Heroes: Shadows over Millenium

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost spoke into his comm. "Gravitas, this is Ghost. Where did you send her? We might want to send a containment unit there to bring her in."

[LadyTevar]

Argent was finally able to leave the two Freaks she was guarding to the police and rejoin the team, swimming through the shadows and appearing once again as silver eyes inside a shadow on the wall. She was quiet as the others spoke, listening in to the chatter between them and on the radio.

It did not surprise her that Saibot went off on his own. He had been urging this raid from the beginning. Finally, it seems he would get his wish. "So, Hotfoot will be joining us after all?" she asked, more to Blackheart than anyone else, going back to their earlier conversation. It was also somewhat rhetorical, as she started emerging from the shadow to start the transport.

Whiskers of shadows trailed from the dragon's regal jawline, the horns on her head more like ears laid back along the temple ridge, with those large tarnished silver eyes set beneath. The head set upon a graceful neck, supple as a swans, long as a serpent, with a decorated fin running down from the back of her skull, tarnished silver upon inky blackness. Her body was serpentine, supported by four slender legs ending with three wicked claws. The elongated body curved up between the legs, like a cat's back stretching skyward. The tail was as long as the neck, ending in a delicate frill. She was the very image of an Oriental dragon, all in shades of pitch black, shiny jet, and shadowed silver.

[Hotfoot]

As if tonight hadn't been weird enough, the sudden emergence of a dragon from the shadows caused Hotfoot's eyes to widen as he looked up at the massive figure. "Whoa..."

Tomorrow morning was going to be one of the longest mornings in history...

[Cynical Cat]

"He has said he intends to aid us with this," said Blackheart. "We'll need to go back to HQ to get the chem gear so Freak Show doesn't screw us all up."

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost pulled off his mask, seeing as no one else was acting like there was any gas. He packed the mask back into the bag on his thigh. He reached for his shoulder and grabbed the tube attached there. He removed the cap and stuck the tube in his mouth, biting on it and drinking the water attached in a bladder on his back. No matter how hard they tried, those masks where hot and uncomfortable.

[LadyTevar]

"Very well," Argent said, silently enjoying Hotfoot's reaction to her appearance. The large silver eyes with the tarnished-looking slit pupils turn to face Hotfoot squarely. "I am taking you Between the shadows. Whatever you feel ... whatever you hear ... ignore it. It will last only heartbeats." It was the first time she warned anyone before teleporting them; just another sign of how the change was deeper than just her looks.

Like a rubberband, she snapped forward, the arched back flattening as she circled the group, somehow stretching to encompass them all and bite the tip of her own tail...

... Then came blackness, with only the faintest of light coming from the dragoness as she swam through the icy cold emptiness Between. Somewhere in the seeming distance were the faint hollow echoes of a voice, screaming as if for mercy ungiven. It was drowned out by the great slow thrum of a huge heart beating ominiously, like Big Ben marking the hour: One. Two. Three....

... And they were standing in a innocious-looking conference room, with papers and cups left just as they had been before Mirage Team had left to deal with the Freaks. The dragon was gone, replaced by a slight figure of a woman dressed in red and black. She was obviously Oriental, but oddly pale, made moreso by a waterfall of long black hair that seemed to absorb light falling upon her. Her eyes were black pools, no iris, seemingly all pupil until one saw the faint flash of slitted silver in the center.

[SirNitram]

Gravitas was already in the conference room, trying to clean gore from his shirt. "Honestly, some people need a better power than 'Ooo, I can rot!'. Disgusting."

As the others appeared, he saluted, then returned to trying to clean his business suit. It wasn't the normal costume from a crime fighter. "Valles Marineris is where the lady who disguised herself as a victim is being contained. I figured a seven kilometer ravine bigger than the USA would be a good place to stash someone, and I think the worst she could do is kick over those rovers NASA sent to Mars."

[Hotfoot]

It will last only heartbeats.

Those words stuck in his mind. The space between heartbeats was where he felt the most comfortable. Argent's current form amazed Hotfoot, he had never seen anything like it before, much like several things tonight. Still, a dragon, made of shadows? Talking? If he hadn't stepped through the looking glass yet, he was clearly about to.

"Uh, thanks for the warning, I'll try..."

Then the nothing came. He had to fight his urge to slow down, a fight he only just barely won. The first screams in the distance were even more distorted and disturbing. The heartbeats all around caused his mind to race even more. He breathed in and out, trying to calm himself, his right hand opening and clenching during the process.

And then it stopped. He opened his eyes and looked around the conference room. He slowed things down just a bit, hardly enough to be noticable. He looked at the new face and quickly put two and two together. The dark hair, the flash of silver in her eyes, tonight was not a night for coincidences. He shook his head and came back into the now. "Well, on a scale of 'hoo-boy' to 'oh god oh god my flesh is screaming', that wasn't really too bad." He flashed a somewhat nervous smile and nodded to Argent. "Thanks for the warning, I've had enough surprises for tonight."

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost put his weapon on safe. "You sent her to Mars? And if she does kick over those rovers, I think NASA would be mighty pissed." He laughed. He turned and started towards the door. "I'm heading down to the armory to refill my ammo and get myself a NBC suit. Anyone else want to come along?"

[Hotfoot]

Mars? These guys weren't messing around. Still, he didn't have much pity for the freaks at this point. As Ghost started talking about gear, he perked up. "NBC gear? I don't suppose you have any that's, um, a bit more form-fitting than those huge yellow trashbags you see on TV? Oh, and...uh, I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but do you have any special radios? Like the kind that can speed up or slow down transmissions? Much as I love spending a few minutes figuring out what you guys are saying, I'm sure you don't want to deal with me sounding like I'm on fast-forward every time I open my trap."

