darkvaper

"Vat ze hell?" Klaus sputtered, looking down at the newspaper article. "It iz exactly ze opposite of zis one," he said, pointing at the one on the wall, "but they were written the same day!"

"Oh hell no," he muttered. He had experimented in alternate realities before, and the thought that was now spinning around in his head wasn't a pretty one.

He reached over and hit the play button on the tape recorder, still not comprehending how the document before him had even gotten here.

*A boulder three times as large as the one that landed on Chameleon suddenly blots out the sun. Seconds later it splats Element_Master*

Yay I rolled a 20!

"EEK!" Klaus shouted as Energon suddenly became critical.

He used his free hand to reach over and fiddle with the settings on his other gauntlet.

Suddenly the gauntlet became super charged Klaus took a few steps back and then let the gauntlet do it's magic.

Energon rematerialized in ground zero.

"Ach!" Klaus growled, "It's still set to send him to the lab."

Looking down he quickly tore open the envelope. He scanned through it's contents at blazing fast speeds, his advanced blast goggles scanning the documents faster than he could read them, searching for any and all forms of evidence.

Klaus was tripping. Whatever had just happened he was no longer in the cell he had been in a few seconds ago.

He looked up at the envelope in Cohen's hand. Carefully he pulled it from the horribly cut up hero's dead hand and opened it.

"Lie?" Ghost asked indignantly. "I am not lying. We are heroes."

Just in case he was ready to pull a fast one on the heroes, his hidden smoke pellet dropping into the palm of his hand as he said this. Your move sparky

*Oh cruel irony*

*Is cursed by his own irony and has to roll a 21 to rez*

*Rolls -1*

Klaus nodded.

He raised a hand up to his blast goggles and fiddled with the filter switch.

His goggles suddenly showed things in infra-red instead of their normal colors. As he looked around he searched for signs of heat trhoughout the cells.

He took cell number two, entering the cell and doing a full sweep of the rom before thinking of something.

He walked back into cell three and bent down low to the ground. He did a through scan of the small cell with his visor's various vision modes. If there was anything to be found here, he would find it.

*Rez*

*Smash Chameleon over the head with my own tombstone*

Scarab darted down the corriodr. Now that his assumption had been proven true he knew exactly where to find the hangar.

He skidded to a stop at the end of a long corridor. No which way did he have to go?
------------------------
The others heard the team mention the portals as they split up.

"Plan B." Hammerhead muttered, quickly leading the team forward. "48, head back to the main portal, deal with any reinforcements. Ghost, you're with me."

Hammerhead and Ghost reappeared right in front of the Task Force.

They kept their hands down in a non-threatening position. Ghost had his rifle still slung over his shoulder, and despite the pistol resting against his thigh, stood little chance in a fight against these heroes right now.

"Are you the Task Force? My name's Ghost, and this is my associate Hammerhead. We're heroes, and we'd like to help."

*rez*

*Takes Judgement Cannon and Wave gun from the corpse of 96.*

*With both weapons in hand goes out and kils everyone else in thread before tossing the weapons into the sun, permenantly removing them from the thread.*

*Gives each player a fake Judgement Cannon and Wave Motion Gun upon their return*

"Well, where is zis frauline of yours? Zis City Reprezentative?"

Deep down he knew this was the tell tale sign of a trap of some kind.

If it wasn't a trap, it was one hell of a mystery.

"What are we using to track her again?"

If only the HVAS suits could detect the quartet.

They weren't just blending into the background or making themselves unregisterable on thermal sensors, they were quite simply 100% undetectable .

The team monitored the task force with mixed hope and disappointment.

They now regrouped, huddling out of the way of the task force.

"Suggestions?"

"Beat them to the ships."

"Bad idea."

"And just why the hell is that?"

"They'll know we took the ships. They'll think a Rikti or Nemesis spy did it. We can't be raising suspicions just yet."

"Suggestion: Perhaps we could sabotage the other ships."

"No, HK, they'd still find some way over to the homeworld. And without some form of clearance the Rikti on the planet would shoot us down just as they would the heroes."

"Query: Just how did you plan on getting us there then meatbag?"

