Heroes: Shadows over Millenium

[B4UTRUST]

The metas that Gravitas found were positioned behind a barricade, with very battered and ill-maintained guns poking cautiously over the edge of it.

Of the pair, one was a light shade of green, like he was sick or naucious except that it was all over his body. He also gave off a powerful stench that made the stomach churn. His comrade's nose was completely missing, the flesh smooth and whole. A perfect pair it seemed.

They looked at each other in puzzlement. This was unexpected to say the least. Their expressions and general appearance gave away the fact that they had little to no training what-so-ever and were only competant enough to know which way the gun went and that pulling the trigger caused things to die if done right. Well trained fanatical terrorists they were not.

The noseless one coughed, clearing his throat. His voice came out oddly, though understandable. It sounded like someone was pinching his nose shut, except that he didn't have one.
"Um, ok. Hold it and um freeze. We have to clear this with security. Wait right there."

He walked over to the wall and opened a grey plastic box set in a cavity. Inside was a phone, though it had no means of dialing out it seemed as it lacked a dial or buttons. He picked it up anyway and put it to his ear. He began to talk to someone explaining the situation. He sounded nervous and stumbled over words at times and had to repeat himself to be understood. Finally he hung up the phone and shut the box. While he was doing this his green-skinned friend continued to aim the gun in Gravitas' general direction.

"He says it's ok. But we got to uhh, blindfold you. So you don't see the way. Umm, ok?"

He looked around the area to find something to use as a blindfold. Not finding anything suitable he shrugged and tore a strip of his dirty, greasy shirt off and started walking towards Gravitas. He held it out hesitantly towards Gravitas.
"W-would you like to do this, o-or should I?"

[Dark Silver]

He struggled for a few moments as the shadows took him in, ripped him from his hiding place, and thrust him into this vision of a sex club from the 7th layer of Hell.

When he finally appeared, as if by instinct, his Ring responded with a forcefield and life support field surronding him, protecting him from both atmosphere and from these creatures depervations. He looked around, before whistling softly...

"What kind of Mickey Mouse House is this shit?" he said to himself, though he wasn't sure if some of them heard him.

Drawing his sword, he distinctly remembered hearing the sounds of a heavy door closing, then locking. If there was a door in, it meant there was a door out.

Looking through this BDSM wet dream was going to take longer than he had, and of course, he figured if things were going wrong, Blackheart would be blaming him.

He figured first priority, seeing if he could still contact the team. His helmet comm clicked on changed to the coded frequency, and he spoke, "This is Saibot to Mirage Team. Does anyone copy?"

Static for a brief burst, then nothing.

Ok, so where ever he was, it was safe to say he was not within the range of the comm - and from the look of it, it may not even be in the same reality.

He fucking hated Cross-Dimensional traveling..especially when he got stuck in one.

Time to pull a trick from the old book, routing a small portion of his ring's power into the communicator, linking the two, as the small power boost of arcane energy increased his range into the transdimensional.

"This is Saibot to Mirage Team, do you read me?" IF they heard it, the message would be crackling with static, thanks to the force of the dimensional barriers, but at least they had a chance of hearing it.

In the meantime, finding a way out, he could do that while trying to find the others.

He floated upwards till he was over the demented sex patrons, started looking for his way out.

[SirNitram]

He looked around the area to find something to use as a blindfold. Not finding anything suitable he shrugged and tore a strip of his dirty, greasy shirt off and started walking towards Gravitas. He held it out hesitantly towards Gravitas.
"W-would you like to do this, o-or should I?"

The blindfold lifted, wrapped around Gravitas' eyes, and knotted itself. "Secure. Wave a hand if you think it's not." It didn't prevent his absolute location awareness, but he had no ill-will here. Gods, this was what they were going to hit? Ghost could do it solo. He had to move fast.

"If Mr. Freakshow is wondering.. My name is Gravitas. I'm here to try and broker a peace."

[LadyTevar]

"Blackheart. Saibot's just vanished from this reality." Gravitas spoke on the coms as the trio lurked deeper. "Locating which one he just tumbled into will take time, but my initial estimation is that it's not another Earth."

