Sly felt Deth stir, but she was mumbling so softly he didn't know what she was saying.
He smiled down at her as he ran. At least she was moving, that was a goof sign, now and then he galnced behind and aronud him to make sure everyone was keeping up... but considering he was avoiding teleporting with Deth in her state, he figured this would not be hard for ANY of them...
Finally they reach the gates, and the guards looked a bot concerned that a hero was carryong another one.
"She's tired, had a long day..." Fox said to their quesitoning faces.
Then he turned to the rest of the group.
"We need to go someplace where Deth and Nate can rest up..."
As the heroes made their exit into the City, a flash of light and a trail of smoke followed behind the barely visible image of Galactic Jack. As he faded into the city those who had paid attention caught the barely audible claim of being the ginger bread man and that 'they' would never catch him.
Elsewhere! Below the city, in a dangerous Nazi Stronghold, two intrepid heroes face a daring escape from a DANGEROUS compound of fascist war... spy... pamphlet pushers... but they AREN'T mormons!
The two robots wobbled and sauntered in a clumsy fashion up to the young soldier, laying on the ground after having been blown off his feet by the explosion.
"Hallo ssss-ssss-Sir oder vvvv-vvvv-Frau. Wo das badezimmer ist? Ich muß ihrer unterseite des nazi todes entgehen."
Ivory looked over at Lyle, the two were similarly hiding behind the robots, Ivory attached by his belt was fiddling with wires, some of which had been tied to his glasses. Lyle mouthed to Ivory as if to ask what the robot just said. Ivory mearly shrugged and fiddled with the wires, the robot twitching and buzzing much more like a clockwork then a well oiled machine of war.
"You can put me down now... Ive got to do some repairs" Nathan said, nudging Lobe's back with his foot.
As the massive hero lowered him to the ground, Nathan closed his left eye, using the retinal screen installed there to preform a self diagnostic scan.
"Stupid bloody fifth column..." He muttered, flipping open a compartment in his left boot, revealing a few tools and various spare parts. Selecting a sodering iron and what looked to be a long steel spike, Nathan reached around, removing a small sheet of armored plastisteel from his back.
"Well... need a new one of these." He said to noone in particular as he tossed the armor plating aside.
The small group of heroes watched curiously as Nathan began to repair the damaged circuits on his back with one hand, skillfully sodering the broken cybernetic links back into place as he reached back down to his boot and pulled out a replacement peice of armor of about the same size as the one he had just thrown away.
"There we go." He said as he fitted the new armor securely over the repaired circuits and replaced his tools into his boot compartment, snapping it shut. "Much better"
Standing, Nathan expanded his dispersion field around the group, nodding to them curtly.
"Dont mind the field, I just feel safer with one up at all times, one of my quirks I suppose..." He said.
Danny looks up in mild alarm at the sound of an explosion in the distance. He looks back and notices one of the others, the large man who had casually strolled through walls, also aware of the sound. Nobody else seems to have heard it, though, and everyone continues onward. Soon they all arrive at the Baumtown security gates. Fyre stares in slight awe at the more powerful heroes congregating in the area. One of them, a smallish dark hero wrapped in black cloth, is casually lifting a powerful Troll Gardvord into the air with her mind, and letting him drop back to the ground. The Troll, roaring in aggrivation, continually tries to get up and fight back, but once again finds himself being levitated into the air, and brought slamming back to the concrete.
Danny snaps back to attention when he hears one of the group members conversing with a guard.
"...tired, had a long day..."
He looks with slight interest to see what they're talking about, and then notices the woman in the hero's arms.
Just how tough was it in there?
The man turns to the rest of the group after he finishes with the guard.
"We need to go someplace where Deth and Nate can rest up..."
Fyre scratches his head.
"Well, there's always my apartment, but it's in Galaxy, I dunno if you guys want to go that far. Plus, it's sort of...well...it's not really a great place to bring your folks at this point...but I guess if these two need to rest a while it could do the job."
When the heroes emerged from Baumtown, they found Lightning Bug arguing with security there.
"No, YOU don't understand. There are a lot of heroes in there about to get ambushed by 5th column --" She looked suprised to see the heroes coming through the gate, then concerned as she noticed Fox was carrying Deth. "I was trying to get in there to warn you all, but these guys are more worried about security clearance than the safety of a bunch of heroes," she said in a perterbed tone, inclining her head towards the gate guards. She introduced herself to the new additions and gave the group a quick synopsis of her encounter with the late Rebecca Morningstar and the results of the search of her shop.
