Heroes: The Rise of Omnicorp

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost nodded, figuring she meant Garth. "Yeah." He said.

[LadyTevar]

She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. "Fuck this.. " she muttered, and elongated into dragon form. Without a world she grapped Ghost, his stuff, and what was left of the food and vanished between.

8 heartbeats later, the longest trip she'd ever taken him on, she emerged with Ghost in a tastefully decorated family room, where a large glass panel doorway looked out over a swimming pool towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

Argent herself reformed into human, the food settling onto a counter between the family room and the kitchen before she took two steps and collapsed on the couch. "Welcome to my home, Dan...." she said quietly. "Hydro and ... Lightboy... whatever his name is... should be here somewhere. Lightboy should come to the smell of food."

[General Havoc]

And just like that, they were back.

There was nothing apparent to indicate to anyone observing that any of the metafleshbeasts had returned. All that there was was smaller elements. The soft "pop" of air being displaced. The vague tinge of organic matter in the air emitting from the dwelling. The sight of the shadows in the vicinity cast by various objects darkening for no apparent purpose...

Hydro said nothing, but slithered quietly into the room into which Argent and a flesh beast he did not recognize had appeared. Argent was sprawled out on a reclining device of some sort, and the stranger standing in the center of everything.

"Has... everything been concluded?" he asked, not entirely certain how else to put it. "Where... where are the other metafleshbeasts who were sent to confront Saibot?"

That his appearance might come as a slight surprise to the newcomer did not even cross his mind.

[SirNitram]

"Sorry, punk. To you, I am Gravitas." The defensive gravity field snapped up around the others. Now, he could focus entirely on it, and thus keep back a Guardian. "Good grief. You whine about getting old? How old are you, that you're that self-centred?" He muttered.

[B4UTRUST]

At least two corpses were going to be laying on the desert floor before day's end. Multiple offers and chances for peaceful resolutions had been put out, though nobody seemed interested in them. Their first instincts were violence and destruction. That was fine, they had dealt with that before. Jokes of old age aside, they were seasoned vets with many a fight under their belts. And Blackheart was far from the first they had faced who believed himself untouchable just because he could regenerate from wounds and was a little harder to hurt. You just had to know how to hurt them.

The Black Guardian was moved back by the impact of the kick, though he was mostly unharmed. The Red was starring down at Blackheart's hand, which was currently wrapped tightly around his throat and threatening to break his neck should his shield or will fail.

The time for talking was over. So much for the peaceful ending. Blackheart's life was forfeit. Attacking people whose sole real power was to turn their imagination and will into reality was never an idea that any would consider a brilliant one. Moving into such a close range with them was even less of one.

The blade of hard-light materialized at the base of the back of Blackheart's neck. The mono-edge of it passed easily into the flesh and had only minor resistance at the spinal column before finishing its path through the front of the throat and out again. The blade was wide enough to prevent the wound from regenerating, keeping the physical barrier between the two halves. A second blade, softly glowing black, appeared to sever the wrist from the hand that was choking the Red Guardian.

The corpse fell. The head stayed, resting on the blade. The still attached hand glowed softly for a second before the fingers spread apart far enough for the ring held within to slip out and fly upwards. The White Guardian grasped it. Before the body hit the ground a blackish-red puree shot out of the gaping neck stump, similar to what happened when a blender was operated without a lid. A giant, bloody mess.

The ring was slid onto the finger. An enormous slab of light, shifting between a luminous blue and white and the hues between appeared over the complex before simply dropping and pressing down, burying it all beneath the sand.

The White Guardian's voice rang out again.
"Fine, Gravitas then. Just remember what I said. Now take your comrades and leave. Two deaths is enough for one day."

[LadyTevar]

"Has... everything been concluded?" he asked, not entirely certain how else to put it. "Where... where are the other metafleshbeasts who were sent to confront Saibot?"

That his appearance might come as a slight surprise to the newcomer did not even cross his mind.

"Not yet, Hydro," Argent answered, still lying on the couch resting. "I was sent to work with Ghost, a former teammate." That was the easiest explaination she could think about. "Ghost, this is Hydro. He's a water elemental we picked up in Raising Cain Enterprises," she explained to the former CIA agent before looking back to the mobile water bubble. "The rest of the team should be back so--"

She bolted upright on the couch, eyes huge as she -felt- what was happening. "No! Not Blackheart too!" she exclaimed as she rolled off the couch, barely transforming to shadowdragon before she vanished between, leaving both Ghost and Hydro alone in the house.

She did not count the heartbeats, pushing herself to travel the distance as fast as possible. When she arrived, the shadows exploded into life around the team, growing and expanding as she rose skyward. For a moment she paused there, hovering over the team like a guardian dragon over an ancient temple, ebony and silver, fiercely protective.

Her silver eyes took in the scene -- 3 Guardians, black, red, and white. Dead Saibot. Dying Blackheart. The team horrified and angered.

A fight would be useless, and waste precious time. With barely a concious thought the shadows wrapped around the team and around the two bodies in the sand, swallowing them and Blackheart's head all into darkness. Argent stared down the Guardians as the team vanished, judging their emotions. The blank helmets gave away nothing.

Finally she spoke, looking straight at the White Guardian. "If you had not burdened Garth with your memories, he would have been the hero you wanted. Instead .. the Guardians are now tainted by him. You. Failed. Again." With those words she threw the anguish and pain Garth had suffered from his memories back in the White Guardian's mind; punishment for everything that Saibot had done. Then she too vanished Between, carrying the team back to San Fran, hoping she'd left the White Guardian in deep pain.