"Fuck," said Blackheart, tapping the depths of his eloquence. "Do what you can can. Stealth is probably blown, so if you need to go loud do so. We'll pretend the universe doesn't hate us and be as sneaky as possible until we get better options."

Argent heard the com chatter, and froze indecisively. Whatever had happened to Saibot that broke their Bonding, now had him removed from even Gravitas' powerful senses. It had to mean that the Freaks had Saibot captive ... maybe had him captive before, when she felt the link break. Small wonder Blackheart had forced her to silence; if they had Saibot captive, the Freaks would have heard her calling out to him.

Now, mistakes were compounding. Her mistake, for teleporting them to Saibot. Saibot's mistake, for running off in anger. Even Blackheart was losing his temper from the mistakes the team was making. Too late now to correct them all.

This had been a bad idea from the start.
She feared it was only going to get worse, before it got better. The hardest part was hiding her fears and doubts from the rest of the team.

Legacies had moved on ahead. Blackheart and Hotfoot had caught up to her. Time to move on.

[Dark Silver]

No response, which probably meat they couldn't hear him, or where to busy to respond.

Which also meant he had to either look for a possible exit on his own, or wait.

He looked around, observing his his surroundings more closely than the cursory glance he gave before. He took in the scenes, and each one revolted him. Some bit deep within him was sickened by each act of torture, mostly because he wasn't the one doing it...

Then his gaze came across the Lei look alike, demure, serene, sweet looking, the protective forcefield nearly dropped for a moment, before he saw what th look-a-like was actually doing.......

His body tensed, before his ring flared to power within the bubble, his arm shot up, and a beam of pure energy flashed out - piercing the bubble, crashing into the Lei-duplicate, and spearing her in the chest. The beam then broke apart, suddenly becoming thousands of tiny shards, in a wide arc, tearing into the creature, the poor human she road to death, and anything past her.

His breathing came harder, courser as he poured the lethal energy shards into the body, and once it was nothing but fleshy ribbons on the ground, he swung the ring in a arc, sending more shards into the other scenes.

[Charon]

Hearing that Saibot had dissappeared, Legacies was tempted for a brief moment to go looking for the errant ally. But his orders relayed in his head, he was to keep quiet and see what he could spot. At this pace, he must be closing in on the base of the enemy. Legacies slowed down some and watched more carefully. Traps were likely plentiful.

[B4UTRUST]

As the team advanced up the southern route they encountered a pile of rubble that had hastily been moved into place. Behind it several gun barrels were visable with the tops of heads aiming them.

A gravely voice echoed off the walls.
"Stop where you are!"

--------------

The building shook as Saibot layed into the patrons. The torn bodies seemed to liquify and flow back together, becoming whole once again. They stood up and continued their torture show where they had been interupted at.

The man that Lei was riding tried to scream past the gag as quickly as he could draw breath. The terror and pain in his eyes was frightening. One quick look show that the bites were becoming harder and larger, devouring pieces of his penis an inch at a time. Finally his eyes closed and his body went limp as the shock and pain rendered him unconcious.

Lei rose from the body, blood and semen trickling down her soft thighs. Bits of half-chewed flesh fell from her opening, hitting the ground with a soft splat. She sauntered over to where Saibot floated in the air. She emphasized her words by teasingly squeezing and tugging on her breasts and nipples.
"Mmm come down here sweet thing. I need you soooo bad right now."

As the succubus Lei teased Saibot, the only door in the place shook like a tremendous force was hammering on it. Argents voice carried in from outside of it.
"Garth! Garth, hold on! We're coming to get you!"

The door blew inwards, flying out in pieces. Argent, Blackheart and Legacies ran in, spreading out to cover the room. They acted, for once, like a team.

The patrons of the place seemed to suddenly be in massive amounts of pain, clutching their heads as Argent distracted them while Blackheart, Legacies and Saibot finished them off.

