Heroes: The Rise of Omnicorp

[LadyTevar]

"Okay! Okay! Let's tamp that down huh? For me okay? Now can you start at the beginning Argent?" Blast said holding out his hands placatingly.

"He. thinks. I'm. lying." she answered, biting off the words as she tried to control herself. "He doesn't believe me when I say I've told him everything, and I DID tell him everything, came completely clean," the shadows contort as Argent starts gesturing along with her works, "But does he believe that? NO!"

Shadows jump towards the ceiling, and she is forced to pause and take a deep breath to remain calm. Part of her mind was already planning where to teleport Blackheart if he had the balls to return. The Moonbase would take probably ten minutes or so to reach, but it might be worth it. Ultima's ladies shower was another place that would work.

[frigidmagi]

"Okay... Lying about what?" Tobin said, trying to maintain a calm tone. It wasn't easy, he was still awash in reflected anger and the desire to level a building or two. He vaguely remembered the advice of one his father's friends about never telling an angry women to clam down, it would never end well...

[Marcao]

It was not difficult to notice Li Na's return not for him. Over long distances he could barely keep up with her but when she was in the same house as he was it was not an issue. There was something clinging to their link, an under current that hinted at a shift in her state of mind. It was enough to make him pause but not enough to worry him. Not at first.

It did not take long for his curiosity to be piqued however and he made his way back into the house. As he did so, he began to catch the very edges of conversation. His head turned, his eyes darting about following the sounds that eventually led him to Li Na and Blast.

"..." He remained silent at first, unwilling to barge in the middle of the conversation. Their hostesses` mood seemed readily apparent, the way her shadows stretched towards the ceiling and came perilously close from plowing through. Blackheart and Li Na were at it again. It should have thrilled him, and a part of him he was ashamed to admit did not see such conflict as entirely negative. Nonetheless, the emotion he felt bubbling through their link was no laughing matter.

He waited until Blast offered his comment before speaking in the lull as Li Na prepared her response. He took a step forward and then another, his eyes glancing towards Blast and nodding before he looked at Li Na.

"Welcome Home." He said.

He did not cross the distance between them aware that in her mood she may not be in the mood for physical contact. Still, his eyes never left her as he moved. Eventually he came to a stop, his eyes still on her as he continued.

"I hope you don't mind, but I am interested in this discussion." He was interested in more ways than one. He had caught only the very end of the conversation. What did Blackheart did not believe? What had transpired between them? Why did it feel as if Li Na was ready to tear her own home apart? And most importantly of all...

What was the curious feeling that was slithering through the link he shared with Li Na? It was almost as if she were contemplating something immensely satisfying...at someone's expense.

[LadyTevar]

"I DON'T KNOW!" she wailed, shadows rising up in frustration to Blast, but as Elias stepped forward everything came pouring out as a rambling stream-of-thought explanation that would make no sense at all, even to those who knew the names Kyosuke and Ghost.

"I told him everything Ghost told me! The Metakiller, Kyosuke, Gazer, Ghost's wife, *Everything*!" she complained to Elias, focusing on him above all others. "And he still thinks Ghost killed Gazer for killing Ghost's wife, and now his mind's made up that I'm lying and hiding more, won't believe me when I say I'm not, and threatened me for lying to him, the bastard!!" As she ranted, the shadows dies down, as if Elias' mere presence was pulling away the anger within.

The others might recognize Gazer if they'd been paying attention to the news... Friendly fire incident two days before Mirage Team left for RCE, and now the lastest MetaKiller victim. Elias knew far more, as Li Na had spoken to him after Legacies funeral and told him everything, including the one piece of information that Li Na had withheld from Blackheart several days ago, and that she'd forgotten she knew.

[Dark Silver]

"Now, we eat," he answered walking back to the camo-net covered building dome. He smiled to himself, remembering the amount of food he ate at first when training, the Ring training burned calories almost as much as a normal physical workout.

"We're gonna head into Vegas...I suggest dressing decently."

