Heroes: Shadows over Millenium

[SirNitram]

"Saibot..." Gravitas paused as he hovered above the city. "Are you certain you were tracking a Freak when you found that woman? Because if you are, I'm about to commit some bad PR."

[Dark Silver]

"Positive. My Ring and helmet scanners both picked up metahuman energy signitures and genetic markers along the footprints. And the woman was scared shitless, she was attacked by the Fre....."

What he was saying, combined with what Gravitas just insinuated suddenly burned in his mind...

But that was impossible, his ring and sensors hadn't picked her up as a meta!

"No..no way she can be one Gravitas, I didn't pick up anything off of her."

[SirNitram]

"You people shouldn't be evolved enough to have zips, but that doesn't mean they won't exist." Gravitas grunted. "I'm going into the hospital. Worst case, you have to rely on New York's Finest for your eyes in the sky."

Gravitas span around and made for the hospital, landing on the roof and running down. He'd know fast...

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost spoke into the comm channel. "Gravitas, get her secured. If anyone comes across anybody that is wounded, if it doesn't hurt them, get them handcuffed or secured and then call in the MRF."

[Hotfoot]

The field around Collin flared again at his feet as he sailed through the air, his legs outstretched. Searing heat meets cloth and flesh jut before the kinetic impact knocks the first freak into the next. They howl in anger and surprise as they tumble to the ground. Collin dashes back into the alley and sets up another angle of attack.

A trail of fire licked the air behind him, each step leaving light burn marks on the ground. Before the freaks can regain their footing, he's back from another direction, pounding them again, then again, then again, until they fell to the ground, unconcious. As the last one hit the ground, he looked around, trying to see if he had missed anything. As much as his shield made him a target, he didn't want to drop it in case something came up from nowhere to give him a nasty little jolt. He was tempted to shout out something, but he hoped that his more subtle method of alerting the authorities would have been noticed by now.

[Cynical Cat]

"Nice work," said Blackheart as he descended behind Collin. "You see anymore wandering around or is this it?"

[LadyTevar]

Tarnished silver eyes appear inside Blackheart's shadow, thrown by Hotfoot's flame aura against a nearby wall. "Ghost has taken down one. Gravitus and Saibot are fearing the woman they 'rescued' is another. Here are two... there may be one left, Blackheart," the voice that spoke was softly feminine and deferential, yet Hotfoot could almost feel himself being weighed by those metallic eyes with the faint slit pupils.

[frigidmagi]

Blast was trying to stalk the remaining one. At least he hoped he was stalking it and not the other way around, he'd seen him run down this street...

He walked carefully shield up.

"Come on, here... Anarchist? Theif?" He whispered to himself as he checked a side alley. He remembered his headset.

"This is Blast, I saw one book down... Brown street, but he's hid somewhere. I'm trying to track him down, over." He said.

[Hotfoot]

The shield dimmed slightly as Collin realigned himself with the rest of the world as he heard Blackheart's voice. He turned around and looked up at the taller metahuman. Before he could respond, the silver eyes from Blackheart's shadow spoke up. He had seen plenty of strange things growing up, but this was new, diving right in with the adrenaline still pumping. "Uh, thank you, sir."

He paused for a moment, clearing his head and putting together the numbers Argent stated. He stood up straight and looked at both sets of eyes in turn. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's right, Sir. I only remember five when the authorities finally showed up. They looked like they were on their way to something. When I started tailing them, there were only two of them, and, well, I got a little concerned when they met up with the other three, and that's why I called in."

[Cynical Cat]

"Smart," said Blackheart as he descended to the street. "You handle yourself pretty well." He extended his hand. "I'm Blackheart."

[Hotfoot]

The shield around his hand dimmed to a faint glow, radiating a mild sensation of warmth as Collin extended his hand. "Uh, thank you sir. I'm, well, I'm Hotfoot." He smiled nervously, not entirely sure what to do at the moment. Thoughts raced through his head so fast he wanted to keep running until things sorted themselves out again, but that wasn't an option, not now.

