bronze age motherfucker. Fits of temper and threats don't help your case. Now nod if you understand and are going to play nice."

Instead of nodding, he grinned. The empath could feel something change in the man's mind, though the others could probably guess from the lunatic smile.

He mouthed something. It looked like "Thank you."

[Dark Silver]

Saibot looked at Kyosuke as the two reappeared, in the inner halls of the Demon City. Saibot was lost in thought, he had a new Ring, and a way to recharge his old one...the original Box was gone now with Gravitas and the others...

He would need to find a place to hide out, think on things, and get situated. Someplace where they had not seen his trial.....not that it wasn't broadcasted on CourtTV, and most of the major news sites and channels.

He needed someplace he could disappear....then he smiled. There was still a chance, the old command center in Nevada. As far as he was aware, it was abandoned since the the Force had broken up.

"Las Vegas. Or somewhere near abouts. We can head to a old command station I used to work out from there, and I can give you a way to contact me, if looters haven't discovered it yet."

The Command Center wouldn't exactly be a place to rearm, full of high tech goodies, but at least he'd have living quarters and training areas, as well as some computers to work with...

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart loosened his grip just enough so the Babylonian could suck in air. "Your suffering gives you no special rights or privileges. My suffering gives me no special rights or privileges. We could sit in a circle and talk about who had a shittier life, but I was taught that whining was beneath a real man.

"You can't even manage to be a good guest, let alone the master of whatever powers you possess. Why shouldn't you put be down by a rabid dog?"

[Haizu]

After everyone had split up and went their own ways, Tholos decided he would take some time to himself and have a look around. Leaving the house proper, Tholos walked around, enjoying the night air and thinking about the past, present and future. As he was making his way to what looked like a sea of lights, he saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye. Immediately dropping down into a defensive crouch, Tholos whipped around just in time to see the fireball that erupted from Li Na's swimming pool. "Tasat, you poor fool." sighing to himself, Tholos began the short jog back to the house. "I hope to the gods that he hasn't hurt anybody." Tholos sped up, hoping to head off any hostilities that were sure to ensue.

"I want him gone." Her words were as plain and cold as her anger. "He is no longer welcome in my house."

Seeing Li Na in her dragon form only confirmed Tholos' fears. "σκύλου!" Tholos spat. Now within hearing distance, he heard every word that transpired between Li Na, Mike, Gravitas, and Tasat. He knew that this was going downhill fast and he needed to stop it. Still about 40 feet away, Tholos used his Word of Change to rearrange his vocal chords, literally turning himself into a living megaphone. "THAT IS ENOUGH! DROP HIM!" Tholos bellowed. Tholos' voice was loud enough to rattle the windows on Li Na's house. He definitely had their attention.

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart, very calmly and still holding Tasat up with one hand, turned around to face Tholos. "Keep your voice down," said Blackheart mildly.

[frigidmagi]

Blast dropped the extinguisher, it was likely to prove useless in the next couple of minutes... It was such a nice house to. He got ready to bring his shield up in a minute and backed away from the pool, one of the problems with his set of powers was he needed alot of room.

"How about we all calm down for a second before anyone does something we'll all regret?" He said. They can't say he didn't offer.

[Bloody Good]

Tasat gurgled as he spoke. "Because you don't want the demons to get their hands on the Word. If that weren't enough you've already irritated them, and if Lasciel gets her claws on me, it won't take long before they know what I know about you. Such as what you know about them."

The glow behind his teeth brightened until it started to suggest a that a train was about to exit the man's throat. "And if the parasite will loosen it's grip on your mind, you might notice that I haven't hit back yet. One part of the Word buried a city under molten rock when Vazgor was bored. I have three parts. Do not make me hit back." He grabbed the hand at his throat and took some weight onto his arms instead of neck. "And if you want to scare me with a show of strength, do not bother. This is like getting special attention from a Roman whore compared to what I have so-recently escaped, and I doubt any mortal can inflict enough pain to compete with the Underworld's torturers."

[frigidmagi]

"Nobody is really impressed by your showboating, threats or boasting." Blast said bluntly.

[Bloody Good]

"Fine then. Show me somewhere to cut loose, and I will show you something impressive. Or do you secretly fear what you might learn? Through suffering, men grow strong, and I have had millenia to suffer through."

[Cynical Cat]

"Your convincing me," said Blackheart. "Try again."