--------------------
Lightning Bug
Defender
Storm/Electrical
Virtue
"Morningstar was 5th, eh Lightning? That actually... explains quite a bit... she did seem AWFULLY cool when her 'father' died, he was probably a sacrafical agent lamb as well... who knows? Plus I think she imprisoned us in that satute on purpose... never expecting us to get out... I always did..."
Suddenly... Sly had an idea. "So far, we've always had ONE of those atrifacts with us wherever we went, be it a jewel, a statue, a ring... drop them. No wonder we were always swarmed. Haunt, get rid of that ring!" Sly was to busy thinking to see Haunt's weak grin at this...
"Whoever has one of these... atrificts, and I forget who has that flat jewel... just drop it, here and now.
Now, thanks for the offer of your apartment, sir, but FSS has quite a few safe houses in King's Row, we'll head there."
Cocking his head to his shoulder as his hands were still... occupied... to activate his com, the red mage spoke, "Boss, come in. Please activate House D for use. Heading there with Operatives and Free Lancers now... "
Contact had floated away from the scene quiet some time ago and was busy working over some Warriors for a contractual obligation.
He loved fighting Warriors.
He'd cleared out the rest of the warehouse and had just began interogating the last concious thug when his cell phone chirped. Contact let the camo-clad Hewer fall to the floor in a heap and snapped his phone open crisply.
"Chase here," he said, floating a few meters off the floor. "Activate house D? What the hell Fox... just turn the deadbolt. Its a house not a secret lair," he laughed into phone lightly.
"Alright, alright... I'll have an operative clear the place and swing by to make sure everything is ok. Just let me," he trailed off for a moment, seeing the Hewer make a break for it. He thrust his hand forward at him, telekineticly sending him crashing through a crate of delicate vases.
"Let me clean up here and I'll meet you there," Contact canceled the call and arranged for an operative to clear the house and prepare for their arrival.
Sly sighed after the connection was ended.
One of the FEW times he's serious and tries to use the "code," the Boss is Mr. One-liner...
Nothing like a bit of role reversal, though! Isn't it always the way... he thought, and a sudden grin spread over his face.
Checking Deth, who was still gently sleeping, Sly motioned his head to the direction of the Green Line Tram.
"Come on, troops, through Independance Port is the quickest way to the Row from here. Everyone stick together, the Port can be nasty even with short distances..."
Deth dreamed.
The landscape before her was unfamiliar, even alien. She looked down at herself, her form was unfamiliar. She seemed younger. Passing a reflective surface, she looked as she had ten years ago. She also realized that she was without clothes.
'Ack'
She began looking around and found some discarded cloth like moss. She covered herself as quickly as she could and began to continue her exploration. She was looking for some life, some civilization.
'That will be difficult,' she said as she looked around. She could only see nothing. Well, that was not entirely true. She was looking over a barren landscape. No trees. No buildings. No animals. It looked dead, except for the moss that grew over everything. It was spongy and bouncy. She continued to walk searching for something. She could not find anything. She was alone.
Then she crested a hill and gasped. Before her was a ship, large, black and it reminded her of a strange looking fish. Like a lamprey. It hovered over the land and a ramp was extended to the ground. She walked closer to it. Something was drawing her to enter it.
She resisted but again, curiosity won. She climbed the ramp and walked inside. Inside, the ship was wondrous. Damp. Dank. Scary. All at the same time. It looked alive. She saw panels where it look like you had to put all ten fingers in the holes to work it. Well, as there were 8 holes, 8 fingers. She continued to walk down the corridor and looking around. It was muggy and steamy. She was hot and could barely breathe.
She saw a light up ahead and moved towards it. She tried to hide but there was nothing. She peered into the room. It was a laboratory. She saw a table, a medical table. She saw there was something on it. No. Someone. As she walked towards it, she realized there was another table as well, with a body on it.
She walked toward the first one. It was a handsome man, in his twenties. He was blond with a funny looking beard and a mouth that smiled too much, but looked delightfully kissable. She smiled. A man of her dreams. She had never had one before.
Looking closer, he seemed to be in pain but she could not discern why. Across the way, she heard a moan. She walked over to the other form. This one was female. It was beautiful, asiatic. She was petite but athletic with well defined muscles. Her hair was as obsidian. She also seemed to be in pain. She looked familiar....
Splish...
She heard a sound and thought that it was a sink or something. She looked closer at the woman and saw something moving in her hair. She looked closer and saw a tentacle move out from underneath the hair. She reached out to touch it and it snapped out at her.
She moved her hand before it touched her, muttering. 'stupid girl'
She decided that she should leave and turned to go. Looking back at the woman, something caught her eye. She leaned closer and realized that......
In Sly Fox's arms, Deth spasmed. She screamed 'No! It cannot be.' She went limp in his arms again and her breath shallowed.