With that, Saibot opened the lift door and walked in, waiting for Ghost.

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost chuckled, following him into the lift. "Decently, huh?" He said. "Guess that means I leave the "I'm really a super hero!" T-shirt behind, right?" Ghost asked as the lift began sinking into the base.

[Dark Silver]

"Yep. We're going to one of the places I own still.....under another name. Luckily I'm not completely broke...."

As the lift descended the six levels to get to the living quarters section, "Nice button down shirt, slacks or real good jeans...We'll use the Ring's to get to Vegas."


It would be a good workout for Ghost there, plus he could check out his Vegas apartment. He hadn't looked at it since Kyosuke had disappeared over a week ago.

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost nodded and split off to his room. He showered and changed, a black polo shirt and a good pair of slacks. Ghost looked down at his suitcase, at one of his pistols, in an ankle holster. Shaking his head, he turned from the suitcase. The ring should be all the firepower he would need, plus he wasn't sure if they would be searched before entering the places they were going. The spook grabbed his sunglasses and headed back to the elevator to wait for Saibot.

[Dark Silver]

Saibot was already waiting for Ghost when he arrived, the older man had long practiced the art of Quick Shower, and his use of the Ring facilitated changing clothes. It was easy when you could change the clothing you had on, to a entire new outfit.

"Took ya long enough," he said, as the lift closed behind them and began to move. "See if you can keep up with me when we get into the air."

When the elevator opened, Saibot's form was outlined in the blue glow, before he took to the air and flew quickly towards Vegas.

[Agent Fisher]

"Well, sorry, guess I'm getting slow in my old age." He said before the lift doors opened and Saibot was gone.

Ghost took a deep breath, his own form outlined in green. He rose into the air and accelerated following Saibot's blue glow.

[Dark Silver]

Saibot never went completely straight in his path, he curled, curved and winded around desert formations, in a attempt to see if Ghost could keep up. He varied his speed, going car slow at times, before rocketing like a plane the next, leaving a light blow trail behind him.

With the game, it took over a hour to reached Vegas...and Saibot was settling down at the edge of town, between two buildings where they'd be out of view.

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost kept up with him. He had always enjoyed flight simulators and flying at tree top level. He just told himself this was no different. Finally, he settled down next to Saibot.

"That was fun." He said, a big grin on his face, feeling just like a kid who had ridden a roller coaster for the first time and loved it.

[Dark Silver]

"Good...cause you never do get used to it. You just enjoy it." he said. Saibot looked around before spying the car rental place, and smiled. "Wait here..."

With that, Saibot walked out the alley, and headed to the lot. It took fiften minutes, but eventually, Saibot drove up in a new model luxury car. A black BMW sedan, with silver trim on the interior, leather seats, the works. The passenger door opened, and Saibot motioned for Ghost to come on, "The paperwork was a bitch.." he said, "But I managed to get her. We may as well enjoy the day in Vegas...I'm expecting someone to meet us by tonight.."

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost smiled, shaking his head and getting in. "You stole it, didn't you?" He asked, teasing. "Well, good choice though." Ghost said. "Ah Vegas. Haven't been here in years." He said, looking out the window.

[Dark Silver]

"Receipts in the glove box," he replied, non-phased by Ghost's question. As the man sat, he revved the engine, threw the shift into drive, and took off down the street.

"Now we get to relax a bit....dinner, a few casinos, hope you brought gambling money." Saibot negotiated the streets till they were headed for the Strip.

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart headed back to Argent's house, a slight bounce in his step.

[rhoenix]

Ever since Argent had come home, the house had grown steadily darker and colder inside; the effect beginning with the family room, and steadily spreading throughout the house.

The effect wasn't instant. It was much more akin to slowly turning up the heat under a pot of water with a live frog in it. The frog doesn't notice until the effects are well underway, if the effects are slow and gradual.