As the bodies fell to the ground, dead once more, Saibot floated towards the ground. He turned to see the others, to see Lei who was alive when he thought her dead. Instead he found Blackheart in his face, hatred filling his eyes.
"You abandoned her, you fuck. You cut the ties and it nearly killed her..."

With that Blackheart's fist came back and slammed into Saibot's shield, harder and faster then it should have been. The force sent Saibot feeling, though his shield held. But Blackheart was on top of him, pushing the assault with a bloodlust that was nearly insanity. The fists kept pounding his shield, and the flash vision was pushing it to the breaking point. The shield began to dim and flicker and a blow got through, rocking Saibot into the wall. It was followed by another that stunned him.

Blackheart's hand squeezed down around Saibot's throat, vice-like fingers contracting.
"You fucked her but good, and now I'm going to fuck you."

Garth, stunned, looked at Blackheart, tried to raise his hands to defend himself. Blackheart slapped his hands away, grabbed the costume and ripped it. He tore it down, revealing Garth's lean torso. What was left afterwards was tatters of the costume around his knees, the rest exposded. The backhanded slap rocked Garth's head, twisting his body slightly. Blackheart went with it, forcing Saibot around.

Pushing Saibot roughly against the stage and shoving him forcefully face first into it he held him still. A twist of the arm behind his back and a snap of fingers as the power ring was jerked off effectively disarmed Saibot.
"I'm going to enjoy this you bastard," came Blackheart's grave voice right next to his ear. The sound of cloth being pulled followed.

Saibot could hear Argent's footsteps as she walked up to the pair, unhurried, unworried. With his head turned he could see her, whole, alive, beautiful. She was sucking on Blackheart's ear tenderly, like a lover would, her wet little tongue licking.
"You left me Garth," came her words between her ministrations to his ear.
"You left me to die. You cut your ties to me and left me alone. You don't know how much that hurt, do you? When I needed you most, you abandoned me. When I wasn't useful to you, you threw me away. He didn't. He saved me, helped me, where you never could. He's what you could never be. Do it baby. For me..."

She went back to sucking on Blackheart's ear. Garth felt something hard pressing against him followed by a stabbing pain. Blackheart was violating him, raping him. Blackheart proceeded to fuck Saibot like a man fucks a cheap whore, quick, rough, without tenderness or mercy. He pulled on Saibot's arm, drawing the smaller man into him with every painful thrust. It felt like he was being split in half.

The pain and violation went on for what seemed like hours. Under other circumstances he would have been impressed with the stamina, but currently he was just trying to will his body and mind numb from the forceful invasion. Finally he felt Blackheart clench up and spill his seed. Blackheart pulled out and wiped himself off on a scrap of Saibot's costume before he proceeded to fondle Argent. He felt violated. His body burned and he could feel the blood and semen leaking from his torn, ravaged opening.

Blackheart pulled Argent over to one of the tables and set her on it, consumating their relationship. He looked over at the beaten Saibot and then at Legacies.
"Go on Legacies. You hate him too. It feels good..."

Legacies' smile widened, fangs showing and tiny tentacles dancing across the body. He moved behind Saibot and a long tendril of the suit grew out of the groin. It contined grow in length and girth and forced its way savagely into Saibot, expanding and tearing him open from the inside. Garth screamed, praying that he would pass out. But he couldn't. Somewhere behind him he could hear the wet slapping sounds of sex, Lei's moans of pleasure, her begging Blackheart to be rougher, harder.

Elsewhere Saibot's body layed unconcious, curled up in a fetal position in a space of eternal night. His suit was whole, his body untouched and unmolested.

[Charon]

Legacies stopped his scramblig along the ceiling, the alien head craning at disturbed angles to look down on the men with guns. The blank head looked entirely unimpressed by the display of firepower.

"You serve the Freak Legion?" The silver figure regained it's color and dropped down to the ground, 'popping' it's head back into place, the symbiote invisibly activated the comm-unit that was within his suit. "Truly, three boys with guns. With nothing but rubble as a blockade. We are truly unimpressed." With another invisible movement the comm unit was turned off, that should give the others in his group some warning on what was ahead of them. "What do you want?"

