'Because I am me,' Deth replied, looking for the designee that would lead them out.
'Come on, Lobe. Let's go.' She offered him her hand.
Sly looked above him and sighed.
"Yes, follow Deth, Lobe... after what I saw you do, big guy, I'd rather have a Frontal Lobotomy than a Ferocious Lobe on me..." He smiled in kindness at the "super punch savior."
Lyle sat by watching the heroes congratulate each other and make nervous jokes. He glared at his surroundings. The time for congratulations was when you were sitting in the local bar ordering a brewski.
His eye twitched back and forth from the group to the door. His hand moved slightly, switching the control on his rifle to the flamethrower setting. Bullets often had trouble hurting magics, but he had noticed that a bath of napalm still seemed to have some effect.
Shyly, Lobe took Deth's hand. He wasn't very good at receiving praise and looked it with his face 6 shades of red. Then, noticing that the first person that had answered his question was new, he bent down to Deth's ear and asked quietly, "Ummm, Miss Lady Deth? Who's that?" he then pointed at the old man as he finished changing the setting on his rikti modified rifle. Oblivious to everyone else, he look like he was expecting all the minions of the 13 Hells to come through the door, and damned if he wasn't gonna stop 'em too!
ooc: I'm a tad sick and wasn't able to quite uderstand most of this so its as if u're watching Momento drunk.
"I know what u did, and I forgive u. But u would be better off with Gideon killing u instead of Barkansis channeling his power through u. No worries though, I've 'killed' him before," Helsing said to Deth. She jumped back as if she were hit with a cattle prod. Barkansis jumped from her head and jumped on top of Helsing. "Helssssing! I found u! U die now, but not in this degrating form and voice," Barkansis said. His outer apperance started to crack and he exploded. Wat came from the ashes was not terrifying(unless ur Helsing), but a short, bald, old man. Then his eyelids opened, showing a pair of bright green gears. He weilded a long rope with short knive on the end. He threw the rope at Helsing's neck, but he grabed the rope and pulled Barkansis forward. Then, in an amazing feat of strenght, Helsing jumped about to the height of the little man's chest and his foot through Barkansis's face, erupting in a shower of blood. Helsing pulled him of his leg and picked him up. "Chekmate b itch," He said, and with that, he threw Barkansis in a random door.
"Don't ever depend on demons from my place, or else I'll do wat I did to ol' Barky to you and every relative you have.
Deth swiftly grabbed Barknasis before he went through the door and set him down. She bent over the form of Barkansis...he still seemed to be living as only a demon would. She reached out and grabbed Helsing by the wrist and touched Barknasis...mumbling.
Barknasis seemed to heal a bit and Helsing seemed to be weakened abit. Letting go of Helsing, she mumbled a bit more and Barknasis disappeared into her again.
'If men and demons would only listen to me, I would not have worry lines.'
Looking around, Deth looked down the hall. At that moment, the door resounded with a huge wham and bent inward a tiny bit more.
'I am leaving and taking Lobe with me. Anyone else who wants to can follow, but I don't relish fighting Gideon. I think it would be an unhappy situation. If anyone knows the way out, I would prefer that they lead. Otherwise, I am gonna run for a distance and randomly choose a door.'
Deth started running, only looking back to make sure Lobe followed. Turning back, she grinned when after a second Sly Fox followed. She hoped the others would as well, because she did not think the door would hold, unless Ivory could do something. She was not about to wait around to find out.
"U do not understand the repercussions of your actions! If u let that demon back in, u will become him! He will take over you and take the lifes of those close to u before killing everyone else! EXPELL HIM FROM YOUR HEAD! DON'T BE MORONIC OR STUBBORN! YOU CAN DEFEAT ANYTHING THING IN YOUR HEAD WITHOUT HIM!!!!!!!!!" Helsing shouted angrily at Deth. Veins were popping from his head. Blue flames erupted from his eyes and mouth. "I WILL CRIPPLE YOU IF I HAVE TO! DETH!!!!" he shouted, then broke down, clutching his head, tears running down his face. "You must let me destroy him, or will cause doom onto everyone. Worse is the one's you love will be tortured till the offspring of the demon invades their head," he begged.
What is she grinning at? Sly thought as he followed Deth. It's the only way to go... I don't have a CHOICE whether to follow her or not... argh...
When Fox heard Helsing's outburst however, he stopped for a moment and kneeled down next to the man.
