Heroes: Shadows over Millenium

[Dark Silver]

"That's fine...that protects her."

Garth stepped back, leaned back on the rail of the balcony, and the smirk drained from him. He stared at the man. "I'll level with you Blackheart. I hate meta's, I really do. Nothing does me as good as seeing a meta lie dead...I don't care if I killed them, or someone or thing else did.... But I never took a life without them harming innocents."

"I wouldn't even be doing this shit if you hadn't cold cocked me back at the Beta building...threaten to sling so much shit on me I'd die from the pressure if I didn't join your group. I don't like it, none of it. But I refuse to kill another team. Don't dick with me, and I'll be on the level with you. We have an accord?"

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart nodded. So that explained why he was with Argent. Since she was a mercenary and a criminal and all metas were guilty, he could care about her and not have his poisonous little world view disturbed. What the fuck did Argent see in him? Maybe she was kinky enough to like wallowing though a sea of self pity. And there was his whole pity party with being drafted. Maybe in fairy land threatening federal agents with deadly weapons didn't get you neck deep in shit, but not in the real world. "We have an understanding," said Blackheart.

[Dark Silver]

Garth smiled, "Good, then I beleive there's still a party in there, or is it be called on account of rain?"

Garth walked over towards the door, he aired it out. At least things wouldn't goto shit anytime soon...and he'd still have to deal with Blackheart another day.

[LadyTevar]

"Lei, I just heard something that comes as a bit of a shock, and I want you to clarify it for me if you dont mind... Does Saibot er I mean Garth, make a habit out of killing metahumans and did he...did he kill Guardian Force? Because that is what I heard a second ago, and I want to make sure it is not the booze talking. Because both of those would explain a LOT about your lover's behavior..."

Lei looked out to the balcony sadly. "Did you know he had a wife? A metagroup called the Black Aeon killed her and his parents. Thus, he kills metas when he can. Guardian Force was a way of doing that legally... until they found a meta too powerful." She looked Avatar, Blast and Gravitas in the eye. "It had them all badly wounded, then promised Garth he'd leave them in peace if Garth could kill him first." Her eyes dropped. "Garth nearly had him, when the Meta blasted the wounded Guardians to ashes... granting them 'peace'. Thus.. Garth killed the Guardians by not being fast enough to stop the meta."

When the shadow appeared in front of his face he followed it back to its origin. He wasn't shocked. He walked over to her and looked her in the eyes.
"I know what you are demon," he whispered. "The only question is what type you are. And what it is you're doing here?"

After relating the story of the Guardian Force's last fight, this was a bit of a shock. Her pupiless black eyes widened at the Japanese meta, and a touch of -fear/threatened/help- shot down the link to Garth before she could stop it. "I am here because I am on this team," Lei answered back, feeling like she should back away quickly. "What I am is what you see. No more, no less."

[B4UTRUST]

"Oni, Kitsune, Meinaishujin, Asura, the Jing. They are all there for a reason, no more, no less. The question is which are you? I know what you are but not your...flavor for lack of a better word.

"I almost suspect Kitsune. You attempt subtleness, twisting and avoiding the words."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Demon, whosamhats?" Alex exclaimed, filing away the information aboutr Garth for furture use

Alex interposed himself protectively between Lei and the Japanese addition to the team

"I dont know where you get off making accusations of demonhood, but this is neither the time nor the place to delve into her heritage with your supersititions. SHe is here, she is a member of the team, it doesnt matter how she was born, she is doing good now, that is what matters"

[B4UTRUST]

"One does not recieve such... taint by doing good. They are often times self-serving entities, feeding and warping the baser emotions and feelings of man. Assigning such a moral concept as good to them is not a worthwhile endevor."

[LadyTevar]

"Oni, Kitsune, Meinaishujin, Asura, the Jing. They are all there for a reason, no more, no less. The question is which are you? I know what you are but not your...flavor for lack of a better word.

"I almost suspect Kitsune. You attempt subtleness, twisting and avoiding the words."

