Heroes: The Rise of Omnicorp

[rhoenix]

Nodding, Alexander looked lost in thought for a few moments. This group of people had been through much, much worse than his sudden and unexpected push into the world of the meta-human hero a week ago. They had watched friends of theirs die, they had experienced people they thought were friends end up betraying them. It explained an awful lot of how all of them had acted toward him in the past week, despite him being a guest in their house.

They'd been somewhat standoffish; polite, but not overly familiar. As if they almost expected him to suddenly go nuts and do something terrible. Well, after hearing the whole tale from Argent, er...Li Na, it all suddenly made much more sense. Even the strongly emotional moments made sense, as Li Na evidently hadn't been "shielding" herself well enough - even now, he could feel a tinge of her feeling of sorrow.

It was at that moment that Alexander made his decision, as his determined gaze returned to the others in the room. If they would let him, he would do what he must to join them. He felt as if he may have truly found his place and his calling, something he'd never truly had, growing up an orphan as he did. Now however, if it truly became his place, he would give one breath past his last to defend it.

"Thank you, Argent," he said thoughtfully. "Now things make more sense."

[LadyTevar]

"Thank you, Argent," he said thoughtfully. "Now things make more sense."

"that would be a first..." the black dragon answered drolly, her silver eyes turning to the other new arrival. "Hydro? Any questions?"

She was going to regret that question, she just knew it.

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost nodded, flying backwards and forming a wall construct. As he kept the wall, he watched the chaos getting closer and closer, trying to keep up with all the information the suit's sensors were providing.

[B4UTRUST]

The carnage spread in multiple directions. Cars piled up into the hard-light walls, the screams of pain and agony filled the air. A news helicopter roared overhead. It made circles around the area, capturing video footage of the whole mess.

It began to tilt, however, and then suddenly veered and plunged downward. It would crash into the street in a matter of seconds unless something was done.

[Dark Silver]

Saibot's eyes widdened as the carnage continued, the cars piling up on the construct, till eventually he had to drop the wall just so the damage was less!

He was about to shout out to Ghost to drop his wall, when the coptor overhead began to fall.

Without thinking, he was in action, a streak of blue light behind him as he flew beneath the coptor, flipped onto his back, and a beam of blue energy lancing upward. At the last moment, the end of the beam transformed into a massive hand, catching the front of the coptor, the blade of the rotor snapping off as it hit.

It was times like this he wished he had Blackheart's strength, or Gravitas' control over Gravity, as he forced his entire concentration and will into stopping the helo.

Beneath the black helmet, sweat broke out along his forehead, his left arm coming up to brace the right, as the coptor slowed, then stopped in the air. He felt the exhaustion of the act, even as he set the coptor on the ground, and flew to check on the crew.

"Ghost," he said over the sub-vocal comms, "We're outclassed to beat whatever this is, if you have any contacts with your old agency who know how to deal with psychics, better call them in now."

As he arrived by the door of the coptor, the blades having been snapped off or bent by the hard light hand, he used another beam to rip the door off, "Everyone alright?" he asked, as he looked in, hoping to pick up life signs at least with his helmet scanners.

[LadyTevar]

After a moment of waiting, the dragon slithered off the couch. "Good... no questions." The ink-black form rose to its feet and transformed back into Li Na's human shape as she walked over to Blackheart.

"I still owe you an apology," she said softly. "I should have told you Ghost was meeting -someone-, no matter who it was."

[Cynical Cat]

"I'll get over it," said Blackheart. "Don't worry about it. The plan I'm going with for the moment is twofold: I'm calling in old contacts and can't see if we get mystery agency and its vat grown terrorist agents identified. The second fork is to grab Ghost, who like mystery agency was infiltrating Ultima for another branch of the gov, and talk to him and see he knows more than he's saying. And mention Garth around him with Argent, so we can get a nice empathic truth sense off him of whether or not he's lying. We then go from there.

"Comments? Suggestion? Criticisms? Alternate Plans?"

[LadyTevar]

"I can find Ghost any time," Li Na stated simply. "I can take you to him, or bring him here, either one. Still, there's a few other matters we need to take care of first, Blackheart."

She turned and nodded towards Alexander and Hydro. "We need to get these two trained, especially Alexander." She gave Alex a small smile. "You need a callsign, as well. The second," she continued, looking back at Blackheart. ".. Communication gear. Third, do we know when or if Gravitas will wake up?"

[Marcao]

Time seemed to jumble together in his mind. One moment Li Na had been positively distraught and angry, and yet he had been uncertain as to how to best intercede on her behalf. He would not always be there for her. There were things that he could not directly assist her with and she in turn could not assist him with. Still, he disliked the feeling of impotence that had washed over him then.

Blackheart arrived and his presence heralded the possibility of another confrontation. He took a deep breath and held it for a handful of seconds, deciding that it was best if he watched what occurred. They were both adults and both had more history with each other than he had with either. He hoped that they understood that Team Mirage was in a perilous position. The team could not afford the distraction of a worsening relationship between two integral members of the team.

