Heroes: The Road of Good Intentions

[General Havoc]

For a brief moment, as the door came loose and went flying into Hydro, ripping most of his body to droplets and scattering them liberally around the room, Hydro wondered what had just happened. Obviously this was not exactly the reaction he had immediately anticipated, but then it was reasonably likely that this was merely a mis-understanding, or perhaps over pressurized doors. Flesh-beasts could have been hurt had the thing hit them, so it was probably for the best that...

Hydro pulled himself back together to find a massive screaming meta-flesh-beast swinging its limbs at Blackheart and at anything else with in reach, its vocalizations constant with what Hydro knew of aggression displays by flesh-beasts.

... so much for that theory.

However a single meta-human, however strong it pretended to be, was quite plainly not a match for the firepower this group of metahumans deployed. Still... there was no use risking anyone getting hurt un-necessarily. Accordingly, Hydro merely let out a calm bubbling sound, slithered over around Blackheart, took careful aim, and lunged into the enraged meta-human's sternum as hard as he could, like a geyser erupting beneath the enemy target.

Everyone else would get wet of course, but that was an occupational hazard as far as Hydro was concerned.

[B4UTRUST]

The silver tendrils snaked out and pierced shallowly into the skin of the man-beast, finding difficulting once they hit the underlying muscles. Blood, black and thick, oozed slowly from the wounds. The decapitating blow likewise met with resistance, slicing neatly into the skin but finding the underlying body more of a hinderance.

The boot to the chest took the thing to the floor. It skided several feet before coming to a stop, still impaled by Legacies' attack. The mindless rage screamed from its throat as it grabbed the spear-like protrusions as jerked as hard as it could. It was hindered by the lack of leverage of being prone on its back, but it was still strong enough to pull the symbiote and send it airborne over the man-beast.

It rose to its feet, another bellow echoing down the hall, amplifying the noise. When Elias' blast penetrated its gut it hunched over. A second later the blast detonated internally, blowing a fist-sized chunk of flesh outwards. More black blood oozed from the wound. Greyish-violet strands of intestine flopped out of the wound, a brackish-colored watery discharge leaking from the severed ends. It doubled over, hands covering the hole for a second before rising back up.

When the thing rose again to its full height it looked bigger, taller and wider then it had been. The cry of anger and pain was deeper this time, louder. It looked directly at Elias. With a single bound it closed the gap between them and used the momentum to slam the smaller meta into the wall with enough force to indent the craggy stone.

It turned and launched itself back at Blackheart, swinging wildly.

[Cynical Cat]

Blue-white beams flashed from Blackheart's eyes and turned the poor creature's head to ash. The beams of Blackheart's flash vision played over the corpse, reducing it to ash in seconds. "Damn," he whispered.

[B4UTRUST]

The man-beast fell, its head disappearing in a flash of heat and flakes of ash. The smell coming off the thing was nauseating to be sure. Perforated intestinal tract never smelled good. Fortunatly it was taken care of a second later by another blast of flash vision.

[SirNitram]

"...Anyway. I believe the point is made clear on why we don't open strange doors when the walls are covered with sigils." Gravitas said. "Well done, Blackheart. But let's move through this area. I'd rather not find out what effect these have on me."

[LadyTevar]

Argent had just managed to get out of the way as the beast slammed into Tachyon, feeling even more helpless as she watched one of her lovers get planted into the rock wall before the monster turned back towards Blackheart.

As the raging fiend was finally put down, Argent slipped to Elias' side, where it was clear only the strength of his shield had prevented serious injury. The dent in the wall clearly outlined how powerful that blow had been. As she helped Tachyon to his feet, she blocked her fears from the rest of the team, but physical contact revealed not only her shivering, but the helplessness and fear she'd felt in that one second.

"...Anyway. I believe the point is made clear on why we don't open strange doors when the walls are covered with sigils." Gravitas said. "Well done, Blackheart. But let's move through this area. I'd rather not find out what effect these have on me."

