Heroes: Shadows over Millenium

[SirNitram]

"My mistake." Gravitas nodded to Blackheart. "But yes. Even if they are settling in, it makes them more vunerable. And a quick job with less than normal infighting would be best."

[LadyTevar]

"Perhaps we should give Ghost one of the rings as well... to see if they will work" Argent suggested quietly. She felt Saibot's concern distantly, and inside her mind stroked that strand comfortingly, sending a mild throb down it to ease his mind. Having the team gathered told her much: threads lead to each member, except for Ghost with whom she'd never spent much time. One thread lead off to where Legacies would be, recuperating in the hospital. It was a doubled strand, for the symbiote and the man within.

It was intriguing, how this clarity had been denied her before, when she was lost in her emotions. It seemed every price had advantages.

[frigidmagi]

Usually a taxi driver could speak enough english to realize where you wanted to go, that was usually all Tobin asked for in a taxi driver. Late as hell, he stumbled out of the taxi, his head still hurt to. He paid the fare grumbling. Changing over was quick, he was getting a little to used to this.

He ran into the building and after a quick check for directions hustled to the meeting room, Blackheart was not gonna be happy.

[Agent Fisher]

Ryan shrugged. "Sure, I'll take one of those rings. I'm sure it will be useful. Would have been nice to have one back in my old days." Ryan fell silent, thinking about his years in the CIA. He reached for his coffee mug and took a drink. He looked over at the door as Blast came in. "Hey kid. Nice of you to join us."

[LadyTevar]

Argent's eyes looked Blast over, from where they hung in the middle of the wall. "I see... the box was too strong for you." The silver eyes were ... different, with a streak of what could be described as tarnish forming faint slit pupils in the center of the silver orbs. "I am sorry, then, for suggesting you use the power within." Her words were again oddly emotionalless, a simple, calm apology, nothing more.

[frigidmagi]

Blast nodded thanks to the spook and plopped down.

"I got a taxi driver who didn't speak English. Almost took me clear out to Queens..." He stopped and looked at Argent for a minute. He pushed his hands under his mask and rubbed his eyes and looked again.

"Why the contacts, or did I miss a show and tell?" He asked.

[LadyTevar]

The silver eyes blink, then a tiny, faint wisp of amusement reaches Blast. Whether another else feels it, Blast can't tell. "I have not looked into a mirror, so I cannot say. You are the first to comment ... perhaps because of your condition."

[Hotfoot]

Collin kept to the shadows, trailing a group of Freaks. His mind went back to the games he used to play with his mother, the games of hide and seek, the ones that always seemed a little weird. Not that he was complaining now, since they seemed to be very helpful. Shadowing the Freaks was relatively easy, so long as he kept his distance. Every so often, he would use his speed in small bursts to avoid being seen or catch up, but he kept his power use to a minimum. There were only a handful of them, but they had a destination in mind, a task to do. Given the reports he had heard and the things he had seen since he got to Millenium City, he knew he couldn't just let them keep going. Someone was bound to get hurt if he just walked away. Still, there was a sinking feeling in his gut that he might be stepping into something much bigger than he could handle.

Roughly half an hour later, that sinking feeling had grown into an inescapable fact. The numbers in front of him were too large for him to even think about him handling alone. He was afraid something like this would eventually happen. He pulled out a pre-paid cell phone and dialed the authorities.

"Hello? This is...a concerned citizen. I've found a large collection of freaks. No, no, I'm not being attacked. Look, just send someone down here, okay? What do you mean you need a name? What happened to anonymous tips? Fine...tell them, uh, Hotfoot. And send someone soon, this could get ugly." He gave them the directions to his current location and hung up, shaking his head. He'd have to ditch the phone soon, but for now, it served its purpose. Fuck all if this wasn't going to end badly though.

[B4UTRUST]

After the anonymous call came through the line, a radio operator ordered up MCPD's small anti-meta unit.

It had been almost twenty years since Project: Guardsmen created the Ground and Air Assault Suits for the military. After their declassification by the military they slowly became available for civilian law enforcement use. Millenium City was one of the first to recieve them. A pair of Heavy Ground Assault suits and a pair of Light Air Scout suits. There was an order in place for a dozen more of each.

The Meta Response Force was a subgroup of the MCPD's SWAT team. Anytime there was a small meta threat in the city, the MRF was sent in. Anything larger then they could handle was forwarded to Ultima.

The MRF mobilized quickly. The AAS units took to the air as gouts of flame burst from the exhaust ports on their backs. Wings folded down at the shoulders and locked into place, stabilizer fins locked at the shins. They rocketed through the city towards their target. The GAS suits were crouched down on the back of a flatbed truck, gripping handholds as it raced through traffic sirens blaring.

