As the hand with the Ring rose, so did the shadows rise up, interlocking and interweaving into a barrier that curved around Argent ... and Blackheart. Exclusively.
The sudden cry and shock of pain dropped the shadow-wall just as quickly. "what ... just happened...?" Argent asked, shivering in the aftermath.
"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.
Gravitas' explanation only made it seem worse. "So, you're saying ... this one has been here some time?" Argent asked cautiously. "So, ... again ..., he can't be Saibot?"
Dogs are Man's Best Friend
Cats are Man's Adorable Little Serial Killers
Legacies had gotten himself up after falling to the floor when the beast threw him. He'd followed quietly behind the group as they openned the next door, and then remained passive for now as it watched Saibot. As the others started discussing his fate, Legacies stepped forward, apparently heedless of the risk, though he was prepared to activate the speed of the dagger he held in order to dodge.
"Are you Saibot? Tobias?" The silver creature leaned down, it's large blank eyes looking at Saibot almost quizically. "What is," the creature paused, as though picking it's next words carefully, "my name? What is my name?"
The helmeted head lifted up, letting the visor rest in line of sight with the silver face. The man's words cracked, a trick or from the pain he was under, "No...your not Mark.....I won't tell you how to hurt them...."
Allen Thibodaux | Archmagus | Supervillain | Transfan | Trekker | Warsie |
"Then again, Detective....how often have you dreamed of hearing your father's voice once more? Of feeling your mother's touch?" - Ra's Al Ghul
"According to the Bible, IHVH created the Universe in six days....he obviously didn't know what he was doing." - Darek Steele bani Order of Hermes.
DS's Golden Rule: I am not a bigot, I hate everyone equally. | corollary: Some are more equal than others.
The monk spoke up from behind the gathered group. "He's real. Well, as real as anything down here."
There was something wrong with his eyes. There was no color, just glossy white. Even the whites of a person's eyes have a bit of color. Tiny veins, the barest grey-yellow hue. Hector's were whiter than paper. "If he's been excecuted, then he could have been here for years. Supposedly, time is subjective in the afterlife, though I'll admit that there aren't many sources who can back up that claim that make themselves available to mortals."
He made his way a little closer. "I'm about to make an assumption and run wild with it." He hunkered down a little more than two arms' length away from the broken, bloody figure. Blinking, his eyes regained their color as though they had never been those blank glassy spheres. "Saibot, right? My name is Hector. I'm going to guess that people who look a lot like your friends have been doing bad things to you. You probably feel like you can't trust anyone you've ever known. Well, you don't know me. Mind telling me what's happened?"
Last edited by Bloody Good on Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Remember: Die angry, and leave a heavy corpse.
"A + B = KNIFE!"
-Red Mage, Twinkin' Out, Issue 21
LadyTevar wrote:"So, ... again ..., he can't be Saibot?"
"How do you know that this isn't the real Saibot? Perhaps the one you know of is a fake." The Angel said, watching Hector talk with the broken form in the cell.
Morpheus:I remember that I am here not because of the path that lies before me but because of the path that lies behind me.
Blast was getting annoyed. Apprantely angels were slow on the uptake or something, which he supposed explained why Satan was able to con so many of them in the first place.
"Yeah, whatever, look just answer the question is this guy a human or a demon or something else? And if he is something else, what is he? Straight answer time here cloud sitter." Blast said.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
A small part of the red visor cracked, sending tiny shards of the hard red material outward, not even enough to make themselves felt on impact with human flesh. Then, as Saibot looked at the strange voice, the questioning voice, the visor cracked, and a shard fell straight outward, revealing finally a small bit of his face.
The flesh was burnt and scared underneath, but unmistakably Garth for those who had seen it - the eyes which were once so calm, deep and held strength of will, where now unfocused, frantic in movement, pupils wide as if he searched for where the pain would come next.
His voice, for a moment, regained some of the old strength, "The sewers...was in the sewers....angry.....they risked themselves...was going to get them there...not hurt....."
The eyes seemed to focus harder for a minute, as he told it disjointedly, "Lei...Lei was gone....I was angry...couldn't feel her....they killed her....I'll kill them for it....I'll avenge her....then darkness......cold....alone....then then...."
Saibot's voice cracked then, the one visible eye watering then running down his cheek, as he began to sob..."Raped me....Blackheart..Lei...Mark....beat me...useless....so useless......"
He cried then, for several minutes, as he relived those memories, the pain that his body felt, "Tossed me aside...old...useless....waste of flesh...Lei didn't love me....then darkness again..."
