Heroes: Shadows over Millenium

[frigidmagi]

Blast cleared his throat.

"No worries, it's Blast by the way. Saw you and the Doc at the debate by the way, pretty spiffy." He said.

[Rukia]

Em watched wide eyed as Blast yelled, and Legacies grabbed Alex. Legacies looked at Argent a gave a wicked evil grin.

"You people are all insane. Jesus...." She 'ported over to A.J and all but hid behind him.

[Charon]

The distended jaw retracted as the tendrils that had criss-crossed the room and held the mouth of the good doctor in place released him. The calm demeanor returned as Legacies looked at Saibot, the blank silver face mouthing with him in a complete dead-pan.

"Force, when applied properly, diffuses terse situations. No one was in danger of harm."

The silver figure stepped towards the wall of the room, completely non-plussed at what had just occured.

[LadyTevar]

The calm mask was back over Legacies' emotions, as if shut off like water from a faucet. It had been a display, Argent realized, just to let her know how serious he was. Staying quiet, she gently, invisibly felt around the room with her empathy, 'tasting' everyone elses emotions regarding her. Avatar was the only one truly negative.

Let Avatar fume. She did not have to explain herself any further... it would be a waste of breath on him. The next time he wished to push the subject, she would take Saibot and Legacies and teleport away.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Avatar was really fucking pissed, but he forced himself to calm down. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Mentally of course, what he was doing was the equivalent of daffy duck stuffing someone into a deep hole screaming "No no no! Down Down Down!!!" this time though, it was not an angry genie, or a yeti, it was his animalistic urges. After a few moments, he opened his eyes

"Indeed, the debate was spiffy. Saddly, it probably accomplished nothing. Forgive me, argent, I acted rashly, one of my weaknesses you see. I have to conciously work at staying calm and rational sometimes, it is the lycanthropy; which is why your mental maniulations angered me so much, ironically enough." he said

"We will have to talk though. I HAVE afterall, been out of the loop for the last week, and given what I went through, I think I do deserve an explanation. Preferably when I have been drinking, I am oddly enough, friendly when I drink... anything but tequilla"

[Agent Fisher]

Ryan was sitting, dumbfounded.

Oh, God. Who did I offend? What did I do wrong?

[Shark Bait]

John snuck in the room last, he had been on a computer terminal untill just a few moments ago looking up some rather interesting information, it would require more work later but it could wait.

[Pcm979]

A.J. subconciously kicked his chair off from the table so it slid infront of Em, then spoke up in a mild tone of voice.

"Would this be a bad time for the new guy to say 'Hi'?"

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart entered the room, wearing his black battle suit. As always, there was something slightly "off" about him. "Super hearing isn't one of my powers, but I could hear the fight half way down the hall. You had the time off to decompress in part, because some of you have very good reasons to be very pissed at other people and some of you went through hell or a reasonably close facsimilie."

"That's personel baggage. That's where it belongs. In your personal life. This is about the team. We are going to go into meat grinders together and getting out alive is very likely going to depend on your team mates coming through in a pinch. If aren't man or woman enough to commit to being there for the rest of us, leave now.

"As for who the evilist asshole in the room is, that would be me. Gravitas might have a bigger body count in whatever parallel universe he comes from, but he's likable. I'm not. I've killed a lot of people and sure as hell a lot of them deserved better than what they got. I'm also the asshole who's holding the indenture strings of those of you who are working for the team instead of enjoying federal hospitality. If you want to hate some, I'm your man."

[frigidmagi]

"So... Can we move on with the meeting now? Why are we having this meet anyways?" Blast asked sitting back down.

[B4UTRUST]

A few moments later Agent Bowman meandered into the room. The tension was palpable. He slowly looked from one individual to the next, wondering just what the hell he had wandered into. He coughed, clearing his throat.
"Umm, excuse me. Yes, hello everyone. I'm Agent Bowman, some of you may know me, others may not. The reason you all are being brought in here, which is what I'm sure you're wondering, is simply a question.

"You all were given a week of recuperative leave from the agency following that nasty incident with The Astronomer. You were also asked during that time to reflect on yourself. You're here now to discuss that reflection and see where your thoughts lie on the matter of sticking with the agency.

"I won't lie to you, we need good qualified agents in the field. We need people dedicated to protecting this city, this country and its citizens from people like the Astronomer. And quite frankly people forced into this line of work don't make for good qualified agents. They make for cannon fodder. We need that too if anyone is interested," he chuckled humorously before continuing.

"No, seriously, we need agents. We need people who are dedicated to this job and to what it takes. I won't lie, this isn't just a 9-5 job where you come in and you pick up a paycheck. This is dangerous work, demanding work. But it's good work, satisfying work with a purpose and tangible results that you can see each and every day of your life. You will get to enjoy the knowledge that you can look out the window and see the good that you have done. Right now if you were to look out the window you would see Millenium City. A week ago you saved it. You brought down a horrible person and tonight the citizens of this city get to go get cheap chinese at Jin-Chou's on 41st street and eat their lo mein. Most will be blissfully unaware of the true extent to the danger they were really in. But you know and we know.

"If you do decide to stay on with us you will be taken care of. Our agents are valuable to us and we try our best to compensate them. You want money? We won't make you rich but you'll be comfortable. Housing? We'll provide you with a nice place to live if you have no where else. Can't fly to work? We'll get you a means to travel. We take care of our own here. We can't, honestly, afford not to.

