Heroes: The Road of Good Intentions

[B4UTRUST]

"If your conscience bothers you, look at it this way. The people buying the drugs are the ones we are going after to begin with. And those on the street level who buy this deserve what they get. I believe it is known as Darwinism. We help the process along. Do not feel sorry for someone intent on destroying their own life anyway.

"I am heading back now. I will return within a day or so."

[General Havoc]

The water spilled over Hydro like an impromptu shower, and ran into and out of the mass of sentient water already present. Contrary to Argent's claim, Hydro had not "lost" a major amount of water, for the water boiled off of him by the fire elemental was already re-condensing and running back into his body. It was not so much a matter of not having enough water as it was of not being able to muster the energy to incorporate it all back within his body. By some means or another, being boiled half to steam and strangling the fire elemental had taken something, energy perhaps, out of him, and he was clearly struggling to regain it.

Most of the water simply splashed onto the floor in an expanding puddle around Hydro's main body, but in doing so, the cool water mixed with Hydro's own form, which was near the boiling point, and reduced it quickly to a more average temperature, still warm to the touch, but no longer scalding. This alone seemed to help, as Hydro emitted a series of what might have been relieved sighs (though they sounded more like the echoing cavitations of a submarine), and slowly, the puddle around him stopped spreading and began to shrink as he gradually began rebuilding himself. His central mound slowly grew back to its "normal" dimentions, and his snake-like tendril reformed, albeit with droplets still dripping off of it, and gradually turned towards Argent.

"Thank you, Flesh... I mean... Argent," said Hydro with a bit more clarity to his oceanic voice. "That is much better..." He took no notice of the fact that the extinguished corpse of the fire elemental was still floating, motionless but clearly visible, within his form, not at least until, with a sound that resembled a bubbling mud pit, he swelled up and spat the thing's dried, emaciated body out onto the ground next to him, followed by a dark sludge-like substance that splattered onto the ground next to the fallen demon, returning his coloration to a translucent clarity, lightly tinged with cobalt blue.

Quivering and rippling, Hydro now seemed much more at sorts, and turned to the flesh-beasts called Legacies and Blast (and by extension all the others). "This Pyronic entity went to great effort to set me to boil or otherwise render me unable to escape my confinement," he said. "I attempted to extinguish it, but its combustion was more resilient than I anticipated. I do not believe I could have extinguished it by myself. Please, what was that fascinating extinguishment device you wielded? The one that projected Carbon Dioxide onto us as we struggled? Do flesh beasts commonly keep such weapons on hand for defeating Pyronic entities? Are they more common than I believed?"

All of these questions were asked in a tone which (assuming the tone was accurate coming from a sentient puddle) seemed to indicate great fascination with the answers, like an eager interviewer asking questions of a long-awaited research subject.

"And please, what are these 'demons' you spoke of? Are they related to the Pyronic Entities? And is it customary to send metahumans to combat them? Or have I mis-understood your intentions here?"

[Bloody Good]

"It's a fire extinguisher. We use them to put out fires. Because we're, you know, combustable. And burning hurts."

Hector sighed and ran a hand over his prickly scalp. "I think a full description of demons would probably take longer than we have. They're bad. They hurt people. Usually, they're pretty subtle and no one really fights them so much as resists them, but they're straying from the norm here and trying to whip up an army, so we're straying from the norm too and trying to stop them via assault squad. The fire thing was working with them if it wasn't one itself." Scooping up one of the dropped assault rifles previously carried by the meat-puppets, he collected a few of the unused magazines from the corpses that weren't completely incinerated. He frowned as he checked the borrowed weapon.

"Sonuva... Who uses AP rounds against infantry? That's just mean."

[frigidmagi]

"Well, our boss is bullet proof, Hotfoot and I have shields and Argent can slip into shadows at will. AP seems kinda underarmed if you're gonna be shooting at us I think." Blast said.

[B4UTRUST]

Japan

A flash of light in the otherwise complete darkness of the chamber turned it briefly into high noon. Kyosuke stepped off the platform as the glowing etched symbols dimmed back to darkness. With a trace of his fingers he ignited the prepared candles, letting the room flicker back to light. Picking up one of the candles he left the chamber and began to make his way through the underground complex to the heart of the demon city. There he would make his bargains and wager his life that he was better then those otherworldly powers.