Saibot's eyes hardened again, his good fist tightening, "Darkness...They came..." His voice changed, becoming darker, more threatening, "They changed my Ring...they ordered me to do things... 'Tell us how to beat them. What is the silver one's weakness! Who is Gravitas?!' The pain always came....they hurt with fire, and steel and sharp things...It felt like years...I never told them....I couldn't betray my team........Lei would never forgiven me.....Lei is dead...." His eye focused on the shilloute which controls the shadows...he knew who she was suppossed to be, "Lei is dead......their tricks....I won't fall for it.....won't betray....."
Allen Thibodaux | Archmagus | Supervillain | Transfan | Trekker | Warsie |
"Then again, Detective....how often have you dreamed of hearing your father's voice once more? Of feeling your mother's touch?" - Ra's Al Ghul
"According to the Bible, IHVH created the Universe in six days....he obviously didn't know what he was doing." - Darek Steele bani Order of Hermes.
DS's Golden Rule: I am not a bigot, I hate everyone equally. | corollary: Some are more equal than others.
"No." Argent's voice was sharp and bitter, and her words were brittle as glass. "Lei is not dead... although when we found Saibot in those sewers, he threw Hotfoot and Blast around like dolls, and then sliced me from hipbone to breast. Shall I show you the scar?"
Her black eyes were flashing silver, yet her empathy was rigidly controlled. "He left me for dead, Monk, while he went hunting for Blackheart and Legacies. He dropped a city block on Gravitas, killing dozens of homeless who lived in the tunnels and the streets above. Then ........." and her voice crackled a little, as the shadows around her moved uneasily. " ... then ... when caught ... he had the Gall to say he still loved me."
The shadows roiled around her as she turned away, like fog disturbed by wind. "Gravitas is right. This is a waste of time." Anger propelled her away, stalking down the hallway, with the shadows following her as far as they could into the ambient glow of walls and bindings around her.
Dogs are Man's Best Friend
Cats are Man's Adorable Little Serial Killers
Hotfoot watched the scene with a serious frown. This was bad, and there was no good answer. He wondered what his father would do in this situation, what would be the right thing to do.
"This doesn't make sense. Saibot is on trial. He's in custody on the other end of the country. I mean, here he is talking about being tortured with illusions of things he thought were real. What's to say this isn't an illusion? I mean, he could be a shapechanger, or this could be a mind trick or something. It's not like we haven't seen this sort of thing before. I could be wrong but...don't we have to look at the possibility?"
He felt bad to say it, but here they were in this demon-created place, and things weren't making sense. The last proper mission he was on was the one where Saibot had gotten mindfucked, and he himself had felt what it was like to do and think things that were not from his control. He looked to Elias, knowing that he was somewhat resistant to mental powers of a sort, but he had no idea what could prove this wasn't the real Saibot if it were a robot, clone, or whatever.
"Trust the agents of Deus not to be able to answer yes or no questions." Gravitas rumbled absently. "I'd say, except these wards are messing with my senses; they must have been what made me start seeing passages where they weren't and missing others."
The Nova looked down to the broken man. "I leave this one to Blackheart. Are we on an assault or an evac mission? And I'd say hurry, because someone will notice the wards shattering."
Half-Damned, All Hero.
Tev: You're happy. You're Plotting. You're Evil.
Me: Evil is so inappropriate. I'm ruthless.
Tev: You're turning me on.
"This is a lie," said Blackheart. "And even if it wasn't, Saibot is a man who pursued his own gratification and caused great harm in the process." His eyes glowed. "Either way this is close enough to justice that I can live with it. It might even be a mercy."
Brilliant light starkly illuminated the cell for a moment and then there was just a swirling column of ash.
It's not that I'm unforgiving, it's that most of the people who wrong me are unrepentant assholes.
"Sometimes I wonder about the wisdom of following someone with a Primordial lodged in their brain." Gravitas admitted, then started walking. "But that was a rather badly made fake. Asking who I am? Heaven and Hell know... And anyone with an internet connection can find me."
The Nova walked along after Blackheart. "Pick up the pace, and let's stop opening random doors."
Half-Damned, All Hero.
Tev: You're happy. You're Plotting. You're Evil.
Me: Evil is so inappropriate. I'm ruthless.
Tev: You're turning me on.
Blast was left looking rather silly squatting down on his heels next to a pile of ash. Blackheart was likely right and if he was wrong... Well that was in God's hands now and in the middle of hell was a lousy time to pick a moral fight. Although vaping the old boyfriend of the chick you bang while declaring him a fake was kinda.... Yeah, but when had Blackheart taken the easy way out of anything?