Was this what Legacies would have wanted? The hurricane of activity and the whirlwind of accusations that would have accompanied did not fully materialize. That was...unexpected. In the end, when Blackheart spoke he considered his plan and could see no immediate flaws.

"Sounds good." Li Na spoke and he nodded. "I would prefer if we went to them or if we are going to pull anyone to us, we did away from this place." The possibility that someone brought in could identify one of the surrounding landmarks was low but not zero. He would prefer to maintain the anonymity of this place.

In the end, his eyes slid towards Alexander and Hydro. Ah, this would be interesting. He supposed that "Wet" would be a poor callsign for Hydro. But it was an amusing thought nonetheless.

[LadyTevar]

Li Na had to admit, having Blackheart staying calm helped her stay calm. She wold mention that little suggestion to him later. Right now, she wanted one thing as she sidestepped Blackheart and slid her arms around Tachyon.

"I'm sorry I lost control," she said, looking up at Elias, then turning to the rest of the room. "I still need to learn to control my Empathy ... no matter how mad I get at Blackheart." The last was added completely tongue-in-cheek, as she sent Blackheart a soft touch of amusement to make sure he got the joke.

[rhoenix]

Alexander's eyebrow raised when Li Na mentioned that he and Hydro needed training. He shrugged after a moment. "I can live with that. Is there any place nearby I could turn into a lab and workshop - such as a warehouse I could convert?"

[LadyTevar]

Li Na gave him a confused look. "Why do you need a lab?"

[rhoenix]

Li Na gave him a confused look. "Why do you need a lab?"

The look and smile on Alexander's face would have been much more at home on a deranged mad scientist ranting about how the world will know his might. He paused a moment before replying with a reasonable and thoughtful answer. "I may have additional talents, but I was a scientist before all this craziness started. I'd deeply enjoy the chance to continue tinkering with my hypotheses and theories, despite not having it as a career anymore."

[frigidmagi]

"Uh..." Blast raised his hand.

[Cynical Cat]

"Yes?" said Blackheart.

[frigidmagi]

"Couple questions, do we want to drop off Ghost or Saibot here? Right where we live? I mean I'm not scared of them and I know we can deal, but this is a kinda full of families you know? Or do you got another place in mind boss? Also, are we even anywhere close to set up for mad science?" Blast asked.

[LadyTevar]

The look and smile on Alexander's face would have been much more at home on a deranged mad scientist ranting about how the world will know his might. He paused a moment before replying with a reasonable and thoughtful answer. "I may have additional talents, but I was a scientist before all this craziness started. I'd deeply enjoy the chance to continue tinkering with my hypotheses and theories, despite not having it as a career anymore."

"Great job, Hotfoot... you brought us another scientist," Argent muttered. "Didn't we learn from the -last two- that scientists aren't good in the field?" she complained, with good reason considering the last two were Avatar and the Mecha-builder.

[rhoenix]

"Also, are we even anywhere close to set up for mad science?" Blast asked.

Dropping the mad scientist look, Alexander simply looked wistful. "It was a running gag amongst the scientists there at OmniTech that all Ph.D.'s were clinically insane. Given what happened, the joke doesn't seem as much of a joke anymore. Even with that, I still miss testing my theories, and satisfying my curiosity."

After pausing for a moment, he brought himself back to the present. "I swore to uphold the ethical use of science when I was first hired at OmniTech, a few years ago. Even though that place and all it stands for is now gone, I still take that vow seriously."

[Cynical Cat]

"We have nice, long talks with Ghost and Saibot if we find them," said Blackheart. "Perferrably in places well away from innocent people for Saibot to kill and be sorry about for half an hour. If we find them. We find evidence of criminal activity by Ghost, we turn him in. We don't know if he did Gazer, just that someone did it and he has motive."

[LadyTevar]

Turning in Tachyon's arms so she was leaning against his chest (which was becoming on eof her favorite positions outside the bedroom), Li Na listened to Blackheart and Blast with half an ear while focusing on Alexander. "You've still not demonstrated what your abilities are, Alexander," she pointed out. "We know you were dong something to help Hotfoot on the roof, but you never explained what."

[frigidmagi]

"Okay... Anyone got any suggestions on places?"

[rhoenix]

Turning in Tachyon's arms so she was leaning against his chest (which was becoming on eof her favorite positions outside the bedroom), Li Na listened to Blackheart and Blast with half an ear while focusing on Alexander. "You've still not demonstrated what your abilities are, Alexander," she pointed out. "We know you were dong something to help Hotfoot on the roof, but you never explained what."

This caused Alexander to raise his eyebrows in surprise. "That's odd, but you're right - it never came up in conversation. Well, my talent is that I can control photons to some degree."

[LadyTevar]

Li Na would never admit it, but she never had a formal education. While she wanted to make a comment about Photon torpedos right now, she had a feeling it would make her look stupid. So... she settled for "Photons?"

[frigidmagi]

Blast had had a formal education including a year or so at college. That included physics classes, now while he had slept through most of them he had picked up some basics.

"Light. Means he can control light sorta." Blast said.

[LadyTevar]

"Thank you Tobin," one of the few times she'd called him by his name. "What can you do with Light, Alexander?"