Gravitas was being flippant, and said all that needed to be said, yet Argent raised her gaze to meet Blackheart's darkly. "How many rooms are there, Blackheart? Which one do you want to open next?" Brave words from a woman feeling totally helpless in this shadow-less hallway, already knowing that Blackheart was unlikely to back down.

[Marcao]

Elias was confident that there was no way that this thing could manage to stand up again after the beating it had sustained. He was so confident in that fact that he managed to overlook the difficulty that Legacies attacks had in penetrating through the creature’s surprisingly tough skin. Even when Legacies was sent airborne he was adamant that the creature was going to stay down after he was through with it. The explosion from his attack was muffled by its very nature, but its effect was not.

There. That should do it. He thought.

He took no pleasure from his actions but they did not have the time to waste. He looked away as the thing doubled over and took a step to the side. Now they could focus their attention elsewhere. He heard a sound and blinked his attention returning to where the creature had been doubled over moments before.

“You have to be kidding…â€

[LadyTevar]

Something that had been nagging at the back of her mind while she was worried about Tachyon came crashing to Argent's thoughts. Hydro. Water. Bindings of blood.

Her head jerked, looking around the hallway at where they'd exited the elevator, and then to the doorways nearby where Hydro had splashed. "Oh no..." she moaned, staring at the water-splashed walls and doors, watching in horror as the bindings started to wash away. "Hydro's broken the bindings on the next door."

Her eyes flew to Blackheart's face. Once again, he was getting what he wanted, if not in the way he wanted. "Now, either we open it, or it will open behind us."

[Cynical Cat]

"Sounds like a job for me," said Blackheart. He nudged the door open with his foot.

[Dark Silver]

With the nudge of Blackheart's foot, the door swung open.

The cell was dark, no light left it, and the pae light from the hall streamed in seconds after the door opened.

In the corner of the cell, the humanoid figure was slumped down, helmeted head resting chin against his chest, the light glimmering faintly off a ring on his right hand.

Behind the helmet's red visor, Saibot squinted at the sudden light, looking up at the rectangle of light, and muttered incredulously, "This isn't where I left my Ring......"

[LadyTevar]

Shadows...... blessed shadows. They drew Argent forward towards the open door, tempting her to hide within them.

Then the figure in the dark spoke.

*FEAR/DISBELIEF/DENIAL/FEAR* spiked through the links to her teammate as Argent reacted to Saibot's voice, and the shadows of the room streamed out to surround her protectively. "...... A trick........ another trick....." she muttered, looking to Blackheart wide-eyed. "It's not him .... it can't be...."

[Cynical Cat]

"Well well well," said Blackheart. "Is this the real deal or a cunning fake?"

[frigidmagi]

"One way to find out." Blast muttered walking into the cell, with his shield up Saibot couldn't hurt him. The worse that could happen would be Saibot throwing to much of his supernatural energy crap around and him ending up with a hangover tomorrow.

Blast lowered himself so he was eye level with Saibot.

"Do you remember me?" He asked.

[Dark Silver]

Upon closer examination, Blast could see the damage done to Saibot - his black and blue uniform was torn open, the flesh beneath the tears were blackened to such a degree, that from a distance it looked as is the uniform was still hole. The blood that poured from several deep cuts and gashes were dried, making the costume stiff as cardboard in those spots.

Even the visor and helmet were cracked, and as Blast went down to eye level with him, Saibot seemed to shrink smaller into the corner, "No.....your can't trick me again...." He craddled his left arm, and why he didn't stand, Blast could see from his new position - his left leg was broken, the bone threatening to break the flesh and material of the costume.

Saibot's voice was horse, even through the vocal enhancer of the helmet, but the trace of fear was very evident.. He couldn't have been there for more than a couple of hours...."You can't break my body...but not my mind.....not anymore...."

