Heroes: Shadows over Millenium

[frigidmagi]

"Cool!" It had been a long day and frankly... He could use a damn drink. He grabbed the new guy began pulling him away.

"Come on man, can't refuse a direct order and all that shit, right? You got an American I.D.? Nah Can't have a guest buying the booze that's just rude, don't worry about it." He babbled reverting to his age as dragged the agent out of the room. Seeing the others he called out.

"HEY! We got a new guy to met and drinks on the boss! Lets go and have some fun huh? Yeah you to cyborg boy! Yo Croc-man, you're legal right? Anybody?" He called.

[B4UTRUST]

Kyosuke stood aside, silently frowning inwardly at the Captain Modesty comment. But damn if these westerners weren't blunt and direct.

When Blast left the room Kyosuke was dragged along with. He quickly recovered and matched Blast's eager stride, intent to prove that he was quite capable of walking on his own and that dragging, while energy conserving for him, was not the preferable means of getting someone from place to place.
"Konnichiwa. I'm Shigure Kyosuke. You are the one called Blast correct?"

When they encountered the others Kyosuke paused momentarily as his gaze fell on Argent again. His eyes lingered and then looked around at the others. Beneath the woman's surface he could see something. He didn't know exactly what yet but it was there and he wasn't sure it was a good thing. He would have to be careful around her he suspected.

----------

Bowman was reading through the material, gnawing absently on his lower lip. When the knock came at his door he jumped slightly and turned to face it.
"Enter," he said loud enough for whoever was on the other side to hear.

The knob turned and Blackheart walked in, taking a seat across from Bowman.
"Ah, Blackheart. I take it you've got the report finished?"

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart put it on the desk. "Yeah." Your move Bowman.

[B4UTRUST]

Bowman picked up the report and skimmed it half-heartedly. He absently let it fall into his inbox that was bore the humerous distinction of having the shape of a small trashcan on top of his desk.

He sighed and took a deep breath before continuing.
"Alright. We've got a few issues at hand that you need to be brought abreast of. First and foremost is Tarot. What, if anything, do you know about him?"

[frigidmagi]

"Konnichiwa. I'm Shigure Kyosuke. You are the one called Blast correct?"

Damn knew I should paid attention to those learn Japanese in 12 hour tapes... Ah fuck it.

"Yeah, that's me. Do I call you Shigure or Kyosuke? Or you got a another name you prefer?" Blast asked as he began herding people out.

"Hey Gravtis, you wanna come? Free eats, free booze on Blackieheart, can't beat that huh?" He called seeing him pass by.

[Cynical Cat]

"The rumour mill says his temporal powers are impressive, but I have yet to see any demonstration of that besides him running his mouth and the occassional reasonably accurate prediction. He's got connections to the spook palace, which is why he isn't up on charges on behind a phalanx of lawyers."

[B4UTRUST]

"I am, as you Americans would order it, Kyosuke Shigure. Kyosuke is my first name, Shigure is my family name. Americans do not use titles with names, like san or sama do they? So I guess, since this is America, the correct thing to call me would be Kyosuke. So confusing English is..."

---------

"The rumor mill is half lie, half truth and mostly speculation. Your assessment of his connections in black ops is fairly accurate. He apparently works for another organization other then Ultima. This organization is so deep under that even our clearances are invalid. He's got some high level pull coming from somewhere.

"This, of course, leads us to our problem. You've seen what he's willing to do to ensure things go his way. We both know the guy is dangerous, probably unstable and almost definatly sociopathic to say the least. And we can't touch him. He's got protection and I've already been warned to drop the investigation. If the higher ups knew that I had this information I wouldn't walk out of this building.

"So what do we do? We can't go after him officially and the guy's got enough clout and pull to make our lives miserable to say the least. You're the one he's after. Or rather your team for some reason. He's got a hardon over you guys. So the ball's in your court."

[Cynical Cat]

This is the part that could be a trap, thought Blackheart. He responded in a neutral tone of voice. "Have you read my file, sir?"

[B4UTRUST]

"I'm have a passing familiarity with your record. I couldn't recite every detail of your life however. Memorizing such data isn't advised as it's a potentital security compromise and I have to keep track of so many people it would be nearly impossible regardless."

[Cynical Cat]

The genius didn't even bother to read up on his team leader. "If you only have the abridged section of Tarot's file, then you probably don't have much to read in mine. The gaps speak for themselves."