"I can't begin to understand your pain, Kyle. But that demon is a part of her. It's who she is now... and she keeps him at bay just as much as he might vex her at times... she made quite a sacrifice to become the Essential, Kyle. Trust her judegement. Please."
As he stood up, Sly looked after Deth, then without taking his eyes off her he lowered his voice to Kyle, "Oh... and if you ever tried to harm a hair on her head, I'd kill you myself..."
A bit shocked at these words that had come out of him, Sly still nodded to himself, and then took back off after Lobe and someone who was beginning to severely affect his normal, predictable life...
"Kyle," Contact spoke up from the back breaking his silence again. "If you touch her... or that thing in her head again without her permission," Contact's voice was even and he looked at Kyle over the top of his sunglasses, his pale blue eyes unmoving, "I'll hurt you. Badly. And in a way no Doctor can repair."
Contact paused, letting this sink in. He had never threatened anyone present prior to this. "Now is not the time or place for this, now pull yourself together or be left behind."
"I want to go home."
"Do you not understand? I've know that thing for what it really is! It will destroy YOU! I've seen wat it has done to the people who where blinded by the false propositions it creates. You want it to help u? U think it will help u? U want a DEMON in your head? U want a being created by utter chaos and darkness in your head? You say u do not fear death, but it will bring u more than death. It will bring u doom, despair, insanity, and pestilence. If you do not expel it then u are far more a fool than ur posested predicesors." Helsing said, "Oh and Sly, Contact, I am far more powerful than u two think, so u should not make threats to those u do not comprend. You should be more cautious with me and Barkansis....."
Fox had to laugh that Contact said basically the same thing as him. Perhaps he would get that guy's card later...
Sly just began ignoring Kyle now. The man obviously didn't get the fact that with all these different dimensions and realms and headache inducing portals, demons were different things to different people. Granted, Kyle must have been through... well... HELL with the demon wherever he was from... but that didn't change the here and now.
He admitted to himself he hadn't gotten it before either, but he quickly learned the Big B demon in Deth's head was as much a part of her as... well... her beautiful smile!
Whoa fella... stop thinking like that RIGHT now. A woman is supposed to be interested in YOU, and YOU are supposed to be the aloof one. Got that?
"Shut... up..." Sly said to himself allowed as he ran.
"Obviously, no one listens, so I'll just have to follow you through your planned instanity. Guess u have no comprihention of what will happen to u and Sly, but that's another subject for another time," Helsing said, defeatedly.
He started to wonder why no one understood how different demons are in each plane of existance. Ivory was one and Barkansis was one, but they were so very different. Helsing knew what he must do, and he followed Deth. Guess I should protect those who are unaware of their own actions hehe, he thought. He just wished they would listen to him....
"Back and forth like bickering kids," Lyle thought to himself as he watched the heroes. He had come to notice that supers often conveyed their feelings through physical action as opposed to talking about it.
"Comes with the job I suppose," he thought, "when you spend all day fighting it sort of becomes a second language." He stood up slowly, watching some of the others run after Deth down a corridor. Lyle walked slowly toward it, but didn't follow.
Deth may know what she was doing, but it was obvious she was a stranger here. The woman, Ivory, (as much as she grated on his nerves) seemed to have a connection to the place. He kept a position near the entry to the corridor, waiting to see if anyone else spoke up, but ready to run for it if that thing managed to break down the door.
Contact looked at Kyle and shook his head, "What are you going to do, shoot me? Beat me up? Blast magical fire out some orifice at me? Call down the cursed heaven's and earth on my head? I'm sick of this postering," Contact was irritated and his tone was becoming down right mean.
"I really don't care what you know or think you know, you can deal with it another time. Deth has been in complete control of herself through this entire ordeal, has suffered the pain of containing a damnable demon in her mind, and through it all has had the good sense to not blow us all up... even once, a feat you couldn't even manage when confront with some simple Circlists," Contact glared at Kyle, he rarely lost it but was on a roll now.
"So that's it... if you want to sort something out with her, do it on your own time, because if you try it now... I will stop you."
Contact went to stomp past the group and catch up with those in front, but stopped suddenly in his tracks and shot a glance that could shatter glass at the old man.
"You don't even know the half of it," he spat at him, responding to the man's unspoken thoughts as a bit more of Contact's control slipped.
"Boy! Mr. Helsing is mad!" Lobe observed. "Can we go home now?" he asked Deth as she lead him.
'That's where we are going Lobe.' She runs just ahead of him, keeping pace with Sly Fox who had taken a slight lead.
