The Lady Grey
She could by no means say she felt comfortable in her skin right now. Incandescent's warm smile did try to reassure her, but the cold, blank stare of the camera lens overpowered what might've been. She knew what had to be done, what had to be known, and what had to be said.
She just didn't want to be the one to say it.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the United Nations Security Council," she began with straightforward tone - very formal, very official, "We address you today to convey to your persons the awareness that has haunted Our being for some time now. We shall admit that a number of us were not entirely certain how...or even if the proceedings of the past few days should come to your attention, and whether such candor would warrant merit. This included Our person, but at this point in time, this issue has been resolved. With recognition to the efforts of our liaison Incandescent, We leave the path of this information from here on out to your judgment."
She slid a thumb along the block of paper in her hands, eyes wandering briefly over the words she held, "This recording is to be included with the After Action Report concerning the first phase of our expedition to the homeworld of the Rikti. We felt this necessary due to the nature of politics at large, and We personally agree that the significance of a first-hand account will stand much greater than line upon line of silent verbiage. You shall find any details this account may lack within the written transcript of the initial phase, and subsequent omissions in the AARs concerning successive phases of the operation. To place Our hardly humble option at the forefront, We are still uncertain just what to truly make of all this. We hope this addition will assist in determinacy of thus, and therefore shall restrict Ourselves to what we believe to be the paramount concerns of this narration."
She allowed a few seconds of silence to pass, breathing calmly as the pause drew its course with outward peace and inward turmoil.
"From the very initiation of the first phase, the nature of the expedition could best be described as deeply troubling." she finally went on with a shallow sigh, "Not only had the portal we utilized not taken us to our intended destination, rather to a moon of the alternate Earth the Rikti call home, but the portal through which we made our arrival experienced what we at the time thought to be a malfunction of the Portal Corporation computer system. While We are aware this information is likely already known by the ladies and gentlemen of the UN Security Council, We mention this currently to reiterate the severity of its significance. At the time, the entire expedition knew we might never return. Therefore, an investigation into our surroundings commenced immediately, and most possibly too hastily."
"We found the facility that comprised our arrival point in ruins. Moreover, expedition members consisting chiefly of Delta Team, led by Randall Grey, quickly discovered the cause of the destruction to have been a vicious exchange between Rikti military units and the forces of the Nemesis Army. Not much time passed before we found ourselves in the midst of an ambush courtesy of that...unman...who even went as far as to dispatch an automaton duplicate of Mr. Wilcox in an attempt to demolish our presence before we could take foot."
"Due to the quick action of Delta Team, as well as the arrival of Archlich, and undead sorcerer comrade to a sentient robotic control unit by the name of Toy Dispenser, who too stood as part of Delta Team, his efforts fortunately remained fruitless. Still, he had struck C'Kelkah comatose during the battle, and we could not be certain to have truly halted his efforts to stop us then and there - which We believed to still stand as his best chance to do so. Search parties were dispatched, and some time later tracked down several high-yield explosive devices planted throughout the area of the lunar facility we now occupied. Interestingly, however, Delta Team first discovered another being within the complex: an extraterrestrial by the name of Acid Zero, an individual whom We had known for some time, but had not expected to encounter here...nor for the reasons he cited, which We knew to be a fabrication. However, Our person allowed these happenings to proceed, in part due to this individual being in possession of knowledge we would require to depart the moon, and in part due to reasons that bear greater relevance at a later point of this report."
"In the aftermath of this encounter, Our personnel began the search for a ship the expedition could use to traverse the distance to the planet. During these proceedings, however, we were once more attacked. This time, however, our assailants masqueraded as heroes of Paragon, and seemed neither prepared to strike effectively at a numerically superior force, nor to follow a distinct plan. To this day, We have not determined the purpose of their assault. Nevertheless, the expedition repelled it successfully, and the attackers fled to parts unknown. Shortly thereafter, our search for a ship brought results, though at the time we lacked the knowledge to properly operate the discus vessel Mr. Zero had retrieved from the end production line of a nearby factory complex. As detailed in the report, this moon had been utilized as a Rikti shipbuilding facility for some time, and due to this circumstance the discus ship also contained three freshly manufactured auxiliary vessels."