"Demon, whosamhats?" Alex exclaimed, filing away the information aboutr Garth for furture use

Alex interposed himself protectively between Lei and the Japanese addition to the team

"I dont know where you get off making accusations of demonhood, but this is neither the time nor the place to delve into her heritage with your supersititions. SHe is here, she is a member of the team, it doesnt matter how she was born, she is doing good now, that is what matters"

"Because he can sense it, Avatar... That is why." Lei answered bluntly, feeling Garth coming inside with Blackheart beside him. They did not need a confrontation, and she was trying to send a 'let me deal with him' message to Garth along the link.

"One does not recieve such ... taint by doing good. They are often times self-serving entities, feeding and warping the baser emotions and feelings of man. Assigning such a moral concept as good to them is not a worthwhile endevor."

Taint? TAINT? What did he know of taint?!
She turned and met Kyosuke's eyes and matched his imperious tone perfectly. "I do not know which demons you speak of, Nippon. My family was noble before the Han took the throne, and my mother paid her generation's price for a peace-pact sworn before your first Emporer was even born. I am the result; my mother's heart, my father's darkness." Her black-on-black eyes were dead as she revealed the truth. "What does that make me, Nippon? God? Devil? Demon? Human? Li lao bu ho ang moh lang kan ka seh li zi pu bor kia..."
-You mother was screwed by a foriegner and gave birth to a bastard like you.-

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart didn't have super senses, but he did have the ability to detect a train wreck as it occured. Kyosuke had to be doing something pretty damn inflammitory for Avatar to be backing up Argent. He pushed his way through the milling group of would be heroes and did his best knight in shining armour impression. "What's going on?" he asked Kyosuke mildly.

[SirNitram]

"You know." Gravitas said evenly, eyeing his glass of wine. "If you two don't settle down, I'll demonstrate what a person who, whilst perhaps not from the other realms, but who definately got worshipped for his power, can do."

"Taint.. Trust me, neither of you have even a whiff. The genetics of deamonic entities are undeniably complicated, but if she wanted to cause trouble, she would have done so. So, my esteemed compatriot from the Land of the Rising Sun.. Let me, as a horrible little Gaijin.. Tell you to ram it. And yes, they have laws against cruel and unusual."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"In short, our Japanese friend is accusing, apparantly truthfully, Lei of being a 'demon'. Not that I care. SHe is a sapient creature, and capable of choosing her own path. I have little patience for bigots, or those who view someone';s herittage as inherently damning" he said, eying Kyosuke, and sparing a glance at Saibot.

"Now, can we put an end to this? This is supposed to be a party"

[Cynical Cat]

May the nonexistant gods bless the bigoted Japanese. He was doing a great job of fostering unity in the form of universal disapproval of his jackassery. "Why don't you go over and take in the contents of my saki bottles, Kysuke?" he said with a false smile. "We can discuss this sometimes latter when we are sober."

[B4UTRUST]

"Chinese," he stated blankly. "Hulijing then. It makes you a indecipherable spirit that acts on whims and its nature rather then any true altruistic intentions. As I said, trying to place moral intent to such spirits is a worthless activity."

He blinked then turned his head slowly, looking at Blackheart with the same bland expression on his face.
"You likewise carry a burden within, though yours is different then hers. Quite different. I was questioning 'her' on what flavor of demon she is. I had thought perhaps Kitsune, but since she is Chinese and not Japanese I would have to go with Hulijing then, which amount to more or less the same thing as the tales go."

[SirNitram]

"Kitsune, Huling.. What the hell does it matter?" Gravitas snapped. "Half of her is human, and last I checked, you folks were all together on the superiority of Homo Bloody Sapiens. So can it."

[Cynical Cat]

"You think I'm carrying a demon?" Blackheart asked suddenly icy serious. He hadn't consumed nearly enough alcohol to impede his augmented, poison filtering body.

[Dark Silver]

When the doors opened and Blackheart went in to play the mediator, Garth just leaned back against the balcony doorframe and watched. Lei, after all, had imated that she could handle this...

And far be it for him to become involved in something like a simple arguement.

He glanced at his ring on the counter where he lift it. Damn, gone. He muttered to himself, and mentally called out to it. Slowly, it lifted out of Lei's pocket and shot forward, sliding easily on a outstreched finger. He fixed the ring on his finger, squeezed a fist a couple times, and smiled.

Ahh, he felt better with the ring on.

"We got pizza and booze, and I got the itch for some kareoke. So come on people" he said, moving over to the stereo..

He was sure a goverment putz like Blackheart would have a microphone and machine around here.....

