Heroes: The Rise of Omnicorp

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:54 am

"Better than every, but no long inconspicuous. Thus the shades." He drained the glass of lemonade and refilled it from the pitcher. The waitress arrived with a platter containing his order. "Excellent," he said, smiling at her.

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:03 am

Li Na was not surprised to see the waitress smile back at Blackheart. She waited for the woman to walk away before she continued. "Welcome to my life," she said ruefully, tilting her head just enough to look over her own shades, before pushing them back in place. "A pity... I liked your eyes. Still, is that the only change you've noticed?"

She'd noticed a big change, and wondered if he had realized it yet.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:06 am

"Everything is different," he replied. He tapped his glasses. "This is the one I have to conceal if I want to do undercover."

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:16 am

"Contacts may work," she suggested. "I can't stand them myself. At least your aura's gone now." The comment was off-hand, casual, but she was very interested in his response.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:18 am

"Won't work for me," he said. "And I'm not surprised the aura is gone. Everything's, how shall I put it, more integrated now."

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Tue May 27, 2008 12:06 pm

Damn... she didn't get to rub in the knowledge. "It's made having you in the house a lot nicer," she said instead, trying to ignore the voice in the back of her head that wondered what sex with him would be like now. She took another bite of her food to cover her silence before speaking again. "You're making me curious what lies under the shades now."

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue May 27, 2008 12:17 pm

He checked to see if anyone was looking and then he flipped up the shades momentarily. The eyes beneath the dark glasses were featureless pools of darkness.

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Tue May 27, 2008 12:27 pm

She stared for a second, then her lips twisted as she tried very hard not to laugh. After a moment or two the struggle of holding in both empathy and laughter had gotten to the point she had to let one go.

She burst into laughter, holding down tightly to her empathy so the whole restuarant wouldn't feel it, as Blackheart showed off the same eyes she saw in her own mirror every morning -- totally black, no pupil or iris visible.

Post by **Dark Silver** » Tue May 27, 2008 12:40 pm

The base was still mostly empty, Saibot ran most of his unfrozen bank accounts dry obtaining what equipment he could, while salvaging what he could of the old equipment. Luckily, the satellite uplink equipment still functioned, allowing him to tap into the global sat-grid. Unfortunatly, the access was limited due to encryptions the relatively ancient computers were not designed to crack. The newer computers would take time to run the advanced decryption software, allowing him access to more than digital television signals and some of the older spy sats.

Still, they had access to the Internets, and with some work and more money...they could eventually get software enough to tap into some of the more secured networks. If he could locate a Cyberpath...it's be cheaper and easier of course....

Right now, they were limited. The base had been cleansed of all easily removable tech back when it was originally decommissioned - weapons, mobile defensive systems, vehicles - all remove and shipped off to warehouses somewhere far far away. The teleportation system was decommissioned, components ripped out, leaving gapping holes that could not be easily fixed. And while the living quarters were sealed, they thankfully still had the basic ammenities - bed, personal washroom and toilet, dresser, vid screen and computer terminals.

"Really need to get cash.....and a technopath..." he muttered, even as he walked through the halls. His personal quarters remained from the time he served in the base, the other Guardian's quarters remained sealed.

You were never here, you know...

The voice whispered in his mind again, the same voice he heard back in Millennium City, just over his thoughts. Whispering like some little gremlin.

Of course he was here before. He remembered it clear as if it was yesterday. He remembered his teammates, those who worked with them, in support of their mission, keeping their weapons and vehicles in working order. Keeping an eye out on the sensors and news feeds, to let them know when they were needed.

He stopped right outside his quarters, staring at the nameplate for long minutes.

He stared at the nameplate for a few long moments, before pressing the button which would make it slide open for him. With luck, Ghost would think to look for him here when nessacry.

He entered, and the door slid shut.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:09 pm

The past week, for Alexander, had been spent healing, learning, and taking care of unfinished business.

As a bachelor, he hadn't spent much of the salary he'd received from OmniCorp for being a "hot commodity" of a young scientist whose training had included how light behaves under duress. Others there had obscenely high-end cars, even a private jet or two. Alexander, on the other hand, had still driven his off-brown 1991 Toyota Corolla to work, the same one he'd had as a much worse-off student. Consequently, he'd begun investing and saving most of his salary during his time at OmniCorp.

He'd also gotten the chance to meet most of the team now, though all of them acted reserved around him - understandable, he supposed - he was the "unknown quantity." Perhaps not quite as much as Hydro was, but in a similar category. Talking with Hydro about the world as he (and Hydro) understood it was a welcome diversion for Alexander when those talks occurred. The highly scientific nature of those talks helped him to relax, and not think about the way his life had spun around and back again over the past week.

He hadn't had a "formal" introduction to the others yet, despite talking to all of them (except the one in the crystalline cocoon; named Gravitas) a few times over the past week. He'd still felt uneasy about his abilities, simply reverting to not using them at all. Perhaps it was due to the trauma of that day where he felt he may have taken a life or two with those damned "abilities" of his; perhaps he was simply nervous about how this group of people who'd in no uncertain terms saved his life (and consciousness) might react to him, and what he could do. The latter seemed to be a more irrational fear, due to what all of them could do on their own - but there it was, haunting him nonetheless.

During the past week, one of them had been kind enough to point him to a local computer store, where his checking account had taken more of a hit in the past week than it had had in the past year. However, the money bought him a very high-end laptop, AutoCAD software, and a few other goodies as well - the rest he could find or purchase elsewhere.

