Heroes: The Road of Good Intentions

[B4UTRUST]

Kyosuke shrugged.
"This is your area of expertise, not mine. If you require my assistance let me know. Otherwise I'm of little help here I believe."

[Dark Silver]

'More than likely not..' Saibot though, as he looked to the Japanese man.

"There is something you could do...you know magic...can you ward the base from outside teleporters? Last thing I want is to have a base secure from everything but teleporters....and if Gravitas takes it in his mind I'm not dead and wants to come find me...."

He left that hang in there...already thinking of where he could go for what he would need.

[B4UTRUST]

"Bindings and wards can be done, though there are those who could simply overpower them. Nothing is guarenteed. And a place this size... It will take awhile, if it can be done at all."

[Dark Silver]

"Do what you can....I'm going to head out and see what I can find out in Vegas. The mess hall is a level down, the signs will lead you."

With that, Saibot walked out of the command center, and headed for the hatch which would lead him to the surface.

[Agent Fisher]

I-78, Two Miles outside of Millennium City
Rush Hour

Amy Ryan sat in her car, leaving her home. Dan had called her and told her it wasn’t safe to be home. So, she gathered up her things and left the city. She leaned down to change the radio when suddenly, there was a boom and a tremor shook her car. Jerking her head up, her gaze locked on an explosion just a few cards ahead. There was screaming all around.

Amy jerked her door open and kept her head down, running from the explosion. All around her, people where fleeing. She looked back and saw four metas duking it out. Two on two, it seemed. One pair had a flier and a beam shooter, the other pair was a strong meta, throwing cars, and the other was lifting cars with his just a wave of his hand. As she ran, she ducked down with a car flew over her head. She headed to her left, towards the shoulder and off the car packed interstate.

She just reached the edge when suddenly she was hit in the back by an errant energy beam. Amy fell to the ground, a look of shock frozen on her face as she lay on the ground. She only had time for one las-

******

Dan ‘Ghost’ Ryan sat on his sofa, watching the news. The fight between the Ultima metas and the rogues was being broadcast live. He watched closely, his mind on what collateral would result. However, the camera focused on the fight. He noticed the Ultima Meta, Gazer, fire an energy beam that barely missed the rogue. He had no idea that his other half was now no more.

[frigidmagi]

The phone rang and rang... Damnit Mom why don't you ever just pick the damn thing up? Six rings and she picked it, she always picked up the phone on the sixth ring, Tobin wondered about that at times but refused to ask... It just seemed to be a bad idea.

"O'Callaghan resident, this is Mary O'Callaghan speaking."

"Hi Mom, it's Tobin." he said.

"Tobin, honey! I haven't heard from you in over a week! How are classes, is the apartment going okay for you? You are eating aren't you dear?"

"I'm doing fine Mom, I swear. Just I've had to take a trip, it's class related, so I'm not in the City anymore. With some friends, we'll be moving around alot. I'll call when I can." Yeah, mom I'll call inbetween death matches with demons and escaped undead from hell and who knows what else. Easy if you tense she'll know and that'll be hard to explain.

"Really? That sounds fun... Well... Call when you can. Tobin... You are being careful right?" There was an odd catch in her voice... Was she talking about sex or was it possible that she knew!?! No, don't be silly, she couldn't possibly know.

"Very careful Mom, I promise." He said back, yep careful as possible... While fighting the powers of hell and just men.

"Well that's good sweety, you go have fun then and tell me all about it when I get back." She said sweetly. Tobin promised and made his goodbyes a bit distracted. She should have push more, asked more questions, but she didn't... Why? ... He didn't have time to figure it out. She was going to be okay because none of the bad guys knew she even existed. She wasn't going to worry and try to tear the city apart looking for him. That's was all that was impotent... For now.

He sighed and started moving out to meet with Blackheart.

[LadyTevar]

First chance she had to join Blackheart, she took, sliding up next to him with enough warning not to startle him. Startling someone trained to fight is a bad thing, even when they arent' strong enough to pop your head off accidently. "Have you seen the newsfeeds," she asked quietly, trying to damp down her own reaction.

