Heroes: The Rise of Omnicorp

[rhoenix]

Meanwhile, back at Li Na's residence, Alexander realized that in order to help, he needed to be more intimately familiar with what he could do.

Taking a glass of orange juice with him upstairs to his room, he took his time climbing the stairs as he thought more about the logistics of practicing in his room - this could be messy and inopportune if he did this incorrectly. Being liable for property damage, or frightening some poor lady that lived nearby were neither acceptable options, at least while he was staying as a guest/resident here.

Once he reached his room,he took a sip of his orange juice as he closed the door, and shut all the blinds.

Having once taken jujitsu from a diligent and deeply knowledgeable teacher, Alexander knew about discipline and sacrifice if the occasion called for it. The next couple hours spent alone in his room would be some of the most strenuous of recent years, even including the morning he left Omnicorp.

However, he would have to speak to Li Na about repainting his room, as there were two spots where the paint had been baked, one where it had been frozen beyond its tolerance and cracked, and a burn mark in the wall near the window.

Despite how tired he was, Alexander kept going. He was now sweating from the exertion, a lattice of lasers seemingly woven between his fingers, growing brighter and stronger one moment, and much more dim and less visible the next, as the rest of the room was engulfed in impenetrable darkness. Refracting his own single-target abilities was much easier than doing so for others, though he still needed work with the area-of-effect aspects of his capability - his control was still a bit rough.

[LadyTevar]

In Nevada, Argent watched as Blackheart took out the door and strode inside. She could feel the adrenalin pumping inside him as the primodial fusion started looking for his first victim. She deliberately turned down the volume on what the empathic link would share with her; she didn't need to share Blackheart's bloodlust.

One thing she did do before she left Mirage team to do the dirty work was reach down the link to Tachyon. Once she touched his mind, she couldn't hold back the rush of worry and love for him, and it battered at his shroud almost like an attack before she pulled herself away, vanishing into the shadows between.


+++
Millenium City
By the time Ghost emerged from his shower, the food had been delivered and Argent had set out plates for him to help himself. In the background the stereo had been turned softly to 80s music, as Madonna softly crooned she was keeping her baby. There was a bucket of mixed bottled beers, although it was clear Li Na had not touched them, as well as the spread of appetizers known as the Pu Pu Platter, set up with enough food for four. Li Na was already toasting a skewer of meat over the coal-fired hibachi grill. "Sit, have a beer, help yourself to the food, Dan."

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost sat down, grabbing a bottle and loading a plate. "Thanks." He paused listening to the music. "Man, I grew up on this stuff. Been awhile since I've heard it though." He said. He took a sip of beer then looked at her. "And I didn't say it was Kyosuke, it actually sounded like Saibot was talking to himself. Only the other voice of himself was farther away. Like there were two of him." He said.

[LadyTevar]

Li Na paused, the skewer of meat halfway to her mouth. "Two of him? There's a scary thought," she said before biting into the grilled strip. "Try the steamed dumplings, they're very good."

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost frowned, looking down at his food, trying the suggested food. Part of him was worried about Saibot, especially hearing two of him. He shook off the worry and took another bite of food.

"Pretty good."

[LadyTevar]

"You're worried about him," she said softly, toying with the empty bamboo skewer. "You could call the helmet back and try to reach him."

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost shook his head. "No. I don't want to risk tipping him off to the team." He said. Still, betraying Saibot, a man who had helped him and given him a power ring and enabled him to make a difference in a big way, a friend who had been there in his grief, a comrade in arms, didn't sit right with the 41 year old spook turned superhero.

[LadyTevar]

Ghost had to know she could read his conflict. "I think the two security cameras over the door, and the way Blackheart simply kicked the metal door inwards warned him already," she said, expertly using her chopsticks to pile her plate with rangoons, shrimp rolls, and dumplings, before pausing.

" ... you ... could let him know ... I'm not with them."

[B4UTRUST]

The Guardian sighed and brought the fist down again. The beating had been going on for a few moments now. Nothing too rough, not yet. Just knocking him around a bit, giving him something to look forward to.
"Calling for help from your comrade, crying for your woman who you betrayed. I'm not sure if it's touching or pathetic, really. Did you really think you'd just get away with this all? I give you that coming here and trying to set up shop was ballsy, but really now, that just showed a lack of common sense."

The White Guardian was getting ready to hit Saibot again when the console began to flash and beep. A quick glance told him all he needed to know.
"Oh for fuck's sake, is there anyone you DIDN'T tell about this place? I mean really now... this is suppose to be a SECRET! You do know that word, yes? Secret? Not publically known? Sigh. Alright, you've just made this a lot more complicated. See, I can figure out a few things here. One, these aren't invited guests, those usually knock or just walk in, not boot down doors. Two, they want you or something you have. See, that inconveniances me because I currently want you for my own purposes. So that means I have to prevent them from getting to you. But at the same time I can't leave you here alone, you'll sneak off. You know this place as well as I do and know at least half a dozen ways to get out of here. I obviously can't just give you to them...