"If you need firsthand experiance of what it's like as an Agent, you've got a few of them sitting in this room. Agent Blackheart, a senior field agent, has been with us for awhile. He's seen the worst things you could imagine this side of Hell. Behind you, you've got an agent who's just joined up. He can tell you all the fresh faced wonderment of being here. He could also probably tell you the monumentous pile of paperwork he filled out just to be here today. I think he's planning on demanding we pay for corrective surgery for carpel tunnel.

"There is no lack of talent or ability in this room. You all are, needless to say, quite impressive in your power. We can't and won't make you be here. But we're asking you to be. So who here has the constitution, the depth of sacrifice and duty required, to join?"

Bowman again looked at each person in the room, catching their eye and holding it for a moment.

[LadyTevar]

Argent finally broke the silence, asking the question that she knew Saibot was going to say, but with a bit more tack. "Does this mean that we will not be re-implanted with nanites designed to kill us?"

She fully expected a shitstorm to erupt over this, since only Legacies and Blackheart had been there to witness what the Nanites had done to her and Saibot. Absently, she wondered what Avatar would think of the news.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Avatar was about to formally do it, honestly enough he had already resigned his position at the University in order to do so.

"I decided to do so over a week ago and my mind has not changed, lets just hope I dont get skinned aga..." that was when he heard the bit about the nanites.

"Ok, what was this about killing nanites, because I dont care what she did, or who she was working for, that sort of behavior is not acceptable She and Saibot for all their faults are human beings and have certain rights."

He shot Bowman and Blackheart a look which make a normal person feel like tiny game animals staring down the teeth of a three meter long reptilian superpredator, and he was in his human form at the time.

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart repressed a snicker at Super Croc's attempt at intimidation. "The matter is being addressed doctor," said Blackheart coldly. "You'll be informed to the degree that it concerns you."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Dont play those games with me...I have dealt with enough beurocrats in the Grant Application process to know that is code for 'fuck off, I am going to keep this from you until it bites you on the ass' or, given the nature of this assemblage, there will be some huge crisis later involving something related to this matter. And with all due respect, I already know it concerns me directly because I will be working for the organization which injected these alleged lethal nanites. Argent doesnt seem like a liar to me, in fact with her empathic abilities a lie would probably be projected emotionally to me.

So if you want us to be able to work with and for you in good conscience, and be able to work as a team with eachother, I think we need to know this information. WIth all due respect, Sir."

[LadyTevar]

As she'd thought, Avatar thought only his shit shouldn't stink. Perhaps it would make it easier to deal with the crocodilian in the future, if he thinks she was targeted for destruction.

"It does concern me, Blackheart," Argent replied. "At some point during my forced recruitment, one of your agents secretly injected those nanites inside us, set to kill us painfully if we were seperated, it seems. Then you yourself had us seperate to search the building for the Senator. I know now you had no knowledge of this before the nanites had fully activated... but it is still damning to note that in a mission, seperation is likely."

That part was unfair, and she knew it, but she was more focused on warning the rest of the team, and seeing if this Agent Bowman would crack on Tarot. Blackheart had already made his feelings on Tarot clear.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Avatar, for once in the last few moments, shut up for a few seconds. He was having difficulty wrapping his mind around the sort of sick bastard that would do that to someone, anyone, for any reason. He was also having a problem dealing with the idea that he probably was not allowed to rip this afformentioned sick bastard limb from limb and ritualistically burn the corpse.

"Argent, Saibot" he said "If you have thought that anything I have said to you in the last little while was unfair. I apologize. The fact that you returned after that speaks of your good character"

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart ignored Avatar's little temper tantrum. The professor was used to dealing with norms and being the scariest dog in the pack. It was a very bad habit that he would have to break. "Super powered mercenaries who kidnap senators don't get the benefit of the doubt, nor do guys who are working to avoid doing Federal time who then take a powder in a fight so don't give me your aggrieved victim routine because its not going to fly. Tarot's actions are being very thouroughly checked, going a long way back. There are very strict rules regarding the use of control nanites and he broke a bunch of them and everyone wants to know what else he's been up to. Everything is being checked."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Very well. So long as that is not...standard...proceedure..." he said, trailing off, relieved and also rather disturbed by he simple fact that this Tarot character was not already dead.

[Charon]

The silver figure nodded.

"So it is likely that at some point in time this group may have to bring in Tarot for questioning if he does not come freely?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Possibly," said Blackheart, "or he may go to the hide behind a wall of lawyers route."

[SirNitram]

"You'd never manage it." Gravitas spoke up. He had been thinking on the allegations, and how to neutralize such nanites if they became an issue. "Tarot is on an evolutionary level I have only encountered, oh, three times. Even I would be hard-pressed to force him to do anything, and I daresay most of you would be in similar positions."

The Nova spread his hands. "Nanites, sterility cocktails.. No matter the timeline, it's always the same. As long as it doesn't kill me when I knock off to Lunar orbit for the night, I suppose I can weather it. If you called me here, you must be desperate. I'm bad PR with the politicos lately."

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart looked blandly in Gravitas's direction. Evolutionary scale bullshit, no big deal. The shark hadn't evolved much in millions of years and it killed just fine. A more relevant issue is how would Tarot's uber evolutionaryness withstand flash vision or being sliced and diced by Legacies? Tarot wasn't the first powerhouse that needed to be put down, if he even was one, and he wouldn't be the last. Besides, it wasn't like Blackheart had much chance of seeing the other side of forty anyway.

[Pcm979]

At this point, A.J. felt like shouting "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?" But it didn't seem prudent. He at least wished they'd given him the Cliff Notes version of whatever the hell had happened. It sounded important, to say the least.

[Rukia]

Em reached over and placed a hand on A.J's arm. She looked at him and silently answered his question. -I'll fill you in later, promise.-