"Thanks to the presence of Warmaster Cher'tak, a Traditionalist who had been with us for some time now, as well as the diplomat Sah'Teece and a Paragon inventor by the name of Sheldon Wallace, Delta team could utilize one of these vessels to travel to the planet. At the same time, Mr. Zero both stayed with Our forces as well as departed with the rest of Delta Team, making use of a manner of duplication or division whose nature exceeds Our understanding. Archlich, however, departed into the unknown. He would not reappear for some time. "
"While the planetside expedition proceeded, Mr. Zero and Mr. Wallace made no hesitation about instructing Vanguard forces in the operation of the discus ship and its numerous subsystems. However, something on the planet had unexpectedly gone awry, and the two soon departed with suddenness the likes of which only truly dire situations stand capable of bringing about. They departed without warning, and at the time We would have very much liked to know just why, the position of Our person toward such rash action decidedly negative. Upon their return, however details became revealed much more quickly than We would have liked..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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"Move!"
The shout thundered through the 'command center' like cannon fire, reverberating from every element of the Rikti architecture, and even jostling the numerous laptops and other examples of human technology the present Vanguard forces had set up in this chamber of the Jade Moon facility. Even the window gallery that formed one wall appeared to echo the bellow back to its massive source, and the transparent energy fields that sealed the numerous holes created during Nemesis' assault didn't seem to form an exception either.
The bellow had come from a colossus of a man, the massive Randall Grey, who virtually stampeded into the command chamber carrying a twitchy, scaleless reptilian in his hands, having formed a protective layer of crystalline armor between himself and the debilitated Acid.
Had the expression on the Khelari's raptor-like visage not been one of pain and agony, eyes pressed shut and rows of sharp teeth clenched like the grip of a vise, the picture might've even looked comical: a huge, bearded human lugging around a somewhat humanoid reptilian with a deep-green, leathery hide, and in an outfit of long pants, T-shirt, work boots and what could've been a biker's leather jacket, all in the same matching hue of black, save for the formerly snow-white shirt.
Now the smooth white fabric had become an ugly collection of tattered rags, partially soaked in crimson, and the rest of the outfit didn't look much better. Even more disturbing, however, were the jagged crystals that jutted from his back in a bright, venomous green, almost seeming to desire stretching their vile toxicity into the surroundings. Though apparently contained by the one whose body they'd attacked, Randall was no fool, and treated them with the utmost caution. Even with his own crystals encasing his lower arms, the large tanker remained wary, never letting the vile formation make direct contact.
"What happened?!" the Lady Grey approached him demandingly, desiring foremost an explanation while the leader of Delta Team handed the Khelari to several Vanguard personnel with a stretcher. She scarcely took note of the rest of the team for now, not even the uninjured Acid that entered the chamber right after Randall.
The discussion proceeded quickly and to the point, Delta Team's Grey curtly summarizing what had transpired in the Forgotten Sanctuary to Vanguard's, though his already riled-up demeanor became very forceful indeed as the Lady Grey ordered the afflicted Acid to be placed in the infirmary's isolation station. He didn't like that idea one bit...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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The Lady Grey
"We are not certain how or when Our ability to communicate broke down at that point, but events rapidly descended into chaos after Mr. Grey had voiced his disagreement. Though the still-standing aspect of Mr. Zero attempted to convince both the medically trained operatives and Our person that he should be the one to handle this, the extremely...insistent behavior he displayed upon our first attempt to surgically remove the crystalline formation led us to conclude him to be at least partially afflicted as well, and therefore isolate him from his other self just as We had the rest of Delta Team."
"In retrospect, this decision was not wise in nature, and We make no pretexts concerning the error in Our judgment. Fortunately, the grounds for the behavior of Mr. Zero became evident posthaste: after initial attempts at surgery had failed, Our medical staff modified the blade of a circular saw to talsorian standards, and though this succeeded in penetrating the hide of the reptilian, the resulting spray of molecular acid injured several personnel, as well as rendering the saw...inert. In credit to Mr. Zero, a perhaps mandatory 'I told you so' made no appearance upon his retroactive permission to enter the isolation ward. Now that We had ordered a pause on further attempted surgical procedures, Mr. Zero had time enough to establish a clarification on the reaction between highly toxic agents and the normally harmless blood of his species. After that, We left matters in his claws, so to speak."