[Bloody Good]

A choked laugh. "Convince you? I will show you. Find me a damn stage, you infected bastard, and I will show you what you do not want your enemies to pry from my dead fingers and what I have held back since I was reborn. Or do you want to feel an example? I already told you that I know the Words of Pain and Madness. Hard to demonstrate without a victim." By now, the glow had become a spotlight, and looking him in the face while he talked was getting uncomfortable. The smell of smoke was present again, and every time his teeth clicked as he spoke, bursts of sparks rose and curled past his nostrils towards the sky.

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart squeezed, cutting off air and ability to speak. "Wrong answer again."

[SirNitram]

"It is the height of hubris for a man who steals forbidden power, The Last Word, no less, to accuse me of not 'earning' my power." Mike said mildly, containing the fury that lurked. "Your pathos, as I said, impresses no one. You have seen how many die because you failed? A few hundred? A few thousand, tops. I have seen billions. I recignize your society was too primitive and small to have such a concept, but I will merely say that the minor skirmishes I was in were no less destructive than your whole wars."

A shake of his head. "Either become a better guest.. For in this world, in this time, in this house, you are a guest.. Or find yourself removed. The demons don't want the Last Word. There'd be no reality to corrupt."

"Blackheart.. Don't kill them. They will simply revert to their previous Realm Of Punishment, and the Word will go with them. They'd escape again. If we must be rid of them, I will transport them bodily to a pair of Underworlds, and alert those in charge. It has the benefit of keeping them seperate, and thus, the Last Word, seperate. While demons don't want the universe to end, there are always crazies who do."

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart dropped Tasat. "No word can end the universe," he said with unfamiliar, but ironclad certainity. "In the beginning there were no words, merely the void. Language came later, a thing not of the beginning but of the young that came after." He hesitated, slightly puzzled at his own speech and then continued. "But I suppose whatever they have is nasty enough we should be careful who has it. A neutron bomb can't end the universe and they're nasty enough."

[Haizu]

"Enough of this." Said Tholos, his voice back to normal. "None of this is getting us anywhere." Laying a hand on Tasat's shoulder Tholos said "Calm yourself Tasat. Your foolishness has finally gotten the better of you. Mike is correct. You have violated the laws of hospitality, again. If you don't back down and stop calling on your powers I will take you down myself. Remember last time I had to do that?"

[LadyTevar]

Argent had been silent throughout this exchange... not because she was meek, but because she had been gathering power. Unnoticed by all, the shadows had been moving and gathering.

Tasat was a madman, out of control, his emotions chaos. Gravitas was again no longer the skinny geek, but a man of immensely contained power, and ready to use the full force on Tasat. Blackheart ...

... Blackheart was frightened, and it had started just after his comment about how the universe began. Frightened of being consumed at last.

THAT was the final straw for Argent.

"Do not bother, Tholos," the dragon hissed. Her body was wreathed in small streamers of shadow, a great pool of darkness at her feet. Against that darkness, her silver eyes shone like the full moon on a cloudless winter night. "He has broken guestright, damaged *my home*, insulted and attacked *my* guests, and even now I feel the taint of his Word singing thoughts of Power into his mind. *You* may stay. *He* is gone."

And the dragon lunged, pushing Tholos aside as she wrapped Tasat in her coils and vanished Between.

The World Between Shadows was still as dark, cold, and lifeless as before, when it had terrified Tasat so. This time, Argent fed that terror, ramping it up in his mind, along with a fear that *here* his Words did not matter. *Here* she was lone ruler and Queen.

"You have been tortured by Hell, Tasat," the great dragon hissed, carrying him as a helpless prisoner. "You have shown me the things they did, pain and feelings I can use against you at any time... But you fear my darkness still."

The great heart beat out slowly, counting the seconds. "You are right to do so. I can leave you here, Tasat. I can leave you in this unliving blackness, without pain, with only your fear of the darkness, and you will find that the emptiness will break your mind as it did my other prisoner. Hear him laughing now?"

The insane cackling was closer, as if she was drawing nearer to it. "His power feeds on life, Tasat. Like the tattoos that cover your skin, he can seep into a man's body and change it, muscle by muscle, vein by vein, and you *will* feel it all the way as he does so. He will consume you as the Demons of Hell never could, by taking away your very body ... and possibly even taking away what you whine for the most: the last of your memories."

"But I do not wish to give him that power. I do not want you here, tainting my Kingdom." They broke out into twilight, into a scene that could have been from hell itself, as Argent rode the fiery updrafts to float high above. "This is Kilauea, home of the goddess Pele," Argent said in a voice as cold as death. "Give your Word of Fire to *her!*"

Tasat was released over the mouth of the volcanic vent and allowed to fall. Argent vanished into the shadow of a cloud of toxic steam, and left him to live or die as Fate would chose.

