Heroes: The Road of Good Intentions

[Charon]

Legacies' tendrils sprung out some at the mention of his name. "If there are simple bulbs that are projecting that light, we will be able to handle them easily."

Legacies stepped up to the elevator shaft, then looked back. "Forcefields first." The silver being grinned, it's jaw dropping unnaturally open, the long silver-red tongue flopping out.

[frigidmagi]

"No thank you, no one bothered to teach me how to fly." Blast replied to that dryly still encased in his orange-red shifting shield.

[LadyTevar]

"Would you like a ride down there, then" Argent asked slyly, her silver eyes glowing from the shadows inside the elevator. "Or, if you ask politely, Tachyon does fly and can help you down."

[General Havoc]

Deep within a vat buried underground inside the darkest recesses of a place of great evil, there stood a large vat made of some kind of glass a thousand times stronger than normal shatterproof varieties. Held it place by magnetic fields strong enough to rip a skyscraper off its foundation and suspend it in mid-air, the vat was mounted over a heating unit, and contained within it was water.

The water was pure, almost impossibly pure, but that was not apparent from outside, nor was it apparent why someone would contain water within such a complicated system. The water was also hot, in fact it was at a temperature that would have set it to boil had the pressure within the chamber not been more than twelve atmospheres' worth. The water sat there, very much as water normally does, but every so often there was a slight disturbance within it, a gurgling or bubbling that seemed to emanate from nowhere, or a light splash within which seemed to possess no physical source. For the moment however, the vat remained inviolate, and within it, the water did as well.

[Marcao]

"I can do it." he said.

His eyes flickered over the rest of the gathered team for a moment before focusing on the elevator and what laid below. He took a step towards it and then another before he continued.

"I am almost an ideal choice." He did possess the ability to "fly" although at speeds slow enough that even the wright brother's plane could beat. But the combination of his teleportation and energy manipulation should keep him safe. Besides, the truth of it was that he wanted to keep moving. The sooner they did so the sooner his mind would stop worrying about what shapeless horrors awaited them.

He stopped in front of the elevator and looked over his shoulder. His eyes resting on the form of Argent for a second longer than he had intended. He did hope that this was not the last time he got a chance to see her although he did what he could to prevent any of that concern from leaking over the link he could still feel at the edge of his perception.

"Anyone else interest in tagging along?" His eyes slid towards Legacies and caught sight of the jaw and tongue. Please say no, Please say no...

[Cynical Cat]

"Yeah, me," said Blackheart. "I'm not as strong as Legacies but I'm tough and can throw down up close and at range. Whenever you're ready Tachyon."

[LadyTevar]

"If Tachyon's taking you and Blast, and I am taking Legacies, that leaves Hotfoot and our ... guests. Hotfoot can probably run down the walls. Michael and Friar Tuck...?" Argent asked, trying to clarify whom she was going to be teleporting. From her tone of voice, she was not looking forward to carrying Michael and the Monk.

In truth, she was scared of trying, afraid of what the Holiness around Michael might do to her or the Shadows she moved though. That fear brushed Tachyon, fed on his own worry and concern ... and she had to mentally shake herself and push those fears away into the quiet little box in her mind. She even pulled Tachyon's worries away, tucking them deep inside herself so they'd not interfer with the mission. There was enough fear and hate and pain in the walls of this building -- she didn't need more.

"Decide soon. We're running out of time."

[Cynical Cat]

Argent was cracking up. Fucking empaths, they never dealt with stress well. Blackheart surpressed a sigh. "You grab Legacies. Let the gravity god bring the servants of Our Lord."

[Bloody Good]

"How far down is it? If it's not more than twenty or thirty feet down the elevator, I can just jump." He shrugged, almost apologetically. "Part of being able to juggle buses is not going 'squish.' I'm pretty good at not going squish, and I've fallen off rooftops a few times. But given that you have a couple teleporters, being dropped off right next to someone would be nice. I can cause a lot of damage if I can make it to arm's reach."

