Heroes: The Road of Good Intentions

[SirNitram]

"Extremely. These channel power.. If they are binding, that means they could either trap someone.. Say an extrauniversal entity like myself or a demon, a specific class of living thing, like maybe you or Argent, or who knows what." Gravitas mused. "If they aren't binding, I have alot of work to translate. And we may not have time if I can't do so quickly."

[Agent Fisher]

"Binding and warding." The Angel said. Michael leaned forward, looking at them. "I can't be sure of what origin the scheme comes from, but these are meant to trap with in."

Pointing at a door, Michael spoke up again. "A prison cell." Michael glanced at the group. "Be careful, try not to damage the scheme, I don't want to find out what is held inside."

[Hotfoot]

The shield snapped down and Hotfoot looked around. "Well, call me crazy, but if the bad guys have something locked up, don't you think it might be useful to us? Heck, for all we know, there's good people locked up in these things. I mean, I'd think that if they were on the other side, they'd have used them by now to stop us, wouldn't you think?"

[LadyTevar]

"Hotfoot does have a point," Argent had to admit. "Something dangerous enough for the demons to lock away are most likely able to harm them as well."

She was highly uneasy, both from the warding sigils and from the lck of shadows. Even the ones cast by the team were weak and faded, unable to hide her and near unless should it come to a fight. "However, they may also be ... experiments ... that have been driven too insane to be allowed loose. I believe it's best we leave them alone, as the Angel suggests."

[Cynical Cat]

"We don't leave people at the mercy of these evil fucks," said Blackheart. "They may need jail or they may need to be put down, but we aren't leaving people in their hands. Period."

[LadyTevar]

The look Argent gave David clearly questioned his sanity. "If it comes to a fight, I will be nearly useless, Blackheart," she said, pointing to the wall where a faint shadow lie. "That's your own shadow. I can't even get it to move, because there's not enough depth to give it shape."

[Cynical Cat]

"We don't leave people as prisoners of Nazis, Stalinists, Khmer Rouge, drug kingpins, and sure as hell we don't leave people as prisoners to demons from whatever hell dimension is running this place. Period." Blackheart's voice did not invite debate.

[frigidmagi]

"Blackheart's right, we ain't leaving people behind in hell." Blast said.

[LadyTevar]

As always, Argent backed down, quietly stepping back to Tachyon's side to allow Blackheart to open the first door. For once, she did not assume her stronger shadow-dragon form. It would do little good in this area of sigil wards and faded shadows, if she thought she could assume it at all.

[SirNitram]

"I would advise that we may be dealing with entities vastly more powerful than those here." Gravitas sighed. "And they may not like us. Enemy of my enemy is an ideal, not the reality."

[Agent Fisher]

"You do realize that these are heavy binding and warding schemes. Whatever is in there isn't nice. And it's going to be pissed as hell as being stuck in there. And what will be the first thing they see? A group with two demons in it. I wonder how they will react." Michael said, before drawing his sword, just in case.

[LadyTevar]

"The wards are blocking me from reading anything from inside the rooms," Argent added, her hands down by her sides, fists clenched and white-knuckled. "After getting nearly possessed once, I am not interested in repeating that experience." Even if she felt David and Elias could bring her back a second time.

[Cynical Cat]

"No," Blackheart said coldly, "whatever is in there may be nice. The binding and warding schemes just mean that the prisons are very secure. Its the same kind of shit you might use to hold Gravitas or Blast or me or a fucking angel as well as a demon. I do know basic magical theory you morally bankrupt piece of shit with delusions holiness. If whatever is in there needs killing, we'll put it down but down on this planet we consider it morally reprehensible to torture even evil sons of bitches for sport. You can go fuck off to whatever floating cloud you're from if doing the right thing is too goddamn hard."

[LadyTevar]

"Then open the door and let's get it over with," Argent replied, before Blackheart and Michael got into a fight.

[Charon]

Legacies glanced around at the others. "We are with the angel on this. Whatever creature, if there is one, is bound here may not exactly be one of the 'good guys'." Legacies moved towards the doors. "Though at the very least, we can attempt to point it in the direction of the people that put it here."

[Cynical Cat]

"Why am I not surprised that the guy with the big fangs and the slurping tongue doesn't appreciate the finer moral issues," Blackheart asked rhetorically. He walked to the first door. "Brace yourselves." He kicked the door. Hard. Very, very hard.

[General Havoc]

As the conversation shifted from an intellectual discussion of the sigils located on the floor to one regarding the morality of liberating the beings confined within the prisons that the sigils protected. Hydro did not understand the finer points of flesh-beast morality, and what little he DID understand was tailored towards normal flesh-beasts, not these meta-flesh-beasts. However, he had his own thoughts on the matter, and he drew himself up and made them perfectly clear.

"I should not like to place too much faith on a single instance," suggested Hydro in as erudite a fashion as he was capable, "but unless I am mistaken, the last confinement chamber that you encountered was the one I was imprisoned within and subjected to experiments of pressure and temperature that involved being boiled alive." The water elemental's alien voice was perfectly calm, but also perfectly impassive. "I assure you all, that is no more pleasant to a hydraulic life form than it would be to a flesh-beast."