Still, he hoped Blackheart wasn't gonna make a habit of that.
He stood up and dusted off his hands quietly, hoping the mask hide his worry and doubt and followed silently.
Last edited by frigidmagi on Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
Michael turned towards the group, a sad look on his face. The angel said nothing, simply waited for this misbegotten group of metahumans, demons, and a nova with a god complex to continue on their journey.
Morpheus:I remember that I am here not because of the path that lies before me but because of the path that lies behind me.
Agent Fisher wrote:Michael turned towards the group, a sad look on his face. The angel said nothing, simply waited for this misbegotten group of metahumans, demons, and a nova with a god complex to continue on their journey.
Argent noticed the angel's face. She needed a target, to let out some of what seeing Saibot had done to her. The angel was as good as any. "If you wanted him to live, holyman, then you should not have been playing the 'Go not to elves for counsel' trick." She turned, once again walking down the hallway, attempting to avoid stepping on any of the bindings criss-crossing the floor. "And they say Demons are deceptive. Hydro? Watch where you're oozing and try not to destroy anymore binding wards? Please?"
Dogs are Man's Best Friend
Cats are Man's Adorable Little Serial Killers
Gravitas strode onwards, shaking his head. Deception and madness abound. At least everyone seemed to realize there's no way that could have been Saibot.. And that opening more doors was Bad.
Half-Damned, All Hero.
Tev: You're happy. You're Plotting. You're Evil.
Me: Evil is so inappropriate. I'm ruthless.
Tev: You're turning me on.
"Alright," said Blackheart. "We won't abandon these doors, but we won't be further delayed by them. We'll come back for them when we've cleared out the rest. Unless anyone has any objections to that plan?"
It's not that I'm unforgiving, it's that most of the people who wrong me are unrepentant assholes.
"I'll bring us back here myself, Blackheart," was Argent's answer, as she ignored the tiny worry in the back of her head that Blackheart might not be himself long enough to keep that promise.
Dogs are Man's Best Friend
Cats are Man's Adorable Little Serial Killers
Hector took one last look into the charred room. Heaving a sigh, he stopped long enough to remove a metal canteen from his pack, and flick droplets of holy water across the ashes.
"Nice to know the sort of people I'm walking next to. Sanctimonious enough to pass judgement on friends, and hard enough to carry it out personally. Old school Inquisitor material."
Striding from the room, he put away his canteen. "Normally, I would be telling my team to remember that just because someone is hurting doesn't make them an innocent victim, but I guess that isn't really an issue here." The faintest hint of a smirk tugged at his face. "Wish I'd had you folks back in Murmansk."
Remember: Die angry, and leave a heavy corpse.
"A + B = KNIFE!"
-Red Mage, Twinkin' Out, Issue 21
"Monk, are you tired of this mortal coil?" Gravitas said bluntly. "Because so far you've been passing alot of judgement yourself, and you and your companion, for all you claim divine guidance, have been as useful as boils on my genetically superior ass."
The godling wasn't pleased. "And you call us sanctimonious. Your pathetic excuse for an angelic counterpart refused to answer a question that would have preserved that man or demon's life. He did not even bother with a 'I don't know'. No, it was riddles and questions spat in our faces. Do not make such accusals again, monk."
Half-Damned, All Hero.
Tev: You're happy. You're Plotting. You're Evil.
Me: Evil is so inappropriate. I'm ruthless.
Tev: You're turning me on.
"Nice to know the sort of people I'm walking next to. Sanctimonious enough to pass judgement on friends, and hard enough to carry it out personally. Old school Inquisitor material."
"Normally, I would be telling my team to remember that just because someone is hurting doesn't make them an innocent victim, but I guess that isn't really an issue here." The faintest hint of a smirk tugged at his face. "Wish I'd had you folks back in Murmansk."
Gravitas barely got his indignant speech said before the shadows in the darkened cell rose up like a battering ram and slammed the monk off his feet and face-planted him into the far wall.
"Shut. Up." Argent hissed, her eyes totally silver as she glared at the pinned monk. Whether she was reacting to Gravitas' anger, Blackheart's annoyance, or the entire team's was moot at this point. She herself had enough of the monk's prattling. "You know Nothing of Us, and even Less of Him, Monk. Another moment, and I Myself would have sliced the head off his shoulders, just to remove him from my sight." The shadows not holding the Monk to the wall sprouted sharp pointy bits similar to Legacies own tendrils. "Perhaps I should remove You, instead."
Dogs are Man's Best Friend
Cats are Man's Adorable Little Serial Killers