[frigidmagi]

"I am, as you Americans would order it, Kyosuke Shigure. Kyosuke is my first name, Shigure is my family name. Americans do not use titles with names, like san or sama do they? So I guess, since this is America, the correct thing to call me would be Kyosuke. So confusing English is..."

"No, no titles. The Brits... ah Britians used to way back in the day, but we dropped that shit. Just name only now. Where abouts Japan you come from?" They couldn't all come from Toyko... Could they? He looked back... Who was legal... Check that, who was legal that wouldn't buy the beer drink it all and never come back?

[Dark Silver]

When Blast called them over for the party at Blackheart's place, Saibot looked to Argent, as if wait for her response. But he already figured what it would be. The visor closed again, and his face was hidden behind the opaque red material.

"We'll meet you there kid, we got some business to take care of first."

[B4UTRUST]

"I come from Mount Koya, in the Wakayama prefecture. Close to the southern part of the Nara prefecture. I spent a little whilte in Osaka and of course Tokyo for a short term after my joining of the Asahi."

-------

Bowman grimaced. He wasn't that familer with any of his people's histories really. He knew them by sight and by name but it couldn't tell you very many specific details. So he did the logical thing. He turned to his computer and called up Blackheart's record. It was, as he had said, rather empty.
"Tarot isn't the only spook apparently..."

[Cynical Cat]

Fucking morons, thought Blackheart. The Fed had spent a small fortune training him and a larger one making and recruiting several others. Their handlers had been fucking professionals. They had trained him for four years and he had served for six until the spook house had lost the bureaucratic jujitsu fight that had seen the operation cut up and cannibalized by every other meta agent program. He had ended up in Ultima and while it was nice to be able to operate in the light, having bosses that could just be a paper pushing monkey from Justice Department with a law degree sucked hard.

Blackheart thought about telling Bowman how badly out of his league he was and then decided against it. That might make him difficult to manage. Well, more than he was. "I know this game, I'll run with the ball," was all Blackheart said.

[B4UTRUST]

Bowman nodded.
"Alright then. Just...be careful."

He sighed, cracked his knuckles and moved on to a topic that was evidently a lot easier to discuss.
"Agent Shigure. As I said, he's fresh from Asahi in Japan. We've got a serious conflict of interests with him. Our PR people, in light of this recent display of political bullshit with the senators, want to show some serious Pro-meta propaganda. And even higher then that they want a show of cooperation between forces. Shigure will play ball with you I'm fairly sure. He doesn't strike me as the dominant alpha type to me. But, the other half don't want him involved in anything that would be considered a high profile mission that would compromise Ultima. A rock and a hard place.

"So my question here is, what is your team capable of? Are they ready for something with media publicity? Either way someone is getting their feelings hurt and I don't much care who. I don't think there is a happy medium here with this situation."

[Cynical Cat]

"Not even close to ready," said Blackheart. "There's only five paragraphs of report. Read paragraph five. Our empaths are loose cannons and one of them dumps emotions right to Saibot who is another loose cannon. Avatar fucked up with the bats and is busy burying himself in denial. He's inclined to do it again. Bats aren't too photogenic, but poor animals dying in agony in droves always looks bad and baby bats are cute. Next time he fucks up it will probably with something a lot more telegenic."

[LadyTevar]

When Blast called them over for the party at Blackheart's place, Saibot looked to Argent, as if wait for her response. But he already figured what it would be.

Argent was surprised, as Blast rushed past, nearly dragging the young Japanese man with him. Blast's excitement was clear to anyone who wasn't an empath. "A ... party?" she looked up to Saibot, and realized he was going to let her make the final decision. A party, or finding a Ultima mystic to try to figure out how to filter themselves. She knew which was the right choice, and silently agreed with Saibot.

The visor closed again, and his face was hidden behind the opaque red material.
"We'll meet you there kid, we got some business to take care of first."

"We will try not to take long..." she called after Blast. Perhaps, since Blackheart did not seem to be going with them, she could get the address from him and teleport over later. But now... they needed to find a mystic.

[B4UTRUST]

"Great, wonderful, outstanding..." he muttered. "Alright, I'll see what I can work out with trying to divert media attention. I hope you can find some way of dealing with your team or else this will be a clusterfuck of nigh epic proportions. Alright... if there's nothing else you need or want to know you're dismissed, call it a day. I'll catch you tomorrow."

[Cynical Cat]

"Hey Lenny," said Blackheart as he slid onto the stool next to the graying, middle aged man. He was talking just loud enough to be herd over the low rumble of the bar's patrons. "Been a long time."

Lenny almost choked on his cigar. "God damn it. This is supposed to be a private club. How did-, never mind. We have nothing to talk about."