[frigidmagi]

Blast rocked back on his heels and thought for a bit. He slipped into his other *sight* to try and gather more information.

[Dark Silver]

Saibot's head lolled to the side as Blast continued his examination - even in his second sight, Saibot looked like Saibot - the supernatural energy readings where weaker then normal, but nothing else showed through.

As far as the energy-tosser could determine, the man who looked like he just went through Hell's best torture machines was indeed, the former comrade who only a week or so ago, tried to kill him in those subway tunnels. Only weaker.

[LadyTevar]

Blakcheart's calmness and Blast's careful approach allowed Argent to gather her wits and calm down enough to truly look Saibot over. Warning Tachyon away from her with a soft look and a shake of her head, she instead stepped closer to Blackheart.

"We know he's in jail, under sentencing," she told him quietly, partly to convince herself. "And this one has the Ring... which we know is impossible."

[frigidmagi]

"Blackheart? He looks normal boss, but I honestly don't know if a demon could fool energy sight or not. Plus this place is... Off, when I look at it this way. If it is him, he's hurt bad. Really bad. His left leg is definably broken. Maybe his left arm to. We take him with us, we gonna have to carry him out." Blast reported still in the cell.

[SirNitram]

"Beleiving any of your senses down here? Apparently demons don't come across as 'deceivers' in this timeline." Gravitas groused. While he couldn't spot any specific tells to show this was anything other than Saibot, he didn't trust anything in this place.

"We aren't equipped to do this. We didn't come for a wounded extract."

[frigidmagi]

"Deciding to disbelieve all of my senses is a quick route to insanity I will not take thank you very much." Blast retorted, a thought occured.

"Hey, Angel guy... Come here and tell us what you think." Blast called out.

[Agent Fisher]

"Now the group asks for my advice." He mutters then sighs, walking over to the cell. Michael knelt down, looking at the battered form. The angel tilted his head, looking at Blast. "What do you want to know?"

[frigidmagi]

Blast was a practicing Catholic so he didn't swear at the person who maybe, possibly could be a representative of God himself... But damn if he didn't want to. He always thought angels would be quicker on the uptake.

"Is this guy human or a demon in disguise." He said instead.

[LadyTevar]

Argent overheard that very easily. "The -human- we saw on the news this morning, if you recall, Blast," she said, her voice patronizing and bitter. "He was being lead away from the courthouse into custody before being sent up to the Satellite for his crimes." Like trying to kill her, and Blackheart, and Gravitas. Like cracking a section of Old New York, and thus causing the deaths of several homeless, meta and non, who squatted in that area.

Like being no more than she, a common thief.

"Use your brain, Blast," Argent continued angrily. "Why would he be here. Why would he have the Ring." She looked away from the angel and the huddled figure in the dark, over to Hotfoot. "Just let Hotfoot find the next elevator, let's do what we came here for, and then let us Leave."

[Dark Silver]

Saibot heard the voices, behind the cracked helmet, his eyes swept over those outlines he could see. To dark still, the light contrasted in his vision to allow him to see only dark outlines.

"Stay away!" he shouted hoarsely, lifting his good arm, the right one...the one wearing the Ring.

He first impulse was to protect himself, they were tricking him. The Ring glowed brillantly for a moment, and his body was consumed in red flames, his screams of pain and anguish echoed within the cell, as the fire snaked over his body, then receeded, leaving no trail on the costume.

"Why...." he sobbed, "Why.......won't..."

Saibot curled into a ball, huddling into himself...if only to provide a smaller more compact target for the coming beatings.

[SirNitram]

"Long term abuse. Psychological scarring. Aversion therapy." Gravitas noted each as he watched Saibot. "They all take quite a bit of time. But they achieved the primary goal with this. We've stopped again." He said darkly. They had to open doors. They had to slow down. The enemy was fortifying, and they slowed down. And now.. What were they supposed to do? Take this wretched clone or husk with them? He'd be dead weight and worse.