[B4UTRUST]

A gentle tug came at Gravitas' arm, leading him onwards. The meta lead him through a winding series of twists, turns, doors and tunnels. The route was confusing enough to disorient a lesser person, though Gravitas surely knew where he was.

When the blindfold was removed he found himself in a small room. A few security monitors were set up on a folding table. A rat's nest of wire bundles, snaked under the table and lead to other places. The desk in the middle was worn and cheap, patched together in some places with tape and nails. A few books sat on top of it, some opened. Pens, pencils, maps, and notebooks of paper were likewise visable. The rooms melled musty and damp, and was lit by a single naked bulb dangling from the ceiling. The floor was stained, having probably been a storage room of some sort in the past.

Freakshow sat at the desk, scribbling something into one of the notebooks. When Gravitas walked in he stood.

Freakshow stood close to six foot, minus an inch or two. He had short dirty blonde hair, and piercing pale blue eyes. He might have been handsome at one time or another, but no longer. The right half of his face was perfection, flawless. The left half from his nose over was mounds of what looked like wax, if someone had poured it down his face and let it harden. The scar tissue twisted down his neck and to his chest where it disappeared beneath his shirt. The pale blue eye stood out in that twisted mass.

Freakshow smiled, the right half turning upwards, the left twitching. He spoke with almost a lisp, his words not forming completely right or leaving his mouth correctly due to him not being able to move it fully.
"Gravitas, I presume. I am told you come to talk peace. I must say that Ultima's new tactics are queer in comparison to what is normally seen."

[B4UTRUST]

"We want to be left alone!" came the empassioned cry of one of the gunmen.

"We're tired of you surface dwellers coming down here. You kicked us out of society and now you kick us out of the one place we're safe. No. Leave, monster. Go back to your people and leave us the hell alone."

[SirNitram]

"My negotiations here are not on Ultima's behalf; so as much as I want this to be unfettered by coercian, there's a time limit attached. The Ultima team I'm attached to will be finding your barricades soon."

Gravitas offered a little bow of respect. He was nearly a full foot shortage than Freakshow, and lacked an arm. Still, the aura of something around him was strong. "I will speak with haste then. Freak Legion's main population has never shown an interest in more than survival. These are dark times, and this has forced you underground and to steal. If I am right on this... I am making an offer."

He exhaled. Oh boy was Ultima gonna be annoyed. "I have access to alot of resources of all kinds. I want to offer your people a life outside of sewers with all the supplies they need. But I need to secure something to stop Ultima from proceeding further.. And to stop escalation against all Metas. All of our people. I need everything you and your people know about the members of the Legion who've struck against the Baselines."

There it was. Chips on the table. A few cards still in hand, but there was no time. "I know you will see them as your people. You're right, of course. But each human murdered by a Meta is one more straw. It'll erupt into a fire that'll destroy this world."

"I've failed my people, and they died in such a conflict. Let me help yours. Let me atone for my failures." The crippled god stood there, and finished speaking.

[Charon]

Legacies faceless head did not seem to react at all to the explanations of the man. "You did not answer our question. Do you work for Freak Legion, or are harboring him. If so you are harboring a criminal, and we shall have no choice but to forcibly extract him." Legacies looked at the men in turn. "We have no intention of causing further damage to your lives."

[B4UTRUST]

Freakshow stared into Gravitas' eyes, searching for something. He lowered his gaze and sighed.
"You found out about them. I had hoped they weren't that violent yet. I hoped wrong. I don't want violence and I don't want my people hurt. Not now, not here, and not because a few renegades are going to screw it up for everybody.

"I moved my people out here to try to prevent this. I know what some of my people feel, what they think. And their anger is even justifed at times. But I know that they can't do that. If we resort to killing the norms we're not better then they. I take their money, their food, their medical supplies. But rarely do I take their lives.

"Promise me, Gravitas. Give me your word this isn't a scam, this isn't some deception to get rid of us. If you can get my people what they need and somewhere safe, I'll give you whatever I can."