Alexander wasn't really aware he was doing it, having never overexerted himself using his inborn abilities, and subsequently going through an emotional rollercoaster before. The memories of that horrible morning, where his entire safe existence was suddenly picked up and shaken vigorously by an unseen hand as the AI truly asserted itself - the memories of the horror as the beautiful woman he'd wonderful love with a scant week before was now...both more and less than human, and was coming after him. Not because she desired him, not even because she wished to save him - but simply because she was nothing more than an appendage for the AI, who directed her to attack him with the intent of restraint. To become like her, and the others - mindless drones, individuality locked screaming in a soulless cage.

That cold, heartless cruelty that both horrified and angered him commanded his thoughts. A part of him was amazed that he was becoming this angry, but the rest of him simply resounded with fury against such a soulless evil as the rest of the house steadily grew darker and colder.

Five minutes later, as he could see his breath in the air, despite how truly furious he was, he realized that his temper was running away with him, and he needed to leave. He needed to go take a walk, to not let the anger overwhelm him, otherwise that old fear might finally be realized - that he would be "discovered" as having "mutations," and something awful would happen.

With conscious effort on Alexander's part, the light of the house returned to normal, though it remained a bit colder than normal. Simply dropping his laptop in the chair as he left, he almost stomped out the front door as he left.

Alexander didn't quite slam the front door as he left, but it wasn't shut softly. Walking with his cane steadily and irritatedly, he made his way to the park. Maybe he could act like an old man for a while and watch the ducks and pigeons. Or make them explode.

[General Havoc]

It took Hydro a while to return to normal, but as Argent's powers fed the tendrils of pure darkness that shrouded the area, the water elemental slowly began to retake its standard coloration and form. The water dripped on the ground reformed into the main body, running towards it like the liquid metal of a T-1000 Terminator, yet even as it did so, Hydro's main body seemed to shrink, and loosen, and brighten back into translucent cerulean and aquamarine, and his tendril re-emerged, and peered around the room.

He was plainly confused, not merely by what had just happened, but by what Argent was screaming about. He had felt very odd forces acting upon his person since he got here, strange manifestations and alterations not of his own devising, the nature of which he had not been able to ascertain, but this was a far greater and far more problematic event, and on top of that, Argent had just unleashed an absolute flood of information, none of which made a bit of sense, save for a scattered word or two.

The elemental bubbled and gurgled, rippling its surface like a tremor in the earth, before Hydro was able to regain full control of his faculties.

"What in the name of the Great Singularity just happened" he stammered in a good approximation of a "breathless" tone. He literally did not know what questions to ask about all this, so far was everything from his perspective.

[B4UTRUST]

Vegas -

"You ready for this?"
"Oh yeah, man... this is going to be AWESOME!"
"Yeah it is!"

The first jump was from their parked car in the car garage to a group of businessmen leaving for lunch. Their new BMW roared out of the parking garage, blowing through the gate without paying, sending a spray of splinters and plastic flying.

Tires squealed as they pulled out onto the main strip, cutting off two other cars. As they wove in and out of traffic at high speeds the sounds of multiple car collisions became more common. Up ahead the light was turning red at the intersection and cars started moving across the road. They made no attempt to slow down to even avoid traffic. The wreck was unavoidable. High speed luxury car slamming into cross traffic. In an instant almost half a dozen cars were involved in the pile up. Some were so badly mangled and destroyed that there was no chance of survivors.

On the street corner near by four people suddenly stood up at once. They grabbed the chairs they had been sitting on and threw them through a nearby store window before running in to rob the place. A minute later the four people ran back out, cash flying random out of their pockets as they booked it down the street. Then the four bodies just fell to the ground, unconcious. A car jumped the curb and slammed into the storefront. The driver was impaled on a twisted piece of window frame speared through the windshield.

Four other bodies took off, and more mayhem ensured. The sound of sirens filled the air admist the screaming.