"My guess, there's a portal of some sort here on the base. Just in case there isn't, I want Scarab to go down to the hangar and try to delay the heroes. Try to stay non-lethal for now." Hammerhead cautioned, his invisible hand waving in front of the assasin. Scarab nodded and then took off down the hallway, narrowly avoiding one of Toy Dispensor's machinations.

"48, try to link up with the computer database here."

"Answer: Yes master."

"And don't you ever call me meatbag again or I'll turn you into scrap."

"Reply: You humans and your cliche replies are so boring."

The four man team quickly took in their surroundings. Almost immediately they activated their cloaking technology. After a few seconds pause they set off, each of them at as fast a pace as their legs could carry them. They darted down the hallways.

They silently transmitted messages back and forth to each other. "How do we know we're on the Rikti homeworld?"

"Our boss's intel is good. However, there's something wrong." The team passed the former battlegrounds throughout the facliity. "In fact, I think the task force ran into a welcoming party."

HK 48 had previously remained silent. He had waited until he had collected all the necessary data to make a decision.

"We are not on the Rikti Homeworld."

"Then where are we?" Jack asked in reply.

"Their moon."

"So how do we get to the homeworld?"

"Let's ask the Rikti." 48 replied.

From here his thermal sensors could pick up the distinct forms of the task force.

Klaus nodded in agreement with the Sword Sorcerer's warning. He pointed his still glowing gloves at each member of the group and quickly gave them a thin layer of ice armor around their existing defenses.

"I vill leave zis just in case." he replied, pulling a small black cube from his belt and placing it down on the ground in the middle of the chamber. "Trust me, if there iz a trap and it comes zrough here, they won't live long enough to tell anyone about it." The cube gave a beep as if to further his point. He then followed the Sword Sorcerer, having little else to do.
-----------------
Darkvapor made a mental note of what Schwarez had just told him. "Who said anything about a bruhahaa torturing them?" he retorted, his eyes narrowing on the general.

"Listen, I know you probably have some sort of lucrative contract going on with your employer, so I'll just offer you this. Whatever he's paying you I can double in exchange for information. It's a no-risk deal, and I'll make sure your name is never mentioned. Just tell me who you're working for and what he's after."

Darkvapor tried to sound as nice as possible. In truth, he was good for the money, but he had a hunch the General wouldn't take him up on his offfer.

The mercenary's reaction would determine Darkvapor's next course. If the merc showed any hesitation Vapow might be able to leverage him. If he flatly refused or even threatened Darkvapor it would be somethign diffrent altogether. But if he took the dark lord up on the offer, it would save them both a lot of time and perhaps severe injuries.

*everyone except bill gates rez, because he has been ironically cursed to never rise from the grave by his own product*

*Smacks Entropy Aegis across the face*

"Idiot."

After Unai Kemen had briefed the team on the current situation they made their way over to the portal. On the way they conversed, keeping their voices low to the conversation from prying ears.

"Okay, 48, you deal with the item. The rest of you, once we get through to the other side, carry out the mission, just as we planned. Don't take on any supers alone. Don't take on a group of more than three. Don't do anything stupid. If they're winning, we retreat. It's that simple, got it?"

Everyone aknowledged Hammerhead's speech. Upon finally reaching the threshold of the portal the team broke into a single file line, with Ghost and Scarab at the front and HK 48 at the back.

They crossed the treshold a second later, arriving on the Jade Moon seconds later.

When you wake up shortly after a surgery, the first thing you're bound to realize is that nothing makes sense. Everything is a blur. Things people say tend to go in one ear, and our the other.

Such ignorant bliss was not the case with Darkvapor.

Instead, pain was the only thing he could feel or think about.

It was a pain he'd felt before. The familiar searing pain, coupled with a strange tingling that ran throughout his side, reminded him of what had happened to him a little over 24 hours ago.

There was no way any normal human could have survived being cut like that. Even if they could get medical attention, the cold would surely kill him.

Such was not the case with Darkvapor.

The doctors had realized this much upon recieving him. The firts thing they did was run a series of tests. Eventually when that didn't pan out they did an X-ray.

What they saw was unlike anything any of the doctors had been prepared for.

A symbiote.

A long snake-like entity was literally inside the alien. The snake, as the doctors quickly learned, was in fact the alien's true form. Darkvapor could quite literally be summed up as the alien symbiote.