'Never seen him from back here before. Interesting view'
She grinned appreciably.
Hehe, u make me laugh, Contact. I might not be able to kill at once, but I would, eventually. U are not Cursed, so I have no reason to kill u, unless u get in my way. Like I said, when I'm angry u should run, but when I concentrate, u won't have time to run, Helsing thought, looking to Contact after he finished speaking. "I have no more time for this squandering anymore, so lead the way home," he said to Deth, "but, soon as u're done with ol' Barky, he's dead."
ooc: is anyone else getin that Login Sever Unavailable crap too? I haven't been able to get on for 2 days. Kinda noticed all the very quick replies.
Ivory was strained from making a sudden invasion into the girl's body. She had sensed that there was something else in there and she had been lucky to find it fighting Gideon. It gave her the element of suprise she needed to force them into the labyrinth. She had no idea why they would disappear afterwards though.
Ivory slowly came to in her own body, the others were... running away?
"Good," she thought, "just as I told them."
She stood and stumbled a bit, but then put all her weight the enormous cog next to the door and let it fall into place, the door being replaced by another leaving the halways silent besides the fleeing footsteps of the heroes. Beside her stood the old man and she didn't have to be a psyhic to see some sort of twisted kind of courage inside him, twisted but very strong.
"Old man, thanks for waiting. It's time for us to catch up." Ivory said as she snatched his hand in hers and proceeded to walk up the side of the wall as though it were a set of stairs and into an unseen door in the ceiling. They would emerge from the cieling of the grand central room, the junction of the five hallways, and drop softly to the center. They both heard the bickering and it sent Ivory into a rage.
She glared at Helsing and the room shook, "This all powerful demon you are so afraid of is weak, born without a corporeal body. He would break a sweat trying to bring destruction to anything more then a city block, an entire city the size of Paragon would tire and drain him to destroy in any timely fashion." she looked at Deth, remembering the coarse slap she had recieved earlier. "If you want to keep him, you can have him. If not, he comes with me and stands trial before the triad. If Helsing would like to continue making threats twords the vessal that sacraficed her own well being to help us escape from Gideon's prison, then I'll invite him to find a way out of mine."
With that the heroes had collected themselves in the centrel room, five coridor spanning before them. The heroes began to move twords the coridor they origionally had come from when they arrived.
"Oh no, not that one. Heavens no not that one." she spoke sarcastically, a grin of pure evil graced her face. It was as if some sort of transformation had completed itself. "If you go down there who knows where you might come out even if you get past the door." she sneered. "I know I don't. Don't turn any of the gears either, you have no idea the mess you might cause."
A distant male voice in her mind seemed to whisper desperately, "This isn't right, these people aren't your enemy." But it seemed to go without notice.
Ivory seemed content to wait and in no hurry to walk anywhere, after all....
Ivory grabbed Lyle's hand, walking up the wall into a door. They emerged in a junction with the group. "Dam," Lyle swore, dropping softly to the ground, "I hate this kinda s#!t."
More threats were exchanged and Lyle cast a wary look towards were Contact was standing. He never liked telepaths, they got into people's heads too easy, sometimes not even on purpose. People, by their very nature, didn't like others knowing everything about them. Made them feel vulnerable.
Lyle was pulled out of his thoughts when Ivory suddenly seemed to switch demeanors entirely. He had seen that look many times. Some mercenary or guerilla rebel who had taken someone down, but not killed them yet. That look of savage joy and excitement, the feeling of having someone completely in their power. Lyle had gotten that look himself several times and now he saw it mirrored in Ivory's face.
"Just great," he thought, "why do I always end up with a malicious, nigh-omnipotent maniac." Lyle slowly pulled a control on his rifle, dropping one of the heavy "slug" cartridges into the chamber. His gut twisted slightly as he watched the woman carefully, feeling a certainty that this one would be the last.
"That old familiar feeling," he whispered.
"Do you really think that any prison a demon makes for me, is one I can't get out of? Believe me, Ivory, I am trying to keep my temper right now, and you should be very happy. Barkansis is not weak, just very different than u. 'Demon' means very different things between worlds. I congradulate Deth on maintaining herself so far, but he will break wat ever barrier u put him in. Thats why I am comming with u, Deth, to protect u and everyone else from the horrors he can unleash. I am very sorry for my outbursts, but if went between many dimensions in the past week, u would be very irratible when people don't listen to your expertise. So please lets just go to Paragon City and settle this another time," Helsing told the group. He followed Deth and Sly. They don't listen to me, so that's their problem, he tought as he walked.