After using his new laptop to secure and distribute his money into different accounts, as he got the feeling he might not be job-hunting for a while, he did something that helped him to relax, and pass time - he began to test and engineer different ideas for photonic circuitry, different mechanical items, and other ideas as well. All were in the theoretical stages, as they all existed as binary or text files on his computer only for now, but all were extensions of how restless his mind was becoming.

Sitting in the living room of the house he had begun thinking of home over the past few days, he was absently drinking his second cup of Hawai'ian Kona coffee as he tinkered more with another design. He was beginning to think he'd need his invested money, if only to begin buying the equipment to allow him to tinker, as he often did at OmniCorp. He realized with a start that he'd have no place to put said equipment for now, and shelved the idea again. Someday, he thought. In the meantime, he began reading science articles while he waited for the others to return.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:12 pm

"Go ahead and laugh," said Blackheart. "You don't have to adjust to your eyes seeing in different spectrums."

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:28 pm

The slightly aggrieved tone in his voice only made her laughter worse, and her empathy started to leak, causing a passing waitress to get the giggles over 'nothing'.

After a moment Li Na managed to regain a little control of herself, taking long deep breaths to try to calm down. She was proud of herself, she'd not had to resort to pushing the emotion away. "Well... no, I've not," she admitted once she could speak again. Whether her vision was normal or not she never really bothered to ask, and now was probably not the time. "My eyes have always been this way, so I've never had that problem. If you want, I'll change topics, as I was wanting to ask you your thoughts on Alexander."

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:37 pm

"The eyes and the optic nerve are all primordial tissue," said Blackheart. "I don't see the same. It's both familiar and disconcerting. And I don't blend in anymore." He paused to wolf down a burrito.

"I don't know about your stray. Just met him. You're the empath. Now, what have you been hiding from me?"

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:47 pm

"You didn't blend in that well before...," Li Na teased him, "All growling and snarling, and that was without your aura."

She was going to ask how much the primodial had taken over when he made his accusation. "And what makes you say that?" she asked, stabbing her folk into her food. "If you're referring to Alexander... he's unsure of himself and nervous around us, waiting for our judgement. Hotfoot's jumpy as well, but he's not yet wanted to talk about it."

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:57 pm

"Do you think changing the subject does anything to make me trust you? You're hiding. You deflect every time I confront you about it. This is twice. It'll get worse the longer it takes to come out. Much worse if that means bodies get attached to it. Now, for the third time, what are you hiding from me?"

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Tue May 27, 2008 2:01 pm

True confusion shown on her face and whispered over the link between them, as she honestly was not hiding anything. "I've not talked to Ghost in a week. I've not left the house, except with Elias until now," she answered, incredulously.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue May 27, 2008 2:05 pm

"Maybe," said Blackheart. "Maybe not. And maybe there is something you decided not to tell me. I've trusted you and you burned me twice. You have no problems about overriding my decisions and doing what the fuck you want with me when you wanted to. So when you change the subject whenever I press, I don't trust you." He ate a forkload of beans. "I could be wrong, but when everything screams 'liar' I tend to think that. Fourth time, what are you hiding from me?"

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Tue May 27, 2008 2:14 pm

Disbelief and confusion leaked through, followed by a slow rise of anger. "You 'could be' wrong?" she exclaimed, her voice rising. "I'm sitting here, -trying- to have an open conversation with you, and you suddenly accuse me of -lying- to you... but you *Could Be* wrong?"

If there was anything she might have forgotten to mention, accidently or on purpose, it was completely gone now in the rush of anger.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue May 27, 2008 2:23 pm

"You don't get to play that card," said Blackheart. "You lost your right to be outraged when you decided to switch my body around like a chess piece and people died. I'm the reason you're not in prison and you've seen fit to fuck me over multiple times. So fuck off or calm down. I don't care which."

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Tue May 27, 2008 4:26 pm

The long silence after that was the calm before the storm, as the shadows behind her grew as heavy and dark and the anger roiling in her mind. It boiled down the links in her mind, giving all the team of taste of just how enraged she was. Even Tachyon's shroud couldn't keep this out completely.

Only one thing prevented a very public blowup... Li Na's knowledge of how public they were in this restaurant. With great grace and extreme willpower, Li Na rose from her seat, leaving her food barely touched. Shadows twisted around the booth, but did not touch Blackheart, although it was clear they wanted to do more than just touch.

"Don't. Come. Home."

With that, Li Na turned and walked towards the door.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue May 27, 2008 4:33 pm

"Post relationship drama," Blackheart said to the waitress. "You know how it is." He bent down to take another fork full of rice.

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Tue May 27, 2008 4:46 pm

Something smacked the back of Blackheart's head. HARD.

Li Na herself fumed her way out the door.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue May 27, 2008 4:50 pm

The meta shrugged. If Argent wanted to go down that route, she would regret it. "Can you bring me the check?" he asked the waitress with a smile. "I should be finished in a few minutes."

LadyTevar · Post by **LadyTevar** » Tue May 27, 2008 4:55 pm

Once outside, Li Na stalked down the sidewalk. Birds took to flight and dogs howled as she vented her wrath, dropping silent curses down upon Blackheart's head in every language she knew, including a few she just knew cursewords for.

Unsurprisingly people were giving her a wide birth as she stalked away from the restaurant and up the street.

Agent Fisher · Post by **Agent Fisher** » Tue May 27, 2008 5:07 pm

Ghost had been exploring the base for a little bit, and had started heading towards the living quarters. He turned the corner and suddenly stopped, feeling rage coming from the link he still shared with Argent. Ghost shook his head, continuing down the hall and stopping at the door to Garth's room.

He reached his hand up and knocked on the door.

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Heroes: The Rise of Omnicorp

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