He formed himself up once more into a heaving mass of water, positioned next to the door. "If there is even the slightest chance that such things are being done to other entities, hydraulic or otherwise, within this chamber, then I am going to reduce the chamber's restraints and liberate the confined entities, with or without assistance. Should they prove hostile, then they can be dealt with as needed, but I would not have had you all pass by my own confinement chamber any more than I will pass by this one."

Hydro parted like the Red Sea to permit Blackheart (was that name an anatomical term?) to pass and strike at the door, and reformed himself into a large, dark, watery structure six feet high, ready to pour into the chamber as soon as something emerged.

"Take what steps you deem necessary," he said. "I will enter and ascertain the situation."

[SirNitram]

"If this one containers a Primordial, I'm blaming you, Blackheart." Gravitas just shut his eyes. Too often things in places like this twisted your mind if you looked, so he wouldn't. While dampened, his sense of the world around him would grant him the ability to fight.

[B4UTRUST]

The door buckled under the force of Blackheart's kick. The hinges were ripped from the wall. The metal shrieked in protest of the cruel treatment it recieved as it began to fall inwards. The wardings on the door were broken with the contamination of the footprint, releasing the binding.

The door stopped before it reached the ground, still hiding the interior of the room. It's movement was halted and reversed in an instant and the door came flying out of its frame into the hallway.

Behind it was a huge hulk of what was probably a man, or might once had been, though any resemblance was in passing only. It stood over eight foot tall and was as wide as the doorframe. It let out a bellow of rage as it surged forward. IVs and sensors were ripped out and off by the movement. The muscles flexed and moved, driving the massive frame.

It was hairless and moved quickly, looking very much like nothing more then slabs of meat slapped atop one another with a head to finish it off. It hit the edge of the doorframe in its charge and broke a large chunk of rock and metal off in the process. It didn't even slow down or hesitate.

As soon as it got in range it aimed a haymaker at Blackheart's head, fully intending to pop it like an over-ripe mellon.

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart ducked the skull crushing haymaker and lashed out with a kick aimed at smashing the side of the creature's knee.

[LadyTevar]

Somehow, 'I told you so' was not the right thing to say at the moment.

Unfortunately, nothing was the right thing to do at this moment, as the chances of making Grod the Barbaric feel a little warm and fuzzy inside were slim, and the bastard who designed this floor didn't leave enough shadows to piss in, much less manipulate. And somehow, Argent really didn't think Tai-Chi was going to do much to that monster.

No, 'I told you so' was really NOT the right thing to say at the moment, so Argent simply slipped back to put Blast and Tachyon in front. Maybe one or both of them could blast it to pieces.

[B4UTRUST]

The kick connected with the side of the knee with a bone-crunching impact. The knee twisted sideways as the cap dislocated and slid around. The snapping sound was something similar to someone breaking a piece of celery, wet and crisp.

The man-beast let out a wordless bellow of rage and pain as it grabbed its busted knee and forcefully twisted it back into place. It looked over at Blackheart, still hunched over and screamed wordlessly again in the hero's face, spittle flying from its lips in a fine spray.

With a twist of its hips it brought its hands around, clasped together and used the extra torque to return the favor to its would-be saviour in the form of a hammer blow to Blackheart's side.

Another howl escaped its throat as it launched itself into Blackheart intent on beating the man into a thin, greasy paste spread all over the nice neat floor

[Charon]

Legacies waited, letting it become apparent that Blackheart had screwed up this time. No words were spoken, but the way the creature held itself for those few seconds made it apparent.

Then as the creature strode forward again Legacies struck. Dozens of spears of silver flew out to impale the creature and to use Legacies own strength to stop it in it's tracks as a sword edge thin blade jumped out, intent upon cutting off the creatures head.

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart caught the incoming fist and turned it aside, ending the move by snapping the wrist. He stepped forward to kick the creature in the chest, sending it sprawling to the floor of the cell.

[Marcao]

His eyes lingered on the floor and absorbed all the information that was presented to him. He took a deep breath and held it before he sighed. "I think I liked the above floors better." He said softly. There was a voice in the back of his skull that warned him that this was where their little trip began in earnest. His head turned and he glanced at Argent as she offered her thoughts and floated upwards, his eyes following her until she disappeared into the top of the shaft.

"Binding eh?" He said when Gravitas spoke. When he clarified the source of the sigils he sighed once more. The more he heard, the less he liked it. When the others arrived he made his way out of the shaft and into the floor properly. He was not nearly as familiar as his surroundings as others in the team, so he settled on silence. His head turned as he made an effort to make sure that he was as intimately aware of his surroundings as he could be. He did not want to be on the receiving end of any surprises.

Hotfoot spoke and he glanced towards the meta as he considered his words. There was certainly a possibility that his words were accurate. Argent chimed in and in her words laid some of his concerns. Blackheart made his thoughts known a moment later with remarkable finality and a part of him wondered if this was the meta or the parasite talking. Was the thing inside of him reacting to the presence of the angel? He frowned for a moment as he considered his options.

“I can understand the sentiment Blackheart but there are a lot of these cells. How much time are we willing to spend here?â€