[Charon]

Legacies continued to watch the show trial as it went on. He'd been entirely unsurprised by Saibot's pleading guilty. He'd known it would happen that way, even in a show-trial, Saibot was up to his old ways, not giving them the pleasure of keeping the farce going.

When the sentencing was given, Legacies snorted under his breath. He muttered aloud however. "Humans..." Besides that, he wasn't sure what he felt about his old friend's sentencing. Beyond that he would be out in 50 years... if not before. Legacies smiled as he got to his feet, heading back towards the place that was home to the others. He was certainly in no hurry though.

[Cynical Cat]

Argent's appearance startled Blackheart. He quickly regained his composure. "No, I haven't been following the news. Been busy. What's happened?"

[LadyTevar]

"Garth is already on trial," Argent answered tersely. Her emotions were wrapped so close and tight the links to other teammates were nearly shut down. "To his attorney's shock, he plead guilty."

And once again, she had to clamp down tight on her own emotions. Guilty... why guilty? He wasn't himself, insanity plea was an option, why Guilty? "He's up to something."

She was unaware she spoke aloud at that point.

[Cynical Cat]

"Fuck," said Blackheart. "He's either falling on his sword or the fix is in."

[LadyTevar]

Nice to see that Blackheart was sharing her misgivings. "You think he took a deal too?" Argent asked.

[Cynical Cat]

"Don't know," said Blackheart. "His remorse was genuine, I think, but his conscience has been extremely flexible in the past. And incarceration isn't pretty. He might have."

[LadyTevar]

"Five hundred says he doesn't make it to the jail," she said bitterly before sensing Blast nearby. Her head turned to look for him. "Bl... Tobin's here."

[Cynical Cat]

"Keep that up princess and you'll give me a good run for my money in as the head cynical bastard," said Blackheart. "There's some things I have to say to him, in private, while I still have the time. I can't put them off. If you'll give us a few moment?"

[LadyTevar]

"'Princess'?" she repeated, bemused at the nickname. "Who's rubbing off on whom here?"

She looked over to Blast, who was getting closer. "Just let me know when you're wanting to go," she said, pausing in front of a jewelry store. "I'll just wait in here..."

[Cynical Cat]

"Thanks," he walked up to Blast. "Wanna grab a coffee?" His gaze made it clear he had something serious to talk about. Blackheart matched the younger man's pace.

"Look, I don't want to dump everything on you all at once, but I'm out of time. It's speaking to me know and its wired into my brain. So here's the deal." He handed an envelope to Blast.

"Reason cut us loose, we're in the field with his permission, covert. He didn't want me to spread it around, to avoid leaks but right now someone else has to know so they can pick up the ball when I drop it. Current contact procedures and his goody list is in the envelope. You'll be able to go from there. Try to keep quiet about it, I gave my word to reason I would and I don't like breaking it, but if you need to share the secret do so. Mission first.

"There's another number in there, that's a drop for Taskmaster. If you need it, call it. How much you trust him is your call, but I do. Might be a mistake, might not. He's a good source of intel and other useful advantages most of the time. If you have to, make the call.

"One last thing. I have no next of kin. I've rewritten my will. If I kick it, you're my heir. Do whatever you feel like with the money. Take care of your family, drop out of Ultima, go back to school, house stray cats, whatever. There's a fair amount. It's freedom of choice for and its yours."

[LadyTevar]

Old habits die hard. Within five minutes Argent knew the location of the security cameras in the store, and had identified the make and model of the security on the display cases.

But she was here to look, not case the place. Honestly. She had no intention of robbery, even if part of her mind was appraising the various pieces as she looked over the displays, hands behind her back.

There was a lovely pearl necklace, a triple strand of black, 'silver', and natural pearls, with matching earrings. That she'd have kept for herself, as well as the bracelet of jade blocks arraigned from milky-white to darkest emerald and back. Sliding down the display cases, she looked over the gemstones casually, noting particular ones that would resell best, then on to the wedding rings.

Oh... that was lovely... 5k diamond in platnium engagement ring, made to nestle with the wedding band that held 4 smaller diamonds of the same cut. The man's ring also had 5 diamonds, largest one looked only 2k, but matched the design of the woman's band exactly.