"I disagree," said Blackheart. "And this place isn't that exclusive. You're a member after all."

"I don't care," said Lenny. "Nor do I want to be seen with you. Leave."

"Relax. I'm in civvies. No one will recognize me, even if they could see anything through this disgusting haze. Fucking tobacco." He signaled to one of the bartenders, a cute blonde. "White Russian. Double."

"I have nothing to say to you."

"Then listen," Blackheart said. "The fibers are clawling up my spine. I don't have too much time left before zero hour. And we both know how crappy my odds are at zero hour."

"David-"

"Just listen. I'm stronger than I have ever been and I will continue to be stronger. I'll be inclined to do favors, even those that entail considerable risks. Reckless, suicidal kind of stuff. I'll also be inclined to get payback."

"Are you-"

"I'm saying be smart. When the Operation was folded, everything got dealt away to the guys who wanted us gone. They ate us. I got tossed to Ultima because keeping me close wasn't a good option. How long before the Operation or its successors would roll? And me with my short half life? It was a smart move. Give away an asset you were going to lose before you could use him again. I look real good on paper. Ultima must have liked it. Play it smart now."

"What do you want?"

"Tarot. He's an asshole and he's fucking with things. He's also got Lucifer grade connections. Fucking nanites Lenny." His drink arrived. Blackheart took a big sip. "Nanites freak people out and he's bullet proof despite his cowboy shit. He's giving people intel, isn't he? Someone thinks that the snake oil he calls predictions are worth something and they're protecting their asset."

"I can't say."

"I knew you would say that. He's a manipulator and snake and his intel is exactly what he wants it to be. Even if some of it is accurate, he's slanting the rest to make your boys do what he wants. He's a liability and he'll burn you like he's burned everyone else. On the other hand, I get things done. The spook house should consider that."

"What makes you think they haven't? Besides, I'm just a spear carrier."

"Yeah, whatever," said Blackheart. "Remember what I said." The meta pealed severa bills off, tipping the bartender generously. "I've got places to be. I'll be in touch."

[Charon]

Legacies had watched Blast for a few moments as the boy got really excited. When he rushed off, dragging Kyosuke behind him the silver figure slowly got to his feet and followed after the two, easily catching up a few moments later. Legacies was watching, as always, when Kyusuke met Argent, he noticed the longer stare and filed it away with everything else. Curious indeed. He made his thoughts on the party known however.

"This is a waste of time. We require training, and this will serve no purpose."

[Comrade Tortoise]

Avatar chuckled at blast's exuberance. Still, he had killed a bunch of bats and one of his teammates had tried to murder him. He needed a drink

"Blast, I am in my mid thirties, I assure you I am legal" he said

"But they wont let me into the store like this" he said, gesturing to himself in his hybrid form.

"So if you will wait a moment, I have some clothes stashed in a closet"

he left the room.

A few moments later he came back in his human form wearing khahki shorts and a hawiian shirt.

[Rukia]

Em watched as Blased went on like a school girl about her crush. She looked at the tech who was placing a bandage on her arm. "Can I go?"

"Even if we told you no you'd still go, right?" He said, putting on the last piece of tape.

"Good call." She replied.

He stood, "Just report to the Medbay tomorrow for xrays and tests."

"Yessir."

She stood still using A.J. for support she spoke to Alex as he walked back in. "Get the strong stuff, I need it." She rolled her shoulders and winced a bit. She looked at A.J. "Walk me to my room so I can change?" She glared at the others "Not a word....."

[Pcm979]

A.J. made it out of the room before he started sniggering, and with a metahuman effort, somehow managed to make it through the corridor before bursting into full-fledged laughter.

"Oh, god." He giggled, wiping his eyes with the hand he wasn't using to support Em. "We are SO never going to live that down."

[Rukia]

She tried her best to keep from laughing as well but failed. She smacked his arm playfully, "Shut up! You know what I meant... Besides did you really want me limping all the way to my room?" She leaned against him laughing even harder.

[frigidmagi]

"This is a waste of time. We require training, and this will serve no purpose."

Blast stopped. Oh fucking brother one of those.

"We cannot train non-stop and frankly everytime we attempt to train it's a diaster. Perhaps we should try assocating with one another in a relaxed, nonformal enviroment, where we're not tossing around attempts to kill each other. Going fullout all the time doesn't work unless you want a unit to fall apart." He replied. Crap he know that much from Dad's half remembered stories and this guy was suppose to be fucking vet? Fucking loonie.