[B4UTRUST]

"Half of her is, yes. But half of her isn't and that is the half that concerns me. We have found these spirits to be... troublesome at times. They are not always benevolent spirits and are powerful enough to make strong metas seem weak and helpless.

"Her demon half carries the taint of her deeds and that too concerns me.

"As for you, Agent Blackheart, if you do not know then this is not the place to discuss it."

[LadyTevar]

"Hulijing....?" Lei snorted, indignant. "You think me a fox-spirit? A thief, an illusion-maker?" The shadows around her formed the dragon's wings as she spoke... the Chinese 3-toed dragon Westernized. Even Blackheart's indignation over being called demonic fed her own anger at the upstart Japanese demon-hunter.

The effect was spoiled as Saibot's ring rose out of her pocket and returned to him, banishing the shadows as it passed by.

[Cynical Cat]

"I think right now is a perfect time and place," said Blackheart. "I don't put my life on display, but I know so many of everyone else's secrets its fair enough that they know some of mine. Talk." His tone brooked no dispute.

[SirNitram]

"However bad demons are... Humans with the 'best intentions' are far worse." Gravitas said, frowning deeply. "I've seen a human with the 'best of intentions', the most altruistic streak possible, fire a nuclear weapon at a city full of people, then another, and another, until a fleet of them leapt into the sky, to cleanse the 'stain' of nonhuman from the Earth."

"So ram this 'Half isn't, and that concerns me' up your ass sideways. The human half is the most dangerous half.. every single time. "Now. Because you have angered the god of the room, you will be subjected to me singing Red, Red, Wine."

[Dark Silver]

"Red Red Wine, hey, i like that song" Garth spoke up, ignoring most of the fighting. He was letting Lei handle it, like she wanted.


"Nope...no kareoke machine..hey, resident alternate dimension god, feel like doing accapella?" he asked, moving to go grab his bottle of whiskey again.

[SirNitram]

"Acapella it is!" Gravitas moved to take a place that, possibly, could be considered 'center stage'. "Never tried it as a duet, so we'll see how this goes." He cleared his throat, and began to sing.

Red, red wine
Go to my head
Make me forget that i
Still need her so

Red, red wine
It`s up to you
All I can do, i`ve done
But mem`ries won`t go
No, mem`ries won`t go

What was perhaps most shocking is that he wasn't half bad.

[B4UTRUST]

Kyosuke looked around the room slowly then back at Gravitas.
"I see no god, merely a man who believes himself to be superior to all others. I believe the term is delusional, not god.

"As for your sentimentality towards the spirits, a human is understandable, reasonable at times and can be reasoned with. They can understand good and evil and pay for their deeds. Spirits are whimsical creatures who act on their own nature and self-interests. A human may destroy a city on a belief that he is doing the right thing, that he is acting on good intentions. A spirit will do it because it can and it might prove an interesting distraction for a few moments. At least with the human someone gets to act in the interest of good, even if its their own flawed version of it."

Kyosuke closed his eyes for a moment then stared at Blackheart.
"It is your decision. At the center of your being, the center of your power and your existance is this."

Kyosuke reached out and tapped a single finger against Blackheart's chest over his sternum.
"I believe now that you have no idea what it is that lives within you. I do not know if it's by birth, by belief or by happenstance but something lives within you. It spreads and corrupts your body with a unnatural taint as it grows. As it grows so do you. But it will consume you and take you. I suggest you destroy it before it does the same to you."

[Dark Silver]

While Gravitas may have been not half bad, Garth was that bad, and half over again. He belted out the songs, doing a poor imitation of Ub40, taking a swig of whiskey between the lyrics:

I`d have thought
That with time
Thoughts of her
Would leave my head
I was wrong
And I find
Just one thing makes me forget

Red, red wine
Stay close to me
Don`t let me be alone
It`s tearin` apart
My blue, blue heart

[Charon]

Legacies seemed as to appear behind Kyosuke, having been so quiet and unnoticed due to the commotion the china man was causing that he'd been unnoticed.

"And tell us, human, what do your blindly faithful eyes see in us?"

The face was once again a more demonic visage, the mouth large and filled with long, sharp teeth.

"The others are attempting to relax, we would have you give them that peace. By your volition or without."