"Would you like to take a closer look?"
Argent made sure her sunglasses were secure and hiding her pupils before she looked up at the shopkeeper. She must have lingered too long over the wedding bands. "Oh, no... just wishing," Argent answered with a smile, moving on down the line of engagement rings and wedding bands.

The shopkeeper stayed with her, starting the small talk about finding a good man. Argent had to laugh. "Finding isn't a problem... picking one is..." she muttered, thinking of Garth, of David, of Elias.

Then the unusual caught her eye. Two men's rings, molded as dragon's heads in white gold. The eyes were gems, one a sapphire so blue it was nearly black, the other a brilliantly clear emerald. They were marked down, amazingly enough, nearly half what Argent would appraise them for.

The shopkeeper told an interesting story to them: Two young men had commissioned them, and the shopkeeper had assumed they were a couple. A couple days before the pickup date, both young men were in the news having robbed a local bank. The shopkeeper had contacted the police, and the police had set up a sting, catching one of the young men as he came to pick up the rings. "He was paying for them with cash from the robbery!" the shopkeeper exclaimed. "Can you believe that?"

Argent managed to keep her reply polite, even as she winced at how stupid the two idiots had been. Still... the rings were very nice. Side by side the pale golden dragon heads faced each other, winking emerald and quiet blue-black eyes staring.... Wonder if David and Elias wear rings...

[frigidmagi]

Reason cut us loose, we're in the field with his permission, covert. He didn't want me to spread it around, to avoid leaks but right now someone else has to know so they can pick up the ball when I drop it. Current contact procedures and his goody list is in the envelope. You'll be able to go from there. Try to keep quiet about it, I gave my word to reason I would and I don't like breaking it, but if you need to share the secret do so. Mission first.

"There's another number in there, that's a drop for Taskmaster. If you need it, call it. How much you trust him is your call, but I do. Might be a mistake, might not. He's a good source of intel and other useful advantages most of the time. If you have to, make the call.

"One last thing. I have no next of kin. I've rewritten my will. If I kick it, you're my heir. Do whatever you feel like with the money. Take care of your family, drop out of Ultima, go back to school, house stray cats, whatever. There's a fair amount. It's freedom of choice for and its yours."

Blast almost said something stupid, like why me? Or don't be silly you'll be fine. But his experiences with Mirage team and what Blackheart and others had managed to pound into his skull in the admittly short period of time kicked in. It was him because there was no one else, and on this job no one would be fine, luck would break against them sooner or later, that was a given. He nodded and took the envelope.

"You'll forgive me if I try to make sure it doesn't come to that, I hope... Rather have you around then elsewise. Still, worse come to worse... I won't let you down." Blast said quietly.

[Cynical Cat]

"Yeah, I would rather I make it too," said Blackheart, "but you don't make plans based on best possible results happening. I may live, but there's a good chance it won't really be me or I'll buy it. In that case, I've got to make sure that someone else can carry on. I know you'll do your best. It's all I can ask for.

"Okay, enough of this gloomy shit. I'm not dead yet. By the way, have a wake and none of that open casket weepy bullshit if I buy the farm. Anyway, how's the folks? Everyone doing okay?"

[LadyTevar]

It was a pity Li Na didn't have enough on her for both rings. It would be amusing to see the looks on David and Elias' faces. But, the mood outside with Bl... Tobin and David was going from maudlin to a forced upbeat, so perhaps it was time for her to leave.

Before she decided to buy one of the rings anyway.

She politely made her exit, stepping out onto the sidewalk and meandering in the direction the boys had went for their little talk. They should be done soon, if she was judging the emotions right.

[frigidmagi]

Anyway, how's the folks? Everyone doing okay?"

"Mom's good, thanks for asking. Bit werid though, she didn't ask as many questions as I thought she would..." Blast said with a shrug.

[Cynical Cat]

"Good," said Blackheart. "So should we go an save Argent from the horrors of window shopping and go back to earning our pay?"

[frigidmagi]

"So should we go an save Argent from the horrors of window shopping and go back to earning our pay?"

"Sounds like a plan. Lead the way." He replied.

[LadyTevar]

As planned, she was arriving just as the two of them were ready to leave. "Are you two ready to go now?" Li Na asked in mock surprise. "And here I was going to check out a few more stores...."