Things got messy, real messy. No, there weren't any flying entrails or gysers of blood, no severed arms, ears or ankles: only a single broken rib. It took a godo twenty minutes of careful positioning and broken german to get the two heroes back to the surface. On one occassion the two robots had to perform a rather ingenous, yet ultimately emberassing, comedy routine.
Now finally above the secret lair, Ivory and Lyle finally dropped from the backs of the robots that had been hiding them all this time.
"Not too bright for trained soldiers." Lyle muttered, the bleeding of his arm had long since subsided.
"They can't help it, everyone loves David Hasselhoff." Ivory chuckled, being the only one for miles who understood or even laughed at their previous comedy routine: the two had agreed to never speak of it in public. "I'm just suprised the officer at that door believed us when we told him we were going outside to practice being Nazis."
Lyle nodded, almost fully unappreciative of Ivory's humor. The two combat robots stood staring blankly at the two somewhat dazed heroes. Days like this could bring fatigue to even the toughest of muscle heroes.
"Well, ready for a walk?" Ivory slit a hole into limbo and carefully stepped inside. Ivory hated walking, but at times like this he didn't much mind. He grinned as he thought to himself. "Every loves David Hasselhoff."
"Only ever saw him in Knight Rider," Lyle grumbled under his breath, following Ivory into the monotone realm.
"Five steps ahead of you," Haunt said as he popped into view, displaying his ringless hands before disappearing again.
"Also," he added as he teleported about the group, trying to keep a lookout from different points of view. "The girl..has the jewel..but I hav...n't seen her...since Boomtown."
After hearing Deth's scream, Haunt teleported in front of she and Sly, the curiousity on his and Eidolon's faces mixed with concern as they looked down at the woman.
"You think it would be a good idea if I went on ahead? I could get the building ready, maybe find some medical equipment for these two.." he asked, nodding towards Deth and Nate as he hovered alonside the group of heroes, awaiting a response.
The heroes are soon through the Baumtown gates and back in relatively fresher air. Fyre quickly appreciates being on solid, correctly-colored concrete again. The group is soon stopped yet again, though, this time by a new hero Danny had yet to meet.
"I was trying to get in there to warn you all, but these guys are more worried about security clearance than the safety of a bunch of heroes."
The stranger is a woman, and an attractive one at that. Danny quickly masks any interest as best he can, not really in the mood to get caught up in that field at the moment. It wasn't (that) hard to forget her looks either, with what she had to say. Apparently the 5th collumn, a group of Nazi terrorists straight out of WW2, is out to get the group of heroes Fyre has associated himself with.
"Oh, fun."
Of course, Danny's little comment is largely unnoticed by the gorup, who immediately begin conversing over what lies ahead, which is actually a reasonable thing to be worrying about. Danny begins day-dreaming until the apparent leader addresses him.
"Now, thanks for the offer of your apartment, sir, but FSS has quite a few safe houses in King's Row, we'll head there."
Safe houses in King's Row? What's FSS? Boy, I need to start considering the situations I jump into before I jump into them. Now I have heroic responsibilities. Ugh. Those ALWAYS take up my afternoon.
After pausing for a moment, Danny realises he hasn't even introduced himself, and knows none of the group's names. After politely waiting for him to finish a conversation with someone via communicator, Danny speaks up.
"You know, I haven't even introduced myself. I'm Dann-"
Without warning, the woman in the man's arms cries out from the depths of her unconsiousness. Danny jumps.
"Gah!"
After everyone looks at the woman with worry, one of the others speaks up.
"You think it would be a good idea if I went on ahead? I could get the building ready, maybe find some medical equipment for these two.."
Fyre scratches his head, and decides to keep his mouth shut for the time being.
The girl paused as she watched the others head towards King's Row. Why did they insist on carrying Deth around? She looked dead to her, and they could go a lot faster if they weren't carting a dead person around. Still, she shrugged, she could be wrong. They had been carrying the Nathan one too, but he had got up and started walking again.
As she pondered this, the dull sound of a silenced gunshot drifted through the air. A hole tore through the girl's head, splattering blood and brain-matter on the street. Falling like a stone, she lay face down on the street, eyes still wide open, as a 5th Column sniper team emerged from their hiding place and approached.
"Here it is," one of them said in German as he searched the girl, finding the red gem.
"Well, that's something at least," the other one replied. "After that dissaster of an ambush."
"I don't know," the first continued, "I think we wounded a couple of them."
"Wounded isn't dead," his partner spat back. "Hey," he continued, his tone changing to curiousity, "what happened over at 5B?"