"We spent some time in conversation with Delta Team, attempting to create a clear image of what exactly had transpired. Rikti forces and the Nemesis Army We had fully expected to encounter, but this incursion of Malta Operatives stood as more than a surprise. In addition, testimony of Delta team confirmed that the covert operatives had ousted Nemesis Army forces from the Forgotten Sanctuary, with all appearances on having done so without discovery by their master - a most troubling conclusion, to say the least. The accounts of Mr. Simmons and Toy Dispenser only underscored this, as neither of the two had perceived outbound communications to the steam-driven madman, which excluded both arcane means and nearly all forms of technological information transmission known to mankind."
"Moreover, a sense of suspicion and mistrust now pervaded the atmosphere, several members of Delta Team, though not solely they, voicing concerns of a traitor in our midst. While even We could not deny the possibility, We did begin a detailed inquiry centered around the process an enemy informant would have been subjected to in order to not only remain undiscovered, but deliver information on our future whereabouts to his or her superiors with great enough notice for said forces to relocate such a large troop concentration in time to intercept Vanguard forces. With the aid of the Ryat unit Toy Dispenser, and Mr. Wallace, we found such a possibility to be slim at the very best, and could ascribe repeated hostile encounters upon arrival in new areas of operation to little more than coincidence...or the possibility that Malta, as well as Nemesis, had gained some method to predict our actions with uncanny accuracy."
"At the time, however, speculation of such yielded no useful results. In addition, Mr. Zero joined us near the conclusion of the deductive conversation, and what he told us then and there confirmed without a doubt that we had harbored a traitor among us all this time..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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"And I keep telling you: We. Are. Not. Ready." Sheldon Wallace dictated fervently, seemingly in the process of attempting to make himself taller than the Rikti in blood-red armor - an exercise in futility, for Warmaster Cher'tak towered over the inventor by at least two heads. Still, the glare from the round lenses of Sheldon's glasses had something forceful to it, as did the fervent taps of a finger against the Rikti's chest plating. The bored stare of Cher'tak's eyes, however, nonetheless showed the Warmaster woefully unimpressed, his laxly crossed arms only underscoring the fact that Sheldon's antics were nowhere near enough to shift his position.
And indeed, theirs was by far not the only argument going nowhere fast. The approaching reptilian certainly didn't seem sure that speaking to any of the present people was a good idea at this point. Then again, as if that decision was his to make.
"Well?" the Lady Grey demanded, finally letting off Randall, who'd gotten quite tired of all this bickering. The massive man let out a soft sigh of relief, collecting his thoughts in hopes of finding a way to come to some manner of agreement. Perhaps this'd give him just enough time to do so.
"I think I'll be okay." Acid answered in a lax manner, taking a glance to the door of the isolation ward, "Found some...brew from the Doc in my ship. I don't think I really want to know what it is, but it looks to be getting the job done."
"So..." he inquired in a considering tone, thumbing across the chamber to Sheldon and Cher'tak, "what's eating them?"
"The Warmaster insists we should mobilize the discus vessel and retake the Forgotten Sanctuary posthaste." the Lady Grey explained with a rather indifferent tone, allowing herself a slight huff of exasperation, "Mr. Wallace, on the other hand, concurs with Our person that we are not currently in the possession of adequately trained personnel to attempt a flight. Mr. Zero, I do hope you might be able to remedy this impasse?"
"Yeah, c'mon." Solid Shot fell into the conversation, waving an arm presently in mid-repair at the reptilian, numerous open panel covers clicking and clacking in the process, "I wanna get back at those losers already."
"You're not going anywhere right now!" Toy Dispenser snatched the affronting arm back out of the air in frustration, "Now stop fidgeting around or I swear I'm disconnecting your head until the repair's done - or more accurately, CT will!"