But the prison wasn't built by demons, and Barkansis was, by Ivory's defenition weak. So far he had posed no true threat and althought he had tipped the battle in Deth's favor, he had help. If Deth could contain him, then it was a tribute to the streangth she posessed and the streangth of the other two inside her, whatever they were.
Helsing wasn't an expert on demons. An expert would have found the patience and restraint to conduct himself properly. To Ivory, he was simply another mortal: too headstrong, too cocky, too sure of himself and far too ready to confront the powers before him.
"Any demon you can put down with that weapon," she said her eyes closed, "is far too weak to worry about. "Your expertise is in hunting witches, phantoms, ghosts, goblins, and the spectral runts the Circle conjurs from their 'lost city'."
She stood up and shook her head. A voice echoed from the depths of her mind so loud that she was sure Contact could here it whether he liked or not.
"That's it, you fight the demons now, you fight the evil. Don't go back to who you were." it said. "Tell them about demons, tell them about the endless reaches of the galaxy and the horrors that exist there and then let them protect themselves."
Ivory looked like she was having a mental conflict and perhaps a small headache. Annoyed by what she percieved as a child whining and asking to be noticed.
"I'll tell you how an expert works. An expert would have kept the knowledge of their prey to himself, it establishes the advantage of suprise if you havn't announced your prey's presence. Then, if you do see it fit to announce your prey, for example you know those around you are as versed in fighting your opponent as you are, you do not reveal your plan or intention to your prey." Ivory took a long breath and seemed to try to calm herself. "A hunter, a true predator stalks their prey until the opportune time to strike. They wait until their prey is weakest, most vulnerable and most unaware before they even let their presence be known and at that time they strike and bring their prey down."
She shook her head and let her platinum hair flow around her a bit, lifting her arms above her head and stretching.
"I apologize for my earlier deception, but you'll understand I can't allow my greatest adversary escape back home." She glared at Helsing, huffing and puffing, gripping his rifle as ussual. "I also couldn't simply spell out my intentions before the enemy now could I?"
She slowly circled the heroes, looking at the room intently, inspecting each hallways with care. She pointed down one.
"That's our way out. I'll show you the way out so we can all escape. I don't actually expect you to get yourself out," she paused and turned her head to Helsing, "simpleton."
"'Bout dam time," Lyle mumbled, "Thought that was what we were SUPPOSED to be doing." A minute ago he had been expecting a full on assault from Ivory, but now she seemed to go back to her original self, which, while not being that pleasant, was still better than a psychotic killer.
Lyle slung his rifle on his shoulder and turned to follow. He felt out of place here, but then he felt out of place in Paragon City too. So many supers running around, he wasn't even sure he should bother anymore. After all, how much good is an old man with a fancy rifle when you can get a 400 pound mass of muscle who can vaporize buildings with his mind?
Self pity was never Thomas Lyle's style though. Shoving the thought to the back of his mind he focused on his current situation. Maybe once they were out of this funhouse he could get some answers as to what was going on.
"I don't want to explain my work or "powers" to you or any other person who doubts my methods or my knowlege, but all u need to know is that I was born to hunt the Cursed, a race only indigenous to my dimension, which includes a specsil breed of vampires, werewolves, demons and any other monsters commonly ascosiated with American cinema. That "flame" is not a flame at all, but physical representation of the energy that allows me to kill or harm any Cursed as if it was a human. So if u want to squable about wat I say in reference to job, go ahead, but that won't let u get anything done. So if u don't mind, lets just get home, OKAY?" Helsing said to Ivory,"Will let you know one thing, I am out of my element. I don't use this rifle at all in my daily life, but I prefer my custom revolvers, my shotgun, and my good ol' G-11, not this bulky, unrefined piece of trash. All-in-one's usually break after a few stress tests. So why don't we leave this arguement for when its subject is of relevence and just go home?"
Sly didn't have time to reassure Lobe and congratulate him. He went to move past the big bruiser in supreme haste, ready to plunge through the door after Deth... when she appeared. He stopped... sighed audibly as he saw she looked fine as well... then regained his aloof composure. When she informed him he could "count," he humphed... as she turned towards Ivory, Sly put his hand on Lobe's arm and said "Thank you, friend... thank you..."
As Sly saw Deth glance towards Helsing, He walked over to her and took her hand, opened it, and placed her medallion in the center. Then he took her by the shoulders. "Why do you have to scare me so?" He said, looking in those smokey eyes.