The team reappeared on the patio, by the pool. Blackheart's head was reunited with his body; Saibot's body she stored between for the moment. Argent reformed as human, crossing to Tachyon's side. Her eyes searched him, reassuring herself Elias was unharmed before she slid her arms around him and buried her face in his chest, seeking comfort in his arms and in his shroud.

At this point she could only pray that the Primordial had the strength to heal Blackheart. There was nothing more she could do.

[General Havoc]

If Hydro had possessed eyes, he would have blinked them. As he did not, he contented himself with merely sliding his tendril around slowly to face the one Argent had identified as "Ghost".

"My exact nature is undetermined. 'Elemental' implies a causational association that is as yet unproven. I am uncertain, but I believe that there exist pre-determined or at least archetypical motivational or behavioral patterns implied within the phrase, and therefore at present I accept it only for lack of a better term."

His voice was perfectly placid and calm as he stated the above, as though this was the most normal thing in the world to say to strangers who had materialized out of thin shadow with no warning in the middle of the day. Perhaps it was.

"In any event, I have no doubt that Argent and the remaining Meta-flesh-beasts of this organization will return with all due promptness. My proper name is Dihydrogen Monoxide, but 'Hydro' will suffice as a reasonable contraction. Argent indicated that you were formerly associated with the Metaflesh - "

A loud pop, as air rushed in to fill a void suddenly summoned out of nothing, drew Hydro's immediate attention, and his tendril snapped around far more violently than any flesh-beast's head could. "... pardon me," he said suddenly, whether hearing something imperceptibly wrong or some other sense, and slithered away, flowing easily over the countertop and straight through the patio door, his constituent water flowing through cracks and gaps beneath and around the door, reforming with as much ease as a flesh beast would use to walk.

"Great Singularity..." he said with what passed for astonishment at the scene before him. "What... what occurred?!"

[rhoenix]

He ran. Without stopping, without looking back, he ran. Behind him, he could hear the now-mechanical voices of Argent, Hotfoot, Blackheart, Blast, and Gravitas, moving and speaking in perfect sync. "Just stop running, we'll catch up eventually. There is no place to hide."

In his fear, Alexander stopped running and lashed out both physically and with his now-unhidden power over photons, but it was not enough. They reached him to grasp his wrists, and the device came out. He could stare into it's cold, merciless depths as they moved it over his face, and he felt it puncture his temples.

Gasping, and drenched in a cold sweat, Alexander awoke with eyes widened in fright. The nightmares were less frequent now when he tried to exhaust himself in training, but they still visited every now and then.

As he more fully entered the waking world, Alexander noticed the sounds below, the sounds of voices and movement, some of it frantic. Grabbing his now-empty glass of orange juice and putting on a tank top, he walked barefoot down the stairs to the kitchen, and he then noticed the commotion of the others, and moved closer.

"By all that's holy, what happened?" he asked, in shock.

[Marcao]

He wasn’t exactly sure where they had gone astray. It seemed as if everything and everyone had turned against them and life had turned from something worth protecting to being a fickle bitch. Team Mirage had suffered loss before and it had shaken the team to its foundation. The loss of Blackheart could very well be its death knell. He did not see it all, not in its entirety and a part of him was grateful. Nonetheless, the pain that flooded through him at the realization that the Meta was gone was all too real. There was another emotion mingled with that pain, shame at not having been able to do anything to prevent it.

The shame was pushed away. What did it matter now? More importantly, what could he have done to keep Blackheart alive? He would have charged towards where the fire was strongest regardless, it was his way. Before he could offer any words or action, the shadows exploded to life around the team. For a moment, the arrival of Argent did little to dull the pain within him. She had chosen to stay away on her own volition; she had chosen to not participate in this operation. Was she responsible for this?

No.

He could not see a simple way that Argent’s presence would have kept Blackheart alive. He would have charged in, it was his way and he would not have allowed Argent to teleport him away. He would have been furious with her for doing so; he remembered all too well the struggles between them both. It was hard to believe that those two had been lovers once. A part of him wanted to be angry; he wanted to be furious at Li Na for having chosen to stay away. He wanted to blame her, to blame something or someone aside from himself for the loss of Blackheart. In the end, he admitted to himself that he had done what he could and that Blackheart’s end was not his burden to carry.

Blackheart is gone.

He accepted the thought as it writhed in his mind a precious second or two before the team arrived at a familiar looking patio. The link between himself and Li Na was tenuous far more so than he could remember. Was it guilt or something else? It did not matter. He was thankful that their link was in such a state for right now he did not believe that he wanted her to have any indication at the swirls of thoughts, emotions and accusations that dominated his mindscape. His eyes lingered on Blackheart’s body. Li Na did well in keeping the body of Saibot stored elsewhere for had he seen it; he would have wasted little time in reducing it to its component atoms. Saibot had been at the root of all that had transpired this day.

He saw motion out of the corner of his eyes, he did not look in that direction his eyes transfixed on Blackheart’s body. It was only when Li Na slid her arms around him and buried her face in his chest that he looked away. Her body language was obvious, her need apparent and for a moment he considered what path he would take in the days to come. A second passed and then another before his body shifted and his arms gently slid around her. The comfort that she had sought offered in turn before he found himself speaking.

“I am tired.â€

[LadyTevar]

[quote]“I am tired.â€