The symbiote aparently feeded off of the human, in exchange, giving incredible strength, intelligence, reflexes, and even the ability to make use of dark energy as a weapon. Such a relationship was rather much like the Nictus the doctors had heard rumors about.

This wasn't a Nictus though. The symbiote wasn't infused into the subject, and he couldn't change forms. No, this was at best a distant cousin to the species.

As doctors and scientists alike poured over the tests security personnel remained on guard at all times. This was quite possibly the greatest scientific find of the century, and they weren't about to let it just walk out of the room.

Already the symbiote had healed much of the area around the wounds. While the body had gone into shock, the symbiote had been able to stabilize the host.

From what the doctors could tell, there were still brain wave signals going from the host's brain to the body, but they had decreased in frequency as time went on. It was tough to tell just how bad off the symbiote or host were, considering just how limited the team's scope of how the two entities coexisted was, but if the brainwave signals were any indication, the host might be in critical condition.


Darkvapor gave a sort of grunting noise as he attempted to sit up. There was a blinding light in front of him and he could hear the rhythymic beeping of the various monitors around him. When he failed to actually move anywhere he looked down at the rest of his body. There were large metal bands holding him down. Darkvapor strained against his bonds for some time before finally giving up.

Breathing a dejected sigh he rested his head back against the cold slab of the operating table. "Where am I?" he inquired through gritted teeth.

"A medical facility Mr. Darkvapor." The somewhat jovial and casual tone of the man, startled the dark lord. Vapor craned his neck to get a good view of the doctor. In the ligthing it was difficult to see, but Darkvapor could still make out the man's slicked back hair and clean white lab coat.

"On Earth?"

"Quite so I'm afraid." The man had just confirmed what Darkvapor had both hoped for and feared.

"Tell me, just where on this wretched planet have you stowed me? Who are you?"

"All in good time Vapor, all in good time. For now, I need to ask you a few questions about your physiology."

"My physiology?" Darkvapor quipped, "Just how does my anatomy concern you?"

"It's my job to help you recover from your wounds, and to learn a bit more about how you and your symbiote function."

Darkvapor let out a grim laugh. "You fool, I AM the symbiote. I have achieved total dominance over this peon's brain, just as I would yours if given the chance."

"Dominance?" The man replied, his interest piqued. Darkvapor could hear the man scratching away at his clipboard with a pen. "Could you elaborate?"

"I control his mind. I supress any control he has over his own body. I make him do my bidding. He is but a shell of his former self now. Were I to leave his body, he would die ."

"I see. But there is a problem with that. As far as we can tell, the host is in a rather life threatening condition, and there's no way we can really help. We would like to help you, but the damage is too great. I'd say you're looking at about two more days before the host dies. That is, unless you have a way of repairing the damage."

"Please, your lies are pathetic. You don't really care if I live, you just want to study me. Knowing your primitive species you'd probably just cut me up and look at all the diffrent organs. Your race is pathetic."

"I take it you've had dealings with Earth before?"

"Indeed. In fact, it's my hunting ground; the place where I find new hosts."

"I see." More scratching of pen against paper. The doctor gave a glance at his patient before returning to his clipboard. "But you never did answer my question: can you heal the damage to the host?"

Darkvapor paused for a moment. "No." he said bluntly.

"Well, I'm afraid this is all the time I could spare. I will return in an hour to check up on you. By then, we should be able to come to some sort of way of helping you."

"Somehow I doubt your intentions are truly sincere." Darkvapor retorted.

Klaus shook his head. "Listen, I go step out of mein lab so I can get some fresh air, and pound the crap out of a few local thugs, and suddenly I'm getting attacked by Clockwork who have been altered by someone other than the Clockwork King, and in the process of discovering this, my lab gets blown apart by the Clockwork. Ze vay I see iit, vere is some strange goings on here, and mein guess is zat ze Council knows somezing about it. Now, I won't pretend to be any kind of super warrior, but I can freeze mein fair share of Clockwork and soldier, and I'm not bad at hacking and other more advanced endeavors. As such I sink I vill join zis liitle Task Force you speak of."

The angry old man triumphantly got off of the crate he had previously been sitting on and joined the huddled team.

"Now, vere vill ve vegin?"

"What the?"