[LadyTevar]

Argent was cracking up. Fucking empaths, they never dealt with stress well. Blackheart surpressed a sigh. "You grab Legacies. Let the gravity god bring the servants of Our Lord."

The silver eyes narrowed as the emotion behind Blackheart's words reached her. Oozing out of the shadow, Argent's dragon form snaked up to look Blackheart in the eye. "I warned you...." she whispered, silver eyes glaring at him before turning away and slithering over to the elevator.

"It's roughly forty feet down," Argent said over her shoulder to the monk. "I may be able to slow your fall, or Legacies may help you if he feels like it." Without another word, simply a nod to Legacies, she slipped down the hole in the floor of the elevator and headed down.

Lock the emotions down. Lock them up, before they hurt you. Lock them down, block those around you.... Li Na repeated that to herself silently, feeling the dark emotions all around her pressing in, and she was all alone with only the faint candlelight of her own mind.

[Charon]

Legacies extended tendrils partway down the shaft for those who could not manage most of the drop. "Don't worry, we don't bite." The symbiote grinned again, it's tongue quavering with his silent laughter.

[Bloody Good]

Hector regarded the improvised living ladder with an odd expression. "Um, okay. Thanks." He began the climb down rather gingerly, not at all liking the weird rubbery-leather feel of the tendrils. "So, if you don't mind me asking, are you a meta, or some kind of alien, or what? I mean, I've seen some unusual things, but nothing like you." At the end of his rope so to speak, Hector swung his legs, let go, and hammered his fingertips into one of the dirty metal runners that stretched the length of the elevator shaft.

They really shouldn't have sunk into construction-grade steel like that. Hanging by his embedded digits, he glanced downwards. "Good, nothing pointy. See you at the bottom." And he let go. The landing wasn't terribly graceful. He stumbled a bit and had to lean against the side, but he managed not to fall over.

[LadyTevar]

"If you had given me time, I would have made it a softer landing," Argent said, from right behind the monk, once again only a pair of silvery eyes in the shadows. "Legacies! Tell Tachyon and Blackheart we're ready for them?"

[Hotfoot]

Hotfoot didn't so much walk down the walls as he bounced between them, leaving spots of heated metal behind where he made contact. Behind the protection of his shield, he muttered. "I hope these guys know what they're doing, because I have no idea what's going on anymore." He looked around the group waiting for orders, silently glad that the team could no longer hear him like this. He could feel the rising tensions in the group even without Argent's link. He paused long enough to let the others see his form through the shield as though he were standing still, though artifacts of his unnatural speed ruined the illusion before too long.

[Charon]

Legacies looked up at Tachyon and nodded to them briefly. "We are ready for the assault." With that the symbiote disappeared down the elevator shaft, landing unnaturally softly on the ground for a 40 foot drop. To make matters worse, the creature then seemed to fade out of view, though careful inspection in the dark would reveal tale tell signs that he had not moved.

[Marcao]

He glanced towards Blackheart for a moment and nodded before he moved within the elevator and moments later fell through the opening that led to the shaft below. He exerted his will and began to drift slowly at a respectable pace, his power flaring ever so slightly and causing his entire body to emit a weak green light. His eyes were quite ordinary and as such he had to generate his own light in order to see from time to time.

Legacies and the others had gone first, Hotfoot's passage noted by the marks he left behind. He caught sight of Legacies at the bottom of the drop and once more allowed himself a moment to appreciate the unusual powers that he had been bestowed with. He looked for Blackheart wanting to make sure that he had visual contact with the rest of the team before they breached further into the undeground facility. As he did so, he strengthened his shield and prepared for a rough entry. This was going to get interesting...

[Cynical Cat]

"Let's not play 'run into the fucking teeth of their guns'," said Blackheart. "That's why we have teleporters." Jesus fucking Christ, they had just agreed on the plan a minute ago. "We are not going straight down that shaft to them. Our teleporters are going to bring us in to hit them in the flanks."

[LadyTevar]

"I -told- you, Blackheart, there's no shadows near the door," Argent hissed, then tried to calm herself "however ... I think I can get us all down the hallway."