"Alright, here's how it's going to go. I'm going to make you a deal. You're going out there with us to deal with these interlopers. I'm going to give you your ring back. Don't even think about trying to fuck this one up. I'm planning to kill you right now, just so you know. So here's the deal. They obviously want you for some reason so I'm sure you've pissed in their cornflakes and gotten them riled up over something. I'll go on a further limb and note that you use to work with at least one or two of them that I can see from here, back in Millenium City. So you don't like them, they don't like you. Here's the deal. I'm giving you your shot to deal with them since you caused this problem for me. If you die, you don't get tortured slowly to death and worked for what information I want from you. If you manage to make it through this battle alive, you get to give me the information, I take the ring back permanently and you get to walk out into the desert to do what you wish, minus Guardian resources. Start your life, go to jail, go fuck some Vegas whore, I don't give a shit, you're off the RADAR permanently, capiche?

"There's the offer, you've got...oh I'd say about thirty seconds to decide."

He tilted his head to the side for a second before looking back at Saibot whom he let go. The Red and Black Guardians left through the door.

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

The lights died, casting the place into pitch black darkness. Loud klaxon alarms began to sound, ear-bleeding in their intensity. The alarms went silent just as quickly as they had sounded, making the silence deafening in its own way. The PA system sounded with a dry, monotone voice.
"You are trespassing illegally on private property. You are asked to politely leave at this point. If you are acting on behalf of a federal or state agency please present your warrent now. Failure to act on one of those two options will be deemed as a threat to the safety and security of this location and will be dealt with by what force is deemed neccessary to preserve said safety and security. You have 30 seconds to comply."

The alarms came back full force and continued to grow progressively louder, threatening to burst eardrums. A solid wall of red light snapped into place covering the height and width of the entranceway, preventing further movement into the facility.

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost used his chopstick, taking a bit out of a roll. He sighed and shook his head. "No." He said simply. "I don't want him to know for sure that I betrayed him."

[LadyTevar]

"You didn't," Li Na answered. "I just now caught you running, and informed you how badly you lie. I owe you a favor, so I've told Blackheart I'm sitting on you to keep you out of the fight."

Why was it so important that he know she wasn't there? She couldn't truthfully answer that, even to lie to herself. "Besides... it will let us know what's going on, since the team is reacting to something, but I can't tell what or why."

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost sighed, using the ring to recall his helmet and slipping it on, turning the radio on.

"Sentinel, this is Overwatch." He said, hoping the message would get through any interference.

[Dark Silver]

For a few moments, the pain was gone, his body kicking in with endorphines to kill the pain that remained, and then he heard the offer.

A backhanded slap which stung just as hard as anything just given him - and beneath the helmet, Saibot closed his eyes.

"I accept..." he said, just as Ghost radioed him back.

"Give me back my Ring....and I'll deal with the ones invading the base. If their the ones I worked with in Millinium City...then they want me dead, not captured."

"I suppose..it's just who I want to die to...Blackheart....or the White Guardian...."

Something in Saibot's voice was different, the voice wasn't so cold, it held some bit of rage in it, like a cold fire, only waiting to burst into a inferno.

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost opened the visor, looking at Argent and shutting off his mic, just listening to the channel.

"He knows the team is in the base. He's making a deal with someone, telling them he'll take care of the team. Why would Saibot have to decide if he wants to die to Blackheart or the White Guardian. I thought he was the White Guardian."

[LadyTevar]

Argent was as clearly as confused as Ghost. "He ... could be having more visions ..." she said uncertainly. "He attacked Blackheart and I over visions in the sewers, remember." Has he gone fully insane now? The air in the apartment was troubled now, as Argent's concern leaked out. "Did he acknowledge you at all?"

[SirNitram]

"Darkness." Gravitas chuckled. "As if darkness stops us." The starscapes in his eyes were still illuminated, but it didn't matter. Everything his eyes would have told him was already being sensed from the delicate flow of gravity.

[Marcao]

The lights went out and he almost sighed. A moment later the alarms made their anger felt and he winced in their intensity before he reached inwards and touched his power. The alarms went silent a moment later but he had no intention of having to contend with them again. As the voice manifested he crafted his power into something suitable for his needs. The moment that the voice had stated its demands he acted.