The AAS units circled overhead, zeroing in on the Freak Legion.
"We've aquired the targets. Moving in.

"THIS IS THE POLICE! Drop your weapons and stay where you are!"

The Freaks paused for a second, glancing skywards. One of them gave the AAS units the finger with all three of his hands. Then they took off running in different directions, splitting up.

"They're running. We're splitting up and following as many as we can. Get the helo's up here."

The aerial units split up. They descended towards the street , manuvering through the buildings in pursuit of the targets.

A few blocks away the sirens blared the arrivals of the GAS units.

[Hotfoot]

A normal person would take this turn of events to run back home, to let the authorities deal with the situation. Still, as the last year has so painfully pointed out to Collin, he's not a normal person, not anymore. He stayed to the shadows, following the chase as best he could without giving away his location. A few of the freaks were heading somewhere without a tail, so he made sure that didn't last. It would get harder to keep his presence hidden as this chase went on, but hopefully he would be able to get clear in the aftermath without too much trouble.

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart's comset buzzed. He picked it up and put the receiver in his eary. "Blackheart." Pause. "Yes. Location?" He wrote it down and tossed it to Argent. "Freak Legion's on the move and making trouble. Let's go." He clamped his weapon bracer on.

[Agent Fisher]

Ryan took off running, back to his cubicle. He reached it and quickly opened his rifle case, removing the rifle and grabbed his vest. He had already loaded magazines with ammo and put them in the pouches of his vest. He also grabbed his thigh holster and thigh bag containing a M-50 Gas Mask, with a protective hood. He quickly turned and began running back to the room, slipping his vest on as he moved through the halls. "Make a hole." He shouted to a group of people in his way.

[LadyTevar]

Blackheart's comset buzzed. He picked it up and put the receiver in his eary. "Blackheart." Pause. "Yes. Location?" He wrote it down and tossed it to Argent. "Freak Legion's on the move and making trouble. Let's go." He clamped his weapon bracer on.

A three-fingered ink-black claw reached out of the shadows and grabbed the paper out of the air, bringing it closer to her tarnished silver eyes to read it as Ghost bolted from the room for his equipment. "You are in luck, I have been here often." Argent replied, the clawed foot emerging all the way from the shadow, a leg seemingly too thin to support the rest of her as she slithered out into the room.

First the foreleg, then the head slipped free, the silver eyes accenting the jet-black, equine-like face. Whiskers of shadows trailed from her jawline, the horns on her head more like ears laid back along the temple ridge. The head set upon a graceful neck, subtle as a swans, long as a serpent, before the second forearm emerged to further walk her out of the shadows.

The body came next, thinner and more serpentine than before, with a decorated fin running down from the back of her skull, tarnished silver upon inky blackness. A chill seemed to emerge with her, as if she was bringing the Between with her as she continued to glide out, her back arching like a cat's, or like the humps of the fabled Loch Ness Monster. The back legs finally stepped out, one by one, as thin as the forelegs, still three-clawed, and the tail whispered out, just as long as her neck, with a fanciful frill at the end.

There were no wings. The body did not trail off into wispy shadows anymore. The silver eyes shown against the solid shadow, watching their reactions solemnly, emotionallessly, as the chill air wafted around the room. "I am ready, as soon as Ghost returns."

[Agent Fisher]

Agent Dan "Ghost" Ryan had seen some strange things in his life. But the sight that greeted him when he returned to the room, made his pause. "Uh, wow." He said simply. He turned his head toward Blackheart. "Uh, should we grab some gas masks for the rest of the team incase the Freaks use chemical agents?" He said, his eyes not leaving the dragon lady.

[SirNitram]

"That, ever so slightly, disconcerts the hell out of me." Gravitas said, studying Lei's draconic form and trying to figure out the why for it. But he was out of his league on this one. "I think I can hold my breath for any reasonable length of combat. By air or by land?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Put us on the ground. Not all of us are fliers."

[Agent Fisher]

"That, ever so slightly, disconcerts the hell out of me." Gravitas said, studying Lei's draconic form and trying to figure out the why for it. But he was out of his league on this one. "I think I can hold my breath for any reasonable length of combat. By air or by land?"

"What about Blast?" Inquired Ghost.

[Dark Silver]

Saibot watched Argent step out of the shadow, and he was caught by surprise in the change. She was different, he didn't know if it was natural, if something occured to her, or if she was doing this on her own.

Whatever it was, it made him wonder, and worried.

"I suggest recon first, I can head out there now, take a look from above. I won't be affected by the gas, and can report back."