With Tachy near, Argent felt it was worth the risk to open up and take a quick 'feel' to see how many people might be nearby. They needed the intel, so she'd not 'port them into the middle of a security force. Carefully, she shielded the links to the rest of the team, and then cracked her outer shields. Absently she wondered if she should block out Tachy and Blackheart entirely, to protect them if it got too much for her.
But then again, that would leave her alone with the emotions....

Don't worry, you're never alone...
The thought floated into her mind and vanished, a whisper at the edges that she wasn't even sure she'd heard. If she'd been in dragon form at the moment, her head would have been rotating, looking around warily as she probed outwards with her empathy.

Nothing. The atmosphere was shockingly calm. If there was a security team out there, they were either highly shielded, or not worried at all. No malicious intent, no hostile emotions. The best comparison she could give was a prosperous office building. No indication of what she might have thought she heard, or who said it.

"Unless they're shielded, we're clear for the first twenty meters. Several empty rooms, possibly offices or conference rooms I can 'port us inside." Argent reported, snapping her shields tightly back in place. The quiet out there made her even warier, making her close up even tighter around herself.

...all alone. You're never alone. Not in here...

[Cynical Cat]

"Then do so," said Blackheart. "We don't want to be near that damned door anyway. That's wher etheir guns will be pointing."

[LadyTevar]

It was clear by how her silver eyes jerked towards him that Argent had been distracted. "uh... right..." she mumbled, belatedly taking dragon form and filling the elevator shaft with her shadow. She enfolded those at the bottom of the shaft, then roiled up the top to daringly swallow the Angel and take him along as well.

... The trip Between was short, yet those who had experience with it knew this trip was different. For once there were TWO lights in the darkness ...

Then it was soft light around them as Argent deposited the full team plus the Angel and Monk into the room; Blackheart, Tachyon, and Blast facing the door, Legacies to the rear with the monk, and Tholos, Gravitas, Hotfoot, and the Angel to the sides in a protective ring around her human form as she sank into a momentary huddle on the floor.

... never alone ... not in here ... never alone...

[Charon]

Legacies quickly formed an impromptu barrier of his own symbiote to at least slow down anything that may come their way. The silver figure took stock of everything that could be seen though, and also the condition of the team. Argent was cracking, a bad thing for her to do, then there was the no doubt immensely confused or even reviled reactions that would come from the monk and the Angel.

[Cynical Cat]

"I'll take the door," said Blackheart. He was tough, fast, and a walking dead man. The perfect combination. He rushed out, his eyes shining with barely harnessed power.

[B4UTRUST]

As Blackheart rushed into the hallway he was immediately greeted by nothing. The hallway was empty, though extremely well lit. Bright HID lights gave off the blue-white radience that premeated the entire hallway. The light originated from multiple angles, in the floor and ceiling both, leaving so little space for shadows to manifest.

Fire extinguishers, fire pulls, bulletin boards littered with notices, memos and other such common paraphenalia found in any corporate office building was plainly visable. This seemed completely at odds with the general layout of the hallways that were visable. Lots of twists and turns, blind corners ripe for ambushes and traps. Simple, common office appearances overlayed on a winding labryinth that made little sense in this setting.

It was as if the designers had build this place to keep people out. Or perhaps to keep something in.

[Charon]

Legacies stepped out after Blackheart and looked around. "We say that smashing through this place is the best option, if there is something waiting, we shouldn't give them the pleasure of us ignorantly following through their maze."

The silver figure brushed out a silver tendril, gingerly slicing through a wall that was in front of them.

[Bloody Good]

"Argent, how dark does it have to be for you to do the shadow thing?" He fished a ball bearing out of a pocket hidden by the folds of his robe, and flicked it at one of the lights. The BB flew like a bullet and smashed the fixture, punching a neat hole trough the plastic covering and shattering the lights themselves. Very little of the glass found its way out of the housing, and the hallway became marginally dimmer.

"Oh, and no one ever said who I shouldn't heal via blessings. I have a first aid kit, but there's only so much it'll do."