"Right, boss." the assault bot gurgled, having only recently come back online, still sitting somewhat damaged itself, "Precision not guaranteed."
The gray mechanoid mumbled something in response, but let Toy have at his arm again without complaint. If nothing else, the robotic mastermind knew what he was doing.
"Yeah, about that..." Acid scratched his neck in thought as the majority of attention once more directed itself at his person. With a stern look to the Lady Grey, he went on, "As things stand now, this just isn't a good idea anymore. We're switching to Plan B."
His conversation partner suddenly seemed taken extremely aback, as if struck by lightning. Eyes widened and fingers curled in what couldn't be anything but shock, the ramifications of what this meant possibly being some of the Lady Grey's most dreaded closet skeletons.
"I..." she nearly lost her composure again, "We...this isn't..."
"I thought you'd have problems with this." the reptilian remained calm and relentless, closing the distance of his eyes to hers, "Thats why you shouldn't think about it. Just do it. You're following orders. You're not responsible."
Meanwhile, the arguments all about had fallen into silence, their participants having found something of greater importance to pay attention to. Those gathered gradually made their way toward the Lady Grey and Acid, wishing to know just what the reptilian had instigated there, more than one regarding the whole situation with a healthy amount of skepticism.
"Okay, let's just all take a time-out here." Toy suggested diplomatically, stepping further into the quickly-formed ring, "Acid, I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to know what's going on. Want to make with the explaining?"
"Plan B is the expedition secondary protocol." the Lady Grey answered before the Khelari could, her tone breathless and devoid of any sort of melody, "We established it in case this mission met with failure. If the Rikti cannot be saved...they are to be eliminated."
Cher'tak crashed forward almost immediately upon hearing these words, the pain of betrayal and rage of dishonor welling chaotically within the Warmaster, "Status: unacceptable! Within dialogue complement: trust placed...!"
He didn't get any further. A duo of Vanguard operatives barred his way by crossing their rifles in the path of the Rikti, and Randall Grey stepped in as well, open palms stretched toward Cher'tak.
"Whoa now, let's not jump the gun here." he calmly told the Warmaster, doing his best to keep his own cool in light of this as he turned to the Lady Grey, "Let me get this straight now: if we couldn't kick a gone-mad steam engine out of here, we're supposed to do the very thing we're trying to prevent him from doing? Well, without the gain of power, but still...that doesn't make any sort of good sense."
"He is quite correct." Cory Simmons added, accompanying his words with an ominous nod, "That is not what heroes do."
"True." Acid replied curtly, stepping beside the Lady Grey as he placed the claws of his right hand upon her shoulder, "But we're not heroes. At least I'm not. And I've got a deal with this lovely lady here that ensures she does what I want. I'm not asking you to agree. But I do insist you step aside now. We'll take things from here."
The reptilian turned his gaze to the Lady Grey once more, the woman only giving a silent nod in response. Randall's eyes narrowed, his mind chasing thoughts from every corner. How was this possible? Lady Grey answered to no one - well, the UN Security Council maybe, but definitely not to any one person. What the [dreck] was going on here?!
Toy took these considerations even further, none of his processors finding any sort of logic behind this. Not only did he know what Grey did, but he'd been around Acid for a respectable amount of time now. He freakin' knew the guy! This wasn't anything even remotely like him!
Or was it? Was this the sort of thing he did when he jumped about in the galaxy? Was the Acid he knew nothing but a facade? The guy was an alien, after all...and if Toy knew one thing, it was that human considerations and logic shouldn't be applied to other people. Either way, something had gone tremendously awry just now, that wasn't hard to tell. Toy didn't waste any time relaying on order to his operational entourage: prepare for the worst.
"Not gonna happen." Randall Grey declared stoutly, stepping closer to underscore his position; their position, "No way in hell."
The reptilian replied with a snap of his claws. The clacks of readied rifles echoed from all about. The Lady Grey had mimicked the gesture almost simultaneously, her lips pressed against one another with such force they formed nearly bloodless lines.