"Don't know," the sniper replied as they turned and headed away, "Something about a malfunctioning train or something. The higher-ups aren't telling us anything."
"So what else is new," his partner chuckled. The two soldiers departed, leaving the girl laying brokenly on the ground in an ever-growing pool of blood.
'Lughebu...Togael...traitors... I will find you...You will pay.'
Deth continued to mumble incoherencies as they closed on the 'Safe House'
All of a sudden, Danny vaguely hears an oddly quiet, but out-of-place sound somewhere behind him. A chill runs up his spine and he feels as if something very wrong has just happened. He has a sudden urge to turn around, but the rest of the group is moving rather quickly and appears determined. Not wishing to be a burdon, Fyre simply moves on with the others.
Lobe followed quietly as the group made their way to the Green Line. His worry for Lady Deth grew with each outburst from her unconscious form. He was so focused on her that he didn't recognize the homeless man he bumped into as they passed him on their way to the tram. After mumbling an apology, the homless man walked over to a shopping cart, crammed with junk, and began pushing it down an alley.
Haunt continued to hover upside down alongside the group, still awaiting a response from Sly. He turned to the newcomer after worriedly watching Deth for a few more moments, hearing his introduction cut short by her scream. Eidolon continued to watch the woman.
"Hello Dann. I'm Haunt, this is Eidolon," he motioned to the shadowy face at his left shoulder,"that's Deth Aszicen, The Sly Fox, Lobe, Nate, and that's Lightning Bug," he said, indicating each of the heroes assembled in turn.
"And Fire Mistress, thankyouverymuch"
Flame landed behind Haunt in the useual rubberball style her forcefield was sure to provide.
She looked over at Fox
"We should probably get Contact to help her...."
Fyre smiles.
"Actually, it's Danny. Danny Fyre. Nice to meetcha."
His grin slowly fades though as he looks back at the woman, apparently named Deth, still in some sort of unconsiousness.
"Is she going to be alright? What happened back there?"
Sly had just been looking ahead, after the Deth's scream and shudder.
That's all, just looking ahead...
Because they had to get to the safe house. Right away...
So he had to move fast...
Finally Flame asked him a question and he shook his head and blinked... he noticed Haunt looking at him oddly, but he ignored it.
"Yes... Flame... Contact will be there..."
Then he started to run a bit faster.
"There they are" Ivory pointed at the frozen images of the heroes walking twords Kings Row, behind them the tell tale suspended fragments of light as to indicate soeone had been recently rushed off to the hospitol.
The instinct to quicken pace was supressed and the two continued their pace twords the group. Ivory began to notice a couple new bodies with them when he turned to Lyle.
"Where do you people keep pickin these people up?"
Ivory violently struck the air infront of him as though it were a pane of glass. As it shattered into pieces their exit into reality showed through the broken hole which had slowly began to repair itself. When the two men stepped out, Ivory accompanied by the typical burst of blue flame, they matched the pace of the group as though they had been there all along.
Somewhere in boomtown a pair of wolfpack robots were trying to convince a pair of police officers to let them through the gates, claiming that they had changed.
Lyle ran alongside the others, his eyes flitting warily around. He didn't like being out in the open like this, especially after the ambush in the building. This whole plot was getting way too complicated, but that was only to be expected in Paragon City. It seemed every gang had some connection to the others.
Lyle glanced over at the unconcious Deth. The palid state of her features suggested she was slipping into shock. After his years in the army he had come to recognize the symptoms. In the field, treatment usually consisted of a swallow of alcohol and a sharp slap across the face, but those types of remedies weren't appreciated in "civilized" society.
Lyle silently wished that they would reach their destination soon. His side was starting to ache from all the running.
For awhile, the girl simply lay motionless in the street. The only movement being the slow loss of blood from her head. Then the blood stopped and everything stood still. After about a minute there was the faint twitch of a finger, so slight that no one not looking at it would have noticed. Then the flexing of a hand, blinking eyes, and finally one arm dragging itself forward to push her face off the ground.
The girl slowly pushed herself off the street, her own blood dripping from the side of her face. She stood a little wobbly at first, finally regaining her balance. Apart from the blood on her clothes and the hole in her mask and head, she seemed totally unaffected by what had happened. Her burnt arm was still mangled and slightly skeletal, but the muscle and skin had started growing back over it, and in an hour or so it would be back to normal.
Squinting into the distance, she once again picked out the others and began following them again, as if nothing had happened.
Deth muttered intelligbly. It was fortunate that Sly Fox did not hear what was said.
'Power.... I can feel....power....This vessal is mine....must find the children....earth...MY children.....will rule again.
She slumped further in to unconscieness. Moaning.