His power flared and a wall of energy spread out from a marble of power centered roughly five meters in front of him. A square of energy roughly 4 meters per side of emerald energy appeared before him just as the alarms began their racket once again. Professionals were predictable but sound in of itself was energy, the sound waves that reached his emerald barrier lost the bulk of their energy, the color of the wall seeming to ripple beneath the constant strikes of sound against its surface. Behind the wall, the sounds of the alarms were muted considerably, an annoyance more so than a threat.

"So Blackheart, do we want to play nice or not?" He asked not at all pleased by the turn of events. Defenses had been expected, but an assault on his hearing was just rude. As he waited for a response, his eyes sought out the alarms and the sources of sound themselves. Rudeness in this circumstance should be paid back in kind.

[Cynical Cat]

"We play it as nice as they let us. Chicago rules if they don't come quiet." Low intensity light beams spread out from his eyes like flashlights. "Blast, can you do something about this forcefield so the rest of us don't have to make a mess?"

[frigidmagi]

"Let me see what I can do." Blast said quietly and looked at the force field. It shimmered like water silk and power flowed along it from various points in the walls. Blast strached his head through his mask. This should be interesting.

"Man I hope this isn't a nuclear powered thing. Last time that really hurt." He muttered and stuck his hand into the forcefield to start pulling.

[B4UTRUST]

"Alright, first order of business then. What can you tell me about these four? Weaknesses, strengths, who's leading who. Make it quick too, I don't think they're listening to my legal disclaimer. So spill it."
"Okay, well that's Blast right there, the one trying to drain that force wall. He can leech energy away from just about anything and store it for later use. He uses it to generate energy blasts and minor forcefields. Fairly destructive. But I seem to recall that the last time he tried to charge himself off one of the ring boxes it made him fairly sick."
"You let a non-guardian gain access to the box for the purpose of trying to power themselves? Are you crazy or just stupid?"
"Guess this is a bad time to tell you that they've probably still go ahold of at least one other box and ring as well as the dagger."
"... I so fucking hate you right now. We are having a *LONG* talk after this is all over. What else and be quick about it before I change my mind and kill you on the general principles that you're making my life a huge ass pain right now."
"Well, over there with the mag-light eyes is Blackheart..."

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

Blast's hand pressed against the energy barrier and it flared more brilliantly around it. The glow seemed to engulf his fingers like an aura as the power surged down his arm and into his body. The junkie high reminded him quickly of where he had felt this sort of power before. It brought back not-so-fond memories of a ring box in Millenium City where he had tried to recharge from it. The end result hadn't been pretty then, had made him sicker then a soldier eating a Captain's Chicken M.R.E. and had left him afraid he would die from it. Of course a little while later he had been afraid that he wouldn't die but those were hangovers for you. Even now, what little energy he had absorbed along with his all too vivid memories made his stomach churn a bit. If he absorbed much more of it, the inside of his mask would undoubtedly not be a pleasent place to occupy.

[Dark Silver]

Saibot watched on the monitor as Blast touched the wall of red energy, and beneath the helmet, he smirked. "This should be interesting...."

"Blackheart...Super Strength, durability, regeneration, lightshow from the eyes. He's managed to lay me out while having a life support field up. Has something eating him from the inside. He thinks he's always right."

Saibot pointed on the screen to the next one, "That's Phi.....Gravitas. If you haven't heard about him, you've been under a rock somewhere. But then, if your sometype of clone of me....you've probably been under a rock..."

The injuries were all but gone, thanks to his healing factor, and his mind twisted in on itself with what was happening. He was beside himself, literally at this point, and two others wearing the old uniforms appeared. He was to detached to take it seriously anymore, except they overpowered him...got into the base through the security systems and teleport blockers. Somewhere deep within his mind, the facts screamed out, the truth of the matter roared to be set free, but the others stormed before them.

"The other one.....is a new guy. Saw him maybe once, no idea who he is."

With that, Saibot turned, thrusting his hand out, "Give me back me Ring, and I'll deal with them."

Though the entire conversation, Saibot's radio continued to broadcast on the channel to Ghost....

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost paled, looking at Argent. "Someone cloned Saibot. And somehow that clone took the ring from Saibot and now Saibot's offering to go deal with Mirage team if they give him back the ring."

[LadyTevar]

Li Na's confusion was evident. "A what?" she asked, unable to believe she'd heard that right. "You can't be serious..." Garth wanting a little payback from certain members of Mirage team was understandable. "What exactly did he say?"

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost recited what he said, then looked at her. "Well, this certainly makes things more interesting." He said dryly.

[LadyTevar]

"You have no idea," Li Na said softly, as the radio started yet another 80's song, rocking out as a young woman sang she needed a hero. "Blackheart's merged, he's gotten a nasty boost from it." Also kicked her out of his bed, but that was another matter.

She set down her chopsticks neatly before rising to pour herself another glass of green tea, thinking hard. "Would Garth listen if you spoke?"