"Disappointing." Acid stated coldly, "Kill them all..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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"Acid..." Randall Grey's large fists balled their fingers even more tightly against one another, the massive man's narrowed eyes sending their gaze to travel across the floor and up the reptilian's form, glaring into the slitted pupils with dagger-like fervor, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Dropping the act." the Khelari answered curtly and with austere serenity, "I've been waiting for results far too long now. I want to see some progress. Ms. Grey, why is this man still talking to me?"
"Sonova...!" the hero's eyes grew wide with shock, Grey still having harbored some doubt up to this point. Now he was sure though, and set himself into astonishingly speedy motion, reaching a hand for the Lady Grey's, "You're really going to-!"
"No." the sudden, bone-chilling stare stopped Grey dead in his tracks, her ice-blue eyes burning with truly frigid fire. The gaze held no might, no glimpse of her dark power, but the force it did enclose needed no such support. The massive man's feet seemed to freeze to the floor.
"Say what?" Acid jerked his head toward the woman, a pair of clawed fingers bobbing up and down as he questioned in a most commanding, yet startlingly casual tone, "You wanna run that by me again?"
"We do not." the Lady Grey refocused her gaze on the reptilian now, the rifles of her soldiers following the path of her eyes, "Furthermore, We will not."
"Alright." Acid countered calmly, "So what about our deal then? You realize I'm going to have to rescind my part then...but then, you already knew that when you chose this path, didn't you?"
A silent nod was the only answer, a slight smirk playing about the reptilian's inhuman lips at the response. Before he could bring up something else, however, Toy came in the way.
"Okay, so here we go." the mechanical mastermind spread his robotic entourage about in a vague half moon, Solid Shot having taken a knee beside him, rifle already aimed squarely at the reptilian's head, "We're all tired, we know what's gonna happen, so why don't we just skip the usual ramble, and you go ahead with your meticulously thought-out, supercomplicated and overcontrived backup to your backup plan already?"
"Actually, about that..." Acid raised a finger, "Really, I'd love to, but I didn't make one this time. I was kind of counting on this to work. It seemed simple enough."
If Toy could've frowned right now, he would've. That was his proof: no way, no how was this the Acid he knew. Something was more than wrong here, and he was fed up with all this 'mystery' garbage. He'd be getting some answers, and he'd be getting them now, rules of engagement be damned!
Toy's heel tapped against that of Solid Shot, and not a microsecond later, the gray mechanoid's rifle spat a widely spread cryo beam at the Khelari, Toy and Solid wanting to hold the reptilian fast in the resulting block of ice.
They got Ryat66.
"Hey!" the Ryat unit exclaimed in exasperation, "What was that for?!"
"But I can do this, if you like." Acid mused smugly from the other shoulder of Toy Dispenser, a toothy grin upon his face - and before the robotic mastermind's fist could break just that, he'd jumped yet again.
"Freakin' teleporters." Solid Shot and his mercenary counterpart gargled almost simultaneously, virtually every gun in the command chamber unsure of just where or at what to aim. This gave Acid more than enough time to make his way to the back, and with that the relatively small chamber containing the portal Vanguard had arrived through.
"Don't you guys worry now." the reptilian excused himself with a brief bow, an outstretched hand giving everyone but Solid Shot more than enough reason to hold their fire (not that Solid couldn't detect the energy barrier the reptilian had thrown across the doorway - he'd just wanted to see if it was any good and tested it with another cryonic blast...unfortunately, it of course was), "I'm like Sand People. Well, once I 'convince' my old friends, that is. Au revoir."
With that, the portal swallowed him whole. A few people attempted a quick dash for the mechanism, but the Lady Grey's shadowy servant became manifest in their path long before they could reach the crossworld gateway. Several confused stares accompanied the creature of darkness as it demonstratively endeavored to step though the portal, only to be flung back with vehement force, nearly discorporating as it bounded across the floor. The Lady Grey displayed no reaction. She'd already known. Her gaze traversed the chamber again, coming to rest against the questioning eyes of several people.
"Inform them." she told the first, a Vanguard operative manning the communications terminal, "Apprehend, if reasonably possible."