[Cynical Cat]

Hotfoot's unease fed the dark thing within Blackheart. Cheated of the prospect for violence and slaughter, its aggression pushed for dominance. On a concious level, Blackheart felt the impulse and dismissed it as the adreniline flowing and opportunity to vent it. He was just keyed up, that was all.

He reached into a pocket and pulled out a card. "If you want to go, go. You did good here, you're not in any trouble." He held out the card. "If you want to reach us for any reason, even to just talk about this superhero shit over a beer, you can reach us. If you want to stick around, you're welcome to."

[Hotfoot]

Collin took the card and suddenly got a confused look on his face. He had assumed the team that got called in was Ultima, professional, and this man carried himself in a way that triggered the childhood training his father and others had drilled into him. The way he was talking now, however, seemed odd. "S...sorry sir, I'm just a little jumpy. This is the first time I've ever been in this sort of situation before. I'd like to at least stick around until the last of them are rounded up, so I can make sure nobody is hurt." The shield flared to life with a new confidence. "I can do a sweep of the nearby streets and flare twice when I see trouble."

[Cynical Cat]

Thank the White Christ that this guy wasn't a prickly well spring of angst and woe. Blackheart was already dealing with three times the legal limit in his team alone. This guy has some of idea that things more important than his feelings on the line. "That would be very helpful," said Blackheart with a slight edge of relief in his voice. Must be the jitters.

[LadyTevar]

Argent's silver eyes moved from Blackheart to 'Hotfoot' as they spoke, quietly listening to both their words and their emotions. She'd worked a little trickery to keep a deep enough shadow in place as the fiery aura dimmed. The young man was unsure of himself, but had many of the same pure heroic eagerness as Blast. Probably no older, she judged.

Blackheart, on the other hand, was unbalanced. She could sense the fight between demon and man inside him, and how thus far the man was winning. Whether that would hold when battle started was another matter. Argent decded to do nothing until then. "I am able to keep these two contained until the GAS arrives, Blackheart," the soft feminine voice murmurred once again. Behind Hotfoot, shadows writhed and shifted, moving to cocoon the two Freaks where they lay in the alley.

Did the temperature just drop? It's suddenly a bit chilly....

[Hotfoot]

Hotfoot looked behind him as a chill washed over his body. With his shield up, he was always warm, so the sensation confused him. He saw the shadows reach up to consume the two freaks and his eyes widened slightly. "Whoa...that's new." He shook his head to bring him back to the here and now. "Well I guess I'll start combing the area, looks like you two have this under control."

He dove back into the sensation of time slowing down and breathed a deep sigh, releasing the tension of the moment. He ran off, starting a search pattern around several blocks, circling around at the outermost area that the freak would have been able to run to, and then moving inwards, like the lines of a nautilis shell. He looked around, trying to find the last freak, and hoping that the others in the area didn't mistake him for one.

[LadyTevar]

"A Speedster... Interesting..." Argent said quietly as she emerged from the shadow to stand beside Blackheart after Hotfoot blurred away. "Ultima will want him controlled..."

[B4UTRUST]

The final freak gazed down at Blast from above. A dusting of brick and mortar still coated the sharp ends of its fingers. Its skin hung very loose around the face and neck as if it had lost a large amount of weight very quickly and the extra skin hadn't been likewise lost. Its shirt stretched across the chest and bunched up over the gut. The stomach hung distended, bulging and stretching. A hand, very human, pushed against the skin, forcing it out. A second later a face replaced the hand, pushing against the taunt skin. The face could clearly be seen opening its mouth in a silent endless scream until it too disappeared. The creature licked its lips with a veiny, ichor-coated tongue.