*dies*

*joins flood*

*dies*

*uber dies*

*rez*

*Goes back in time and prevents the creation of both Halo and Windows by assassinating Bill Gates by bashing his skull in with a box for Windows Visa.*

"Okay, Poe has now officially pissed me off for the remainder of this week."

Dark energy coalessed around Darkvapor. It spread outward, encompassing Power Breaker and Ghoul.

"Unless he's gone back and somehow deleted me and my powers, I can take us to Poe, one way...or another."

Klaus took in a deep breath after finishing his attack.

He suddenly dropped to the floor.

After everyone had finished off the Council he slowly got back up again. His breathing was heavy and labored after the fight. He reached down and pulled two blue vials from his hip. He popped the caps off of both of 'em and gulped down their contents before shaking his head in revulsion at the terrible taste.

He muttered a few choice words in German before rejoining the group.

"Okay...why ze hell did you not just knock? Why you attack ze Council? Now I have to track down that [censored] Archon whatever his name is and apologize for the damage...ahh screw it, I'll just hack his computer." Klaus seemed like he could keep on rambling all day long, but held himself back, mostly because he didn't want to sound like some kind of an idiot.

"Look, maybe we can help each other, I get ze feeling you guys aren't just looking for some Council to beat the crap out of."

"I wasn't here," Darkvapor said, his dark eyes now staring intently at Naylor. "I know this, because I was far too busy torturing people in my own damn dimension!"

Darkvapor suddenly rematerialized next to Power Breaker.

He was supremely irked Power Breaker had come to see Naylor over something so simple as transportation, considering Darkvapor was more than capable of taking them to the Husk Corporation.

"My home is in another dimension, what makes you think I can't take us to the Husk Corps base myself?" Darkvapor whispered to Power Breaker.

Turning back to Naylor and Ghoul he gave made himself look like he was still trying to negotiate. "I can give you a copy of Halo 3, right now, before the game even comes out tomorrow."

To emphasize his point the game quite literally materialized into his hand. He held the game right in front of Naylor like it was a carott in front of a rabit. "Furthermore, I can give you and your team here access to thousands of worlds you have never even dreamed of. As far as food goes..."

Darkvapor snapped his fingers.

A five-course meal appeared on Naylor's desk.

"I, as an interdimensional entity, can give you any food you desire whenever you want it."

The four man team passed by the now quarreling mages and continued deeper into the complex. They knew their destination now. It mattered little what happened now.

Cutting across the courtyard at a brisk pace they made their way to the portal.

Unai Kemen was still near the technicians, yet another stroke of good fortune.

The quartet walked over to him, stopping just in time to hear the last bit of his transmission to the Task Force.

"I take it you are Unai Kemen. My name is Jack, and my team here is here to assist the Vanguard Task Force."

HK-48 did a quick scan of the equipment around the portal.

He noted that the portal, while in poor condition, seemed perfectly capable of taking them to their destination.

Klaus shouted several obsenities as the tanker lifted him off the ground.

Squirming like a rabid animal he ripped himself free, landing on both feet just before the hero got injured yet again.

"Vat is it vith zu idiots?" Klaus shrieked over the din of gunfire.

Suddenly his gloves glowed bright blue.

Stretching both arms out Klaus unleashed the incredbile power of his suit upon the Council.

Shooting over his destroyed ice wall Klaus quickly encased almost all the soldiers on his side of the room in solid ice. This pretty much incapacitated them.

Even Zenith Hoverbots got caught up in his destructive assault.

Bullets and missiles alike froze. In fact, just about everything in front of him was bound to end up frozen. He was firing blindly, and despite that he was doing an incredible job tearing the place up.
----------------
Darkvapor grinned. "I have many titles, but the majority of the people on this world find it easier just call me by Lord Darkvapor or just Darkvapor. However my power is far more than that of a simple Lord. More like emperor...."

"Oh I understand perfectly why you can't tell me, but know this: a task force of heroes and villains working in league with Vanguard has formed in the area, and I dare say there's a good chance your employer is somehow related to their mission. Now I normally don't meddle in the affairs of organizations like the Council, but I think there may be a way we could help each other in this."

Darkvapor had realized he couldn't see past the blast doors, but that didn't bother him much. If things went the way he was planning, chances were he wouldn't need to stay in this room too much longer.