-----------
Deep in the heart of RCE

"Persistant buggers, aren't they?"
"Yes, very."
"Normally I would reward such resiliency, and tell them to take it and run, but I strongly doubt that will work in this situation. Do you?"
"No, I highly doubt it will at that. Perhaps a bit of a stronger deterrent?"
"You think so?"
"I do not believe they're likely to cease their assault if we continue to throw such inferior power at them."
"Hmmm, you may have something at that. Have the Legions at the ready and begin the revival process of mass production batches twelve through fifteen."
"But aren't those batches under the charge o-"
"Yes, they are. But, given the stakes I doubt he'll say anything. At least not to me, anyway."
"Rank doth have it's privileges, it seems."
"And when you command over eighty legions, you too can have those provileges. Until then you will continue to follow my commands. Now go ready the Legions."

[LadyTevar]

"Now that everyone seems to be back together...," Argent said, looking around at the time, her gaze lingering first on Tachyon, and then on Blackheart. "I found another elevator when looking for the water. It's near the back, and the buttons are marked for down only."

"Wanna bet it only goes down one way?" The question was rhetorical and her half-smile was wry.

[SirNitram]

"If it doesn't try to kill us itself." Gravitas muttered simply, walking forward. "Going to be a long, annoying journey if we keep having to stop like this. Half-tempted to nuke the entire complex." The slow pace that was being set was getting under his skin, but that was probably just residual taint energies.

He stepped onto the elevator, grasping the weapon he had 'appropriated'. "Whenever the rest of you feel like joining me."

[LadyTevar]

"If it doesn't try to kill us itself." Gravitas muttered simply, walking forward

"It won't," Argent answered. "That would spoil their fun."

[Charon]

Legacies followed after Gravitas. The symbiote said nothing, but it was apparent that it too was rather displeased with the slow pace that the group had taken on. "We are giving the enemy time to group. We will go ahead and scout, if you will permit us."

Legacies glanced to Blackheart, then to the floor of the elevator, tempted to tear it open and simply fall down to the next level.

[Cynical Cat]

"Go," said Blackheart.

[LadyTevar]

And that was all Argent needed to hear. Even as Legacies started attacking the elevator's floor, Argent's shadow tedrils also started ripping into it, enlarging an opening for the whole team to drop down the shaft.

Once the hole was made, she looked at Legacies before fading into the shadows and gliding down. "I have your back."

[Charon]

Legacies finished with the hole and dropped down into the shaft, stopping himself just shy of the next floor by digging tendrils into the sides of the shaft. A thin tendril slid down, prying itself between the elevator doors to get a decent look inside as two other tendrils moved to either side of the elevator door, ready to blow the doors out into the room.

[General Havoc]

Hydro listened with equanimity to what the flesh beasts said, both in response to his questions and to one another. As they moved towards the 'elevator' (a sort of solid-matter transporter than shifted objects in a vertical plane, it appeared) Hydro considered his options. The flesh beasts were seeking the overseers of this place, with apparent intent to destroy. He wondered if many of them had also been research subjects within the confines of the complex.

He could go off himself certainly, but that was to risk re-confinement. Besides, he had no idea how to get out of this place. Furthermore the flesh beasts had greeted him with what he took for cordiality (it was damnably difficult to tell sometimes with flesh beasts) and had given him aid when he had confronted the Pyronic entity, aid without which he might not have prevailed over it. Granted, they had likely been acting in their own defence, but the shape-changing flesh beast called 'Argent' had kindly assisted him in bringing his own temperature back down following the confrontation.

Perhaps then it would be best to stay with the flesh beasts. He wasn't sure, but he believed that some of the things they had said had indicated an invitation to do so. Accordingly, Hydro slid over to the discarded "fire extinguisher" (for once, a flesh beast name that made sense!), and gathered it up inside his body, leaving it floating within him like a piece of fruit in a jello cup.

The flesh beasts seemed disinclined to make use of the mechanical elevator. Perhaps it was out of order? Instead they had ripped a hole in the floor, and several of them had jumped down to the next level below. Hydro slid over to the edge and calmly poured himself down through the hole like a waterfall, running along the wall of the elevator shaft down into a calf-deep pool on the floor below, before re-constituting himself. The fire extinguisher he left on the ground, as it could be gathered up as needed.