[Dark Silver]

Saibot and Ghost were driving along the Strip, when all hell broke loose. It was unfortunate that the accident happened just where Saibot and Ghost wound up in the middle of the six car pileup - but they were forunate to have Saibot's quick reflexes.

By the time the first impact occured, Saibot had thrown up a energy bubble around both he and GHost.....the accident demolished the rental car, but the two of them were unharmed. Surronded by twisted metal, SAibot's clothing changed into another variation on the Guardian Force uniform, a black spandex like bodysuit blue in color, with small white diamonds pattern going down either side, on his chest was a gold colored shoulder pad device, emblazoned with the shape of a dragon in the center.

"Uniform up," Saibot said, his voice almost modulated thanks to the helmet to become unrecognizable.

The remains of the roof peeled up and back, as Saibot took to the air, just in time to see the four people run out of the store, and collapse, just before the car drove into the storefront.

"Hurry up Newbie!" he shouted back to Ghost, even as the chaos started spreading, "Damage control, start rescuing people from these wrecks!"

Even as he said that, he was pulling the roof off another wrecked car, trying to get to the person within.

[Agent Fisher]

Ghost nodded, focusing on activating the uniform like Saibot had instructed him. Within seconds, he was incased in a black and grey suit with body armor on the chest and the same sort of helmet that Saibot had. The uniform was outlined and certain areas tinged green from the power ring.

As the sensors and such came online Ghost heard Saibot's orders. Ghost flew up out of the roof with Saibot, leaving the remains of the rental beneath him. He turned, focusing on the huge pile up. He flew back down towards it. A green field shot from the ring, surrounding a door on one of the cars, a minivan, and pulling it away. Ghost reached the wreck and used the ring to pry enough space to reach in, pulling out an injured woman.

[Cynical Cat]

Blackheart saw Alexander as he came down the street. He nodded to the metahuman as they closed.

[LadyTevar]

Time passed in silence... long enough for Alexander to make his silent way out, long enough for Hydro to calm down enough to begin to question. Time that stretched out as Li Na looked from Blast to Hotfoot to Tachyon. If Hydro knew more about Homo Sapiens (meta or not), what happened next could be correlated with the actions of a juvenile of the species, roughly six years of age.

"SAY SOMETHING!" Li Na exploded, sending a wave of frustration throughout the room. Her fists clenched, her jaw jutted out, and her eyes shown silver as she looked around at Mirage Team. Yet she gave them no time to answer, as the silver in her eyes started to run down her face. "FINE!" she shouted petulantly, elongating into her dragonform as she spun away from them, a shadow opening up to receive her. The emotional maelstorm vanished with her.

[Dark Silver]

While Ghost, with his still limited understanding of his Ring and how it worked, began with a minivan, Saibot was being more...expedient.

Using his Ring and helmet's sensor feeds, he located the most critically injured people, the Ring pulling wrecked cars away from each other with blue hard light energy constructs, and gently scooping those who could be moved safely.

He moved a family of four, instructing them to stay till the paramedics arrived and checked them out, before going to the next.

When it was down to only two cars, Saibot called to Ghost on the helmet-comm, "Ghost, there's something funny about this, watch the people and get those you can out, I'm going check this out."

Without waiting for a reply, Saibot was moving, his Ring scanningthe accident scenes, and intune with his helmet, picking up odd energy fluctuations. Each of the fluctuations moved further and further down as the chaos continued to spread.

And as such, Saibot followed.

[rhoenix]

Blackheart saw Alexander as he came down the street. He nodded to the metahuman as they closed.

As embroiled within his thought as he was, Alexander did notice Blackheart nodding as they passed. His conscience prodded him for a few moments until he turned around to face Blackheart after a few steps. "If you're headed back, you might want to bring a riot shield, a gas mask, and some tear gas with you. It's kinda ugly."

With that, he kept walking. His anger was ebbing out as he walked; no longer was it an over-riding fury - now, it was simply a surliness that was nursed carefully. Even that however was beginning to fade, and he began to wonder what caused such a strong reaction within him.