"Answers." were her words to the second, Toy Dispenser, followed by the third and more, the members of Delta Team, "You would like some too. Ve-"
"Okay, just one second here!" the white-haired teenager who'd been somewhat passive until now suddenly tore his hands from the pockets of his dark trench coat, communicating his desire for a time-out not solely in verbiage, "What in the world happened there now, and why did some space lizard have control over-?"
"Quiet, kid." one of Randall's large hands plopped itself atop the goggles on Jake's head, the sizeable man speaking in a tone that dripped with the essence of the tired and the listening, "Let her tell the story before we start asking questions, m-hm?"
The undercover Arachnos operative wormed his way out from under Grey's grasp with a few mumbled hisses, but he did see the hero's point. Getting impatient wasn't going to get things moving any faster, no matter how much he would've liked it to. Therefore, Jake set course for a vacant chair and threw himself into the seat with a scowl, allowing the Lady Grey to continue unimpeded.
"As you have most probably deduced by now," she began to calmly explain, speaking mainly to Grey and those gathered about him, but extending the reach of her voice to all others as well, "Acid Zero and Our person had worked out an arrangement prior to the departure of this expedition. However, as We must regretfully inform you now, said prior time lies not in the near past, but rather several years within. Please, feel free to sit. We have much to say."
"As most of you know, in the aftermath of the first Rikti War, hero organizations the world over scarcely existed, shattered and in pieces. Vanguard was but one of many. Few would manage to rebuild, but we would be one. With the aid of old comrades, We began to pick up the pieces - and as fate would have it, beneath one such piece we found a most intriguing individual..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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Early 2006
Another click sounded through the dark of night.
"Put! The weapon! Down!"
The situation had grown tense. At least for one side. In the smoking ruins of a now-roofless building knelt at least a dozen armed personnel in night-black uniforms and combat gear. Cutting-edge assault rifles stabbed their muzzles through and around fragments of former concrete walls, the men and women at their triggers not willing to take any chances.
Across a formerly serene and normal street lay another squat structure, its half-collapsed frame home to the nose and cockpit of what had once been a sleek and shining two-man star craft that had decidedly not been forged by human hand. The mangled remains of its somewhat open canopy lay strewn all about (as well as within the mangled remains of much of the body, of course), and it stood painfully obvious that this ship had seen better days. From the looks of it, so had its pilot.
An individual of reptilian decent, he stood roughly two meters tall and clad in his ensemble of preference: an assembly of cargo pants, a jacket that could've been a biker's, and heavy combat boots, all in the same matching hue of jet-black. Cuts and gouges dotted the outfit, and the white T-shirt he wore beneath the coat more than clearly displayed long streaks of crimson fluid along its slashes. In short, he painted the veritable picture of what to avoid when faced with an angry Arachnos Crab Spider operative. Then again, if it had been only that...
His name was Acid Zero, but of course none of the soldiers besieging the guy knew that at the time. Or cared, for that matter. All they had eyes and ears for was the rifle-like weapon in his right hand, a triangular blade running down its length. Just as black as his clothes, the thing seemed almost a cross of pistol, rifle, and sword, the reptilian's clawed fingers curled tightly around a grip at the very rear of the weapon. Its sharp tip rested upon dusty asphalt, but he still held the thing firm, and with the Rikti War fresh in their minds, these soldiers currently considered any armed non-human with the greatest of suspicion.
"For the last time!" the troop's Sergeant bellowed at the top of his lungs, never taking her eye from the scope of her own rifle, "Weapon! Down!"
"You know...I'd really like to..." the reptilian answered laxly, almost in a haze. Judging from the multitude of cuts and slashes he sported, not to mention the puddle of blood pooling at his feet, he wasn't entirely there right now, "But my fingers are going 'squiggly letter, ain't doing it'...you can just take it from me. I won't shoot you...I promise..."
Seconds of dreadful silence ticked by much too slowly. Finally, the Sergeant flicked a pair of fingers to her left, then the right, several heavily armed soldiers leaving their cover with care, proceeding in a crouch to encircle the reptilian. The Sergeant, however, still did not stand.