[SirNitram]

"Do you often have relativisitic dialation when you're on the radio?" Gravitas blinked at the new guy, eyeing him. "I mean, it's fixable, I did a white paper on shielding against the dialation effect before I got into heroing full time, but... You don't seriously move that fast, do you?"

[frigidmagi]

"The man is fast enough to make speeding bullets cry, at least it seemed that way to me." Blast said flopping down into his seat.

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost cocked his head to the side. "Yellow trashbags? Oh, those. No, I'm thinking more the suits that the military uses, we have some in storage."

[Hotfoot]

Hotfoot shrugs. "All I know is that sometimes things get really slow, and when people start talking, it's really long and distorted, kind of like the movies, you know? When I go fast, it doesn't feel that much like I'm going fast, but more like everything else slows down. I don't think I go near lightspeed or anything like that though. I mean, I think I broke the sound barrier once, but, uh, I never really checked up on that." He ran a hand through his short blonde hair and gave a short laugh. "I've tried to stay under the radar so far, you know?"

[SirNitram]

"The distortion will be coming from your nerve impulses, not your speed in motion... Blackheart, can I study this guy? I promise nothing invasive or likely to make him sprout a second skull." Gravitas is interested, baffled, and confronted with something new.

"But. I can try and kludge something to lower the distort, but it'd take time. What's our time 'til we hit the Legion?"

[Dark Silver]

Traces of the Freak was everywhere he looked, Metahuman DNA traces, mutant energy signitures, even the half consumed corpse just outside.

Saibot couldn't tell the Freaks powers from what his scanners and Ring picked up, but he knew it was no longer in the building, the freshiest traces were getting old, no newer ones showed up.

That meant it was time to let the police finish up here, and go on his strike.

"Ultima Agent Saibot to Police units." how those words burned in his throat, to call himself a Ultima Agent - still, it was better than being in jail, "Ultima is pulling out of this location, Mirage team is required elsewhere. Thank you for allowing us to assist."

It didn't hurt to be civil to the locals, they were, after all, doing their job, and it was much like his own, making the world safe for the normals. Well, it was anyway...now he wasn't so sure if how he was doing things before was right.

A few seconds later, and he switched over to the Mirage Team frequency, and patched in - "This is Saibot, the building was clear, the flesh eater had already left the area. I'm proceeding to survey and positoning for the Freak Legion raid. Gravitas, I need you to do something for me if you have a moment....."

[Hotfoot]

"Well I kind of figured that part out. I always think pretty fast, but when I'm here, with you, sometimes it feels too fast. When I...well, speed up for lack of a better term, things seem to flow more naturally. I can't imagine not thinking that fast when I'm moving like I do, I'd probably take my head off or something. I mean, I thought of a basic concept for a radio that might work, and I kind of figured, you guys being Ultima, you might have something like it. Like, something that waited until the transmission ended, then sped it up for me, and slowed down anything I sent out. There's be a slight lag, but it's better than nothing. But, uh, I'm not a techno-expert, so whatever. If you want to, uh, run a few tests I guess that would be okay. I don't want to hold up anything though." He paused for a moment and laughed. "And here I am being a motormouth..."

[SirNitram]

The one-armed man lifted his single limb to signal quiet and touched his earpeice. "This is Gravitas. What do you need, Saibot? Got one of the Freaks in the most contained place I could chuck her, but she'll keep.. Well, who knows how long."

[Dark Silver]

Saibot rattled off a set of co-ordinates, ones which lead to a spot on the Dak Side of the moon, near the Coperinus III Crater, "I need you to retreive the item you find there, and bring it back to base, you'll find the electronic passkey on the data-drive I gave you under file 'Omega-Lamda-365.dat'"

Saibot was moving slowly for now, taking a leasuirly flight towards the last know location of the Freak Legion base. He wanted to give them time to retreive the item in question, Something had spooked him back during that mission, he wasn't sure what, but something told him they would need it."

[SirNitram]

"Copernicus-III, huh?" Gravitas shook his head. "I'll get on that. It'll take a moment to get my air together." He looked to the others. "I have a date in orbit, it seems. Gentlemen. Lady. I'm gonna need down to medical and steal a few pounds of oxygen."

And the Nova was off, going to fill his air bladder up for an orbital flight.

[Hotfoot]

"In orbit? Whoa...that's...freaking awesome." He looked around the room clapped his hands together. "Well, um, I guess I'd better get one of those suits and see what else is going on." He looked at Blackheart and stood up a little straighter. "Er, assuming that's okay with you, Sir. I don't want to run off into some restricted area and get thrown in a detention cell. Maybe these two guys could escort me?" He said, motioning to Ghost and Blast.

[LadyTevar]

There was a slight smile on Argent's face as she listened to the conversation flow around her. The young one... Hotfoot... was nervous, afraid he was in over his head, and showing it by talking a mile a minute. Unless that was how he always spoke, due to his hyperspeed. He was also polite, which was in itself amusing.

Absently she wondered how he'd feel to know he was working with theives and killers, given a choice to do this or stand a very short trial followed by a very long sentence. Of course, the real test was ahead, going to the Freak's base. Baby food and diapers...

[frigidmagi]

"Do we even have restricted areas? Sorry to say man but I just started here. I'm sure Ghost here can guide us both." Blast said guesturing to the man.

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost gritted his teeth and kept his mouth shut.

Damn it. How did I end up with the kid and the newbie? Oh well. Ghost walked out of the room, heading for the armory, his rifle hanging on his sling at his side. As he walked down the hall, he took another drink from the hydration pack attached to his vest.

[Hotfoot]

Hotfoot nodded and followed Ghost. He looked to Blast and cocked his head. "So, you just signed up, huh? I have to admit, I thought about it, but I was always worried about, you know, losing control of my life. How's it been so far?"