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart walked into Argent's house and closed the bathroom door. His composure didn't so much as crack as shatter completely. He sucked in deep breaths as he shook. "It's happening. You've known this was going to happen. Relax."

Funny. His hands couldn't stop shaking. "It's reached the brain. It's sneaking in, but I still have my mind. I can still think and reason. I'm still me." He slid to the floor. "It's not that bad. It's not that bad."

[LadyTevar]

Several moments later, Argent returned ... minus Tasat. The dragon smelled of heat and burning rock as she appeared on the patio, her eyes still silver fire as she looked around.

To those on the patio, she said simply. "I have taken Tasat to paradise, where he can discuss Fire with the goddess Pele." Then ... she followed a single thread inside the house, slipping into the shadows as she went.

Finding Blackheart, she emerged from the shadows silently. There was only one thing that she thought she could do for him now, and thus she knelt quietly and put her arms around his shoulders, simply holding him.

[Cynical Cat]

"I'll be alright," he said, shaking like a leaf. "It's just hitting home. I knew it was coming. Different than when its here." He took a deep breath and stilled the shaking. "I'm almost out of time. What did you do with him?"

[LadyTevar]

She could feel he was still shaking inwardly, but let him put on the brave face. She did not stop holding him, however, offering quiet comfort for him to take or leave as he wished.

"Kilauea. Whether he lives or dies, he'll be unable to get back to the mainland easily." That was her excuse, to say she did not kill the man herself. He could possibly survive the drop, she was not that high up. He may have the ability to survive the extreme heat, the boiling rocks and toxic steam. She could not, did not know for sure.

[Cynical Cat]

"We have to retrieve him," said Blackheart. "Or kill him or set the authorities on him. He's too dangerous to be wandering around without a handler. He loses his temper again and who knows how many people could die." He gently slid out of her grasp. He was doing better, mostly by focusing on something other than his impending doom.

[LadyTevar]

And she let him go, but not without reluctance and a spike of disappointment. "Do you honestly think he'll survive a drop of 20meters, through clouds of toxic gas, into the lava vent?" she asked, annoyed once again how Tasat was ruining her evening. Maybe she should have grabbed a robe before coming to Blackheart.

[Bloody Good]

Fire below. Again. To the shadow-bitch, he proclaimed, "This is old news," as she left.

The Word opened like a hungry mouth and drank it in. Magma cooled as he fell towards it, but bouncing on lava rock is never good for one's health. He stood, bloody and battered, coughing in the fumes. No one to complain now. A cloud of fire the size of a small town bloomed to life above him, and the rush of air drawn into it pulled the worst of the poisons away.

He reverted to his own tongue again. "Bothersome."

He began making his way across the lava fields, leaving a path of cooled rock behind him and an updraft of impressive strength all around. In view of the ocean, he stood in thought. After a few minutes, he spoke to himself again. "Should work. I can swim if it doesn't."

The cloud of flames began to reshape itself. The edges drew down, spiraling faster and faster until it was a crimson hurricane. The winds matched the force of nature it resembled. As the cyclone built up its strength, the winds lifted him into the eye of the storm.

Laughter. The cackle of a man taking joy in finding new tricks in old strength. "Only fools doubt the creativity of a man who found a way out of hell." A slight change in the Word's sound in his head altered the shape of the storm. The edge closest to the mass of land on the horizon grew a little thicker, and he drifted towards it. Another change carried the storm with him, and both he and it began to slowly drift over the sea. He tumbled clumsily in the center of the maelstrom, but there was no one to see. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized that the only way to fly that would be clumsier than this would be to be propelled by one's own flatulence, and the thought made him laugh even louder.

The thought of what the inhabitants of his destination would think when they saw him was a more sobering thought. Not my problem. Let the hypocritical fools who dropped me here worry about it. Maybe I will appoint myself king. Live out my days in comfort. No, no redemption in that. A champion, then. Fight the good fight. Carve my way out of hell. The Word tended itself as man and storm slowly picked up speed, leaving him to his thoughts. He half-hoped that the overly-sensitive bitch would feel the Word uncoiling. Tholos' touch frightened her so much, perhaps this would be enough to hammer her soul apart.

No, do not be vindictive. Redeption. Not going back. Forgiveness and all that mushy crap.

[Cynical Cat]

"You don't half kill a meta and then leave," said Blackheart. "You do the job right. He isn't an ordinary human. If he lives, what do you think he's going to do the first time he's disrespected by a social inferior and gets drunk and rowdy? What happens if he decides to start carving a little empire for himself?"

He broke away from her and headed upstairs to grab some clothes.