[B4UTRUST]

"We are the Freak Legion. A legion of outcasts and untouchables that were forced down here to survive. What is our crime then? Survival? Leave before something bad happens."

[SirNitram]

"I cannot speak for Ultima. But you will have my resources, my connections." Gravitas spoke. He offered the remaining arm to shake. "You know I must watch for deception. You know this, because I play such a dangerous game just speaking with you here."

There was a long exhale. "But I see the good in you, Freakshow. In you, I sense what I failed to become. A truly kind and just leader, seeking to avoid bloodshed no matter the cost. I will do everything I can."

A tap of the com. "This is Gravitas. I am requesting everyone hold position and hold fire a moment... We're going to get the rogues who attacked the human populace. And then everyone else is going to be allowed to go unmolested. I hope."

[Charon]

Legacies continued to look unperturbed, though his body tensed some. "Your group's crimes involve the murders of several innocents." A face formed on the silver head, showing concern. "Do not do anything foolish." Just then Gravitas' request came through the comm. unit. "We do not wish to harm you, we are simply going to stand here."

[B4UTRUST]

Freakshow extended his hand and took Gravitas', shaking it.
"Alright. I trust your word. I've read your work, I know you try to do whats right. Though I think you sometimes come off with a bit of a god complex."

He listened to the communication and when it was finished he pointed down to one of the maps on his desk.
"Here's how we're set up."

He pointed out places on the subway map, indicating where they had a medical facilty, the 'homes', the security points. It wasn't elaborate or extremely well fortified, but it was laid out logically. Medical and the dwellings were located towards the center, where they currently were. A few of the chambers had points indicating emergency exits, mostly to the surface. Finally he pointed out amongst the maze-like creation of paths that had been created, areas where he thought the rogues had shifted to.

"It started with some of the ones who were less sound. Some of them had been abused bad before coming here. Some of em it made into almost total headcases. We tried to take care of them as best we could, but other then making sure they were fed and didn't kill themselves we couldn't do much.

"Some of the others were just twisted I think. They sort of congregated together. A lot of us can't have sex in any normal way anymore, not with how we are. But that didn't stop some of them. I made them move that stuff away here, away from the kids and the others who weren't into it. But they get violent with each other, it's like some sort of fetish or game to them.

"I've tried to keep them contained as best I can. I couldn't send them back out, they'd be killed. Or kill others, like they've done. I didn't want to abandon them but I can't stop them, not without hurting them."

[Cynical Cat]

"You mean they're going to give you there most unpopular murderers and you're going to pass the buck off to someone else," said Blackheart angrily. The fucker was stabbing him in the back and asking him to sit still for it. There wasn't much Blackheart could do to stop him, not if the self styled god decided to do it short of starting a team wide brawl that would be disasterous. Fuck.

"If they had the will, they would have gotten rid of them already. They don't. How many people died because they wouldn't do anything about the killers they allowed in their ranks? And now you're going to move them somewhere and let it all happen again. Think about this Gravitas. Think hard." Futile. The nova had already made up his mind. He had to try. Gravitas had his high minded moral philosophies. Blackheart was the one who ID'd parts of bodies pulled out the swamp in separate garbage bags.

[SirNitram]

"They will be hurt." Gravitas spoke softly, honestly. "And the God Complex.. Yea. It's true. I'm an arrogant, foolhardy son of a bitch. I came here with no guarantees you weren't gonna kill me. Pretty foolish." He pointed out. He looked at the map.

The com was touched again. "I've got a likely location for the ones who are getting violent. The region's pretty maze-like, so it's important groups are maintained. These guys sound like gaining their powers loosened a few screws... And they won't be too easy on the eyes."

"Blackheart... You wouldn't understand why I did this. I'm not gonn ask you to. I'm telling you trust me on this. If I'm getting backstabbed, I'll make sure everyone gets their justice, myself included. My word good enough for you? Now I'm gonna make sure you find the crazy ones. I will risk my own neck and credibility as I bloody like."