It moved across the roof, shadowing Blast from above. Its legs flexed and bent at unnatural angles as if it had two sets of knees. It made a short jump up onto the ledge surrounding the roof. It bent on its oddly articulated double knees and lept down towards Blast.

[Cynical Cat]

nothing

[Dark Silver]

"I'll meet you at the hospital." Saibot spoke into the comm, as he flew off.

Damn, damn damn damn.

He just hoped the Freak didn't do anything before they got there...

[B4UTRUST]

The hospital roof was empty. No signs of life, or the horrors to come.

A couple of floors down was a much different story, however. The nurse screamed and fainted, her body collapsing to the tile floor. Her head resounded with a wet cracik as she split her skull open, a pool of blood forming beneath it.

Several other hospital staff were likewise unconcious, some from fainting, others from being slammed against the wall or floor. One of the remaining doctors turned and bolted, nimbly leaping over the overturned gurney. He glanced over his shoulder, a move that would prove to be his undoing. The woman, the thing that had been a woman leapt on him. She wrapped her arms around him in a deathgrip, refusing to budge from her less than intimate embrace. She smiled sweetly down at the captured doctor and did her thing.

What was once an attractive redheaded woman was now something else entirely. She leaned down and kissed him. It was a deep kiss, one with pleanty of tongue. As the doctor pulled back from her, he was shocked to find her tongue still with him. The tongue flailed about in his mouth until he spit it out. He looked up into the woman's face and promptly wish he hadn't.

A wet chunk of skin and muscle slushed down her face and landed with a wet plop on his own cheek. The grey-white of bone was visable in the hole that had been created. Another bit of her slid off and fell wetly onto his neck.

She straddled him and raised back, pushing her hands into her stomach, ripping through the shirt. Her fingers slid easily into the flesh as it gave way with the barest of pressure. As she tore open her abdominal cavity, her bodily fluids poured out of her like a flood, soaking the doctor head to toe. He gagged and vomited, trying not to choke on his screams. Her intestines spilled out like linked sausages onto his chest and sat there in a steaming mass. Her skin continued to melt off at an astonishing rate. A noxious strench filled the air, signaling the perferation of her bowels, adding their fluid and mass to the rest that was issuing forth from within.

The doctor screamed and continue to scream, his mind twisted and broken by this visage. His eyes began to roll about, not focusing on anything as his concious mind fought desperately to shut itself off and save what might be the last vestiages of sanity left.

She pushed herself off the doctor and scurried down the hallway towards the elevators. Already her body was beginning to regrow itself, organs reforming and growing inside her as the skin and muscle regenerated. Very shortly she would appear very normal once again.

[SirNitram]

"What's the rush? A guy named Ash coming?" Gravitas was moving quickly, following the woman. The humans around him would recover, eventually. He had no powers to save their minds from the horrors, though his fine control of gravity was staunching those with head wounds from the fainting.

The elevator doors refused to open. Gravitas was showing no signs of a problem with the way a corpse regenerated. "This is the grand and mighty Freaks? I thought you were supposed to be a superior species. You're a circus sideshow."

The one-armed demigod smirked. "Come... Let's see what you can do against a real superior lifeform.."

[LadyTevar]

Argent blinked slowly, as Blackheart said nothing, did nothing. He was trying to ignore her, it seemed. Her eyes fell to the ground, half-hooding, a momentary debate over action v/s inaction. She chose action. "He needs protection from them, before they break him. They would not be surprised to find you taking in more strays."

[Cynical Cat]

"I have no reason to take him in so I'm not," said Blackheart. "Ultima needs leverage. It doesn't have it."

[LadyTevar]

If that simple phrase stirred any emotions in Argent, she did not show it or allow it to taint the air between them. The lie she detected was one that Blackheart himself did not wish to see. "They have enough," came her reply, allowing the matter to drop for now. "If you wish conflict and battle, Blast is two hundred yards in that direction," she added, raising her hand to point the way, feeling it through the strands within her mind. "You may wish to check on him."