The flesh beast Legacies was on the point of forcing the doors open, pressing tendrils of unknown natures through them. Hydro would have asked what they were, had Legacies not appeared rather pre-occupied. Still, it was clear he was attempting to ascertain was awaited them on the other side of the door.

Which presented an opportunity for reciprocal assistance, of course.

Unhesitatingly, Hydro plunged headlong into the elevator's doors and flowed through the tiny spaces around and between them, not merely extending a tendril, but pushing his entire body through. Once fully through, Hydro quickly reformed himself up into his customary shape, and took a brief look around.

It clearly did not at all occur to him that there might be something dangerous awaiting him there.

[LadyTevar]

Silver eyes shone in the shadow next to Legacies, although they were eying the door Hydro had just vanished through. "So... is he scouting, or warning them we're coming?" Argent asked. "Should I follow?"

[B4UTRUST]

What awaited on the otherside of the door was not a small legion of disposable bodies loaded with inefficent weapons or even an army of Hell-Knights and demon-spawn.

It was another level of offices, as far as they could tell. Though what was done on this level was, at this moment, unknown. Whats more, people were clearly visable in their offices, continuing their work. In fact one such worker could be heard loudly discussing something over the phone, his office door partially ajar.
"I don't give a shit what the hell Marcy in Accounting said about the budgeting for this project. Wait, wait wait wait wait... look, not my problem, alright? Listen to me carefully. Not. My. Problem. Period. End of sentance. I don't give a shit if you've got to steal the damned money, you will get this contract paid for today by close of business. End of story. No more discussion. I don't care if you are scheduled for that training seminar this afternoon, just get the damned money and the damned job paid off! Damnit! How hard is your damned job? Really? A Jerry's Kid could do your damned job. A trained fucking monkey could do your damned job! Just get it done! *SLAM*"

The hallways they could see seemed to extend out in all directions, rows of offices and cubicle farms with recessed overhead flourescent lighting abound. It was bright, but not blindingly so. It was noisy, though not deafening. It was very very corporate as far as they could see.

One other thing struck the more observant person. The floors were definatly getting larger in size.

[SirNitram]

"See kids, this is why you should lead virtuous lives." Gravitas strode through the cubicle farm with the utter sense he belonged. He already had a suit that marked him as someone who would be calling the shots, not getting them yelled at him. The weapon was merely a courtesy detail.

[frigidmagi]

"What's a Jerry's kid?"Blast asked following Gravitas.

[SirNitram]

"What's a Jerry's kid?"Blast asked following Gravitas.

"There's a class of diseases which attack the muscular and neural networks and corrode them. 'Jerry's Kids' are kids disabled by these and given aid by a charity." Gravitas said simply. "Pretty nasty insults, really."

[frigidmagi]

"Guess it makes sense considering where we are and all." Blast replied.

[LadyTevar]

"Cubical hell?" Argent quipped as she slid from shadow to shadow, not wanting to be caught out in the open this time.

[frigidmagi]

"Yeah something like that." Blast said.

[Charon]

Legacies still led the way, he watched the workers carefully just in case, but he was really only looking for the door to the next level. This was getting tedious.

"We don't suppose there is a faster way to do this, is there? Why don't we simply bore a hole through the floor here to get down to the next level?"

[LadyTevar]

"We don't suppose there is a faster way to do this, is there? Why don't we simply bore a hole through the floor here to get down to the next level?"

"If you recall, there's about 2 floors worth of solid rock above and below us," Argent wryly reminded Legacies. "Feel free to start digging, but I think finding the next elevator will be faster."

She eyed the workers still toiling away, each seemingly absorbed by their duties. "I'd ask where the elevators were, but I prefer not to disturb the cube-rats. The last few have tried to kill us."

[General Havoc]

Hydro followed the other flesh beasts, periodically pausing to admire some particularly impressive (to him) piece of ductwork or a corporate motivational poster.

"Intriguing," he said to nobody in particular. "Tell me, what activities are these flesh beasts engaged in that is so engrossing they seem to take no account of others? It has been my experience that most flesh beasts regard me as a reason for displays of surprise and animated activity..."

[SirNitram]

"I'm guessing they see stranger every day, Hydro." Gravitas said simply as he walked along. "Or they're the dead and damned, in which case there's nothing in there to do the noticing."