[frigidmagi]

Blast winced listening to the conversation. He didn't really see a way this could end well and he felt nearly naked standing in the dark without his shield. Couldn't even see Ghost anymore. Hopfully Gravitas would remember that some of these guys were eating people.

"Hey Gravitas... Some of these guys are eating poeple... I'm not saying I'm all fired up to go blasting half straved guys with rusty guns but... Man this has to end okay, we can't have people going around eating each other." He transmitted.

[Cynical Cat]

"I know exactly why you're doing this and its for all the wrong reasons," said Blackheart. "There are a lot of luxuries I don't have. Time is one of them. I can't spare any for regrets or wallowing in guilt. I clean up messes Gravitas and right now you're making one." Fucking futile. Gravitas was just going to go ahead and do it and save his precious oppressed metas as if they hadn't stolen, tormented, or hidden murderers in their ranks. How many would they give up? How many protokillers were in their ranks, waiting to bud? It was a perfect environment to raise them. How many people had died screaming and the members of Freak Legion pretended not to know it was happening?

[SirNitram]

Gravitas' eyes closed. He exhaled slowly. "Evacuate your noncombatants, Freakshow. This might not go as well as I had hoped." He said quietly. "So help me, if one murderer goes out that way..." He let the words hang.

"Blackheart, neither of us has time. I am going to find the crazed ones. You can help, or you can add me to your hostiles list." The would-be god was already walking that way, unperturbed by the fact he had, technically, been blindfolded. "Because as I see it, we're gonna make alot more murderers if we shoot this little refuge up than if we give some of them a chance at a life that isn't stealing. Call it naive, call it stupidity, call it the fucking god complex again. Hell, come and arrest me, if you're so sure I've changed sides on you."

[B4UTRUST]

Freakshow listened patiently to Gravitas' conversation with Blackheart.
"Your friend doesn't seem to be too happy with you right now. Or with me. He wants blood for what's happened. He's angry at us, probably hates us."

He sighed, the sound carrying the heavy weight on the man's soul.
"I don't blame him. After all, we're only human...

"Tell him that if he'll let the rest of my people go, he can have me."

[Cynical Cat]

Fucking futile. How come he was not surprised. "You mean your doing your benevolent deed and hoping it all fucking works out for everybody else down the line since you decided to hand out the blanket Gravitas amnesty. You've decided to indulge your ego and you have no fucking plan about what to do after you've dumped them somewhere else?"

Blackheart laid odds. Ghost would back him, Blast wouldn't stand against him. Argent, Argent would try to stop the mess and do nothing but make it worse. Legacies would do whatever Legacies wanted, his blood lust warring with his hatred of authority. That left Saibot, if they hadn't stranded him in some extradimensional hell or eaten him. If he came in, it would be to kill. Tough call whether or not it would be the Freaks or him. So much for surprise and controlling the situation.

"You're becoming an accessory after the fact to a shitload of crimes," said Blackheart. "I can bust you and you will do hard time, supposing we manage to bring you in. I would prefer not to do that, but I'll take that over more bodies. The only plan I hear from you is to take the mess and drop it off on someone else, after a token payoff of their least popular members."

[SirNitram]

"The someone else who gets them dumped in their lap is me, Blackheart. I can form plans." Gravitas sighed, glancing at Freakshow.

"Freakshow just offered to surrender if you let those not currently deranged as fuck that I'm going after go." Perhaps it was stretching the truth. But the murderers needed dealt with. "That won't convince you, I'm betting, but you get your pound of flesh. And yes. This is my benevolent deed. Because someone has to do it."

Gravitas looked at Freakshow. The parallels were almost unnerving. Far more than any deformation from his powers. "Look at the barricades, Blackheart. This isn't some terrorist hideout. All that happens if we were to go with the plan of 'attack and crush' is that any survivors learn to hate mortal authorities more, and there's another pile of corpses for everyone to gawk at. One full of kids. Think that's gonna keep Meta crime down, Ultima cutting loose down here?"