He was turned towards Blackheartduring the talk, but his eyes kept drifting over to Lei....it wasn't right...

[Cynical Cat]

"The situation is already going pear shaped," said Blackheart. "The cops metahuman unit are there in battle armour. They're about to have a big brawl. No half measures. Move."

[LadyTevar]

"Put us on the ground. Not all of us are fliers." Blackheart stated.
"I suggest recon first, I can head out there now, take a look from above. I won't be affected by the gas, and can report back." Saibot offered immediately.
"The situation is already going pear shaped," said Blackheart. "The cops metahuman unit are there in battle armour. They're about to have a big brawl. No half measures. Move."

Argent said nothing about Blackheart's first, unnecessary order, nor did she respond to Saibot's open worry about her new dragonshape. It rolled off her like water from her back. Even Gravitus' concern was nothing to her now. "As you wish, Blackheart," was all she said as her head rose and neck curved back against itself swan-like.

Before, her wings would stretch out to surround the party and gather them to her. Now wingless and more connected to the darker side of her gifts, she knew another way. As her eyes half-hood, each party-member's shadow opened beneath their feet, swiftly rising around them and swallowing them down into the blackness of Between.

... Argent's dragonform no longer winged its way across the distance, but slithered through like a swimming snake in large graceful loops. Even the bright silvery shine she'd had before was muted, tarnished, a faint candle to the former light she'd been here. The great heart still beat in the distance, sounding out the time to cross, but beneath was a fainter echo, like a damned soul crying out in abject terror.

... Then they were out on the street, Argent's serpentine body circling around them like the Ouroboros, seeming to eat herself as she reformed into her human self -- which again, showed changes between last night and this day. Her eyes were no longer merely black-on-black, but like her dragon eyes showed faint slit pupils of tarnished silver. Her hair was still as straight and black as Oriental blood could make it, but her skin was paler in contrast, as if she'd never seen sunlight. The costume she wore was still the same, yet somehow she seemed much more feminine inside it, despite the lack of emotion and feeling of cold numbness that seemed to surround her.

[Cynical Cat]

Something cold and infinitely malevolent stirred in Blackheart, an entity already aroused by the prospect of violence. New chemicals were added to the stew of hormones and adrenaline it sending pumping through his veins, subtly altering the influences on him. Blackheart didn't quite notice what was going on, but he was keyed up to fight at the moment. "Let's drop the hammer," he said as he took to the air.

[Dark Silver]

The trip was almost disturbing, the teleport through the World Between, it wasn't like the other times, it was colder, darker....

When they re-emerged, Saibot shoke free, he'd think on it later. Right now it was time to do what he did.

The glow of his ring's energy field formed around him, and he lifted into the air. He thought for a second, hovered in the air, pulled free his Sword, and threw it at the Ghost, "You'll need this. You'll know how to work it." he said, before flying off. He pointedly had not said anything about Lei's new look...they'd discuss it at home after this.

[SirNitram]

The passage through Between was something Gravitas had no love of. This time, it somehow seemed more sinister than normal. The one-armed demigod emerged into the streets of what he knew as New York, immediately taking to the air to try and survey the situation. His lungs stopped pumping air as he drew sustenance from other methods.

"I just hope the damn metro police don't think I'm an enemy aircraft. I'd hate to wreck those powersuits of theirs."

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost caught the sword and set it down. What the fuck am I going to do with this? He thought to himself, as he quickly pulled out his gas mask and put it on, adjusting it, and hoping there wasn't any agents in the air already. He pulled the sling off his rifle and quickly rigged it on the sword. He swung the sword onto his back, and picked the rifle back up, checking the underslung shotgun, loaded with beanbag rounds. He turned on his comm and adjusted it to the MRF channel. "MRF Command, this is Ultima Agent Ghost." He gave his location. "Give me directions to the closest suspect." He nodded as he received information. "Roger. Route a GAS to assist."

He ran towards the suspect. He rounded a corner and turned into an deadend. Ryan spotted the suspect and brought his rifle up at the suspect. "FREEZE!" He shouted, his voice slightly muffled by the mask.

[B4UTRUST]

"Attention all units, Ultima personel are on scene. Watch your fire for friendlies."
"Roger that. Why the hell are the feds involving themselves in this?"
"Damned if I know, just watch your fire."

--------

The Freak that Ghost cornered bore a striking similarity to a lizard. A tail hung between its legs and scales were clearly visable along the skin. It turned towards Ghost, forked tongue flicking out from between the fangs. It hissed, saliva dripping down.

It hissed again and then spat a glob of mucus at Ghost.