"We believe he is sufficiently covered, dear." she felt a gentle hand upon her shoulder, and slowly turned to the amicable face of the Lady Grey, standing proudly in the face of that which the Sergeant felt to be another Rikti plot, "Let us see if we cannot learn more."
The Sergeant nodded to her mentor, gathering her gear, and then the two proceeded into the open as well. The strange being still hadn't moved, his eyes half-closed. There wasn't any logical way he could put up a fight, even if this was something the Rikti had cooked up...right?
Wrong!
Without warning and from one instant to another, a crack of thunder split the air, and a flash of bright-white light bathed the street in ethereal candescence. Fingers rushed to triggers, and most certainly would've pulled, but the very next moment a hellish howl of pain bellowed through the air, wracking their ears with an unreal, multi-toned cacophony of squeals and shrieks that couldn't have been of this world.
Less than two seconds later it was all over, and the gathered troops looked wide-eyed to the inky puddle of still-churning goo that slowly slurped down a half-standing concrete wall, still in the reptilian's figurative crosshairs.
"How did...?" a soldier beside him looked from the distinctly outstretched arm to the leg the bladed weapon had sat by not moments ago, and back over again several times, "How did you move...I couldn't even see..."
"Adrenaline rush." the reptilian remarked dispassionately, swaying slightly, "Or at least...the equivalent thereof. Now if you'll excuse me...I think I've earned the right to pass out now..."
Unheeding of any would-be protestors, the reptilian's legs gave way, the being slumping backward and to the ground. Still, his claws did not release the bladed rifle's hilt, almost as if some instinct still compelled his fingers to keep their grasp. But at least for now, that was that, and as part of the troop carried the strange fellow off, the remainder gathered about the slimy fluid that had meanwhile released the wall completely.
"Did...did you see it too?" one of them inquired of the Sergeant, but didn't dare lose sight of the stuff. The nightmarish vision of what he thought he'd seen in that moment of bright-white luminance still haunted his every thought.
"I'm not sure." she answered breathlessly, the same sensation having struck the very fiber of her being, "But to be honest...I really hope I didn't. What in God's name was that?"
The Lady Grey was the only one to keep her silence, stepping sternly to the puddle's edge, examining the slick of vapid black as it slowly deteriorated into nothing. Giving a nod that held ominous significance, she returned to the soldiers, telling them solemnly as she bade them follow, "We are not certain We would like to know..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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The Lady Grey
"At the time, we were quite unsure of what to make of him. By all accounts, an aperture of the same nature as the portals of the original Rikti invasion had disgorged his craft, which in turn seemed to have succumbed to the solid state of the structure it had attempted to pass through. However, according to the single eyewitness we discovered, the gateway had not carried a tone of red, nor had it been flat. Instead, our source described it as 'a hole in the world'; as if a sphere of blackest void had stamped out anything and everything that had existed before its appearance. This alone of course dissuaded none of us from the notion that this was a novel Rikti scheme. Things were simply still too...well-remembered."
"This of course led to the internment of Mr. Zero at our hands after to his awakening, and subsequent study of his being. This did not go well. 'Citing difficulties' would be a desperate understatement. He severely injured multiple personnel, and seemed to have an especially great aversion toward the medical sort. We believe to this day that Our decision to suspend biological studies at this point stood correct beyond measure, and the immediate aftermath seemed to confirm this. Though we still had no proof of his denials concerning Rikti association, at the very least he appeared more cooperative."
"His accounts consisted of much of what is these days public record concerning his person, and that the dark gateway he had arrived through had been nothing more than part of a routine excursion to another universe termed to us as World 15. At this point, We should like to take as an aside that the terms alternate universe and dimension are used synonymously in this report. World 15 existed as an...extremely negative counterpart to our own, and the creature Mr. Zero had felled he introduced to us as a Shade: the dominant inhabitant of Earth in said dimension. He had been studying this being and others of its kind, and the collision with a building of our Earth had been no more than an unfortunate accident. The Shade, following its stated violent and aggressive nature, pursued and assaulted what it assumed prey - us - and therefore necessitated termination."
"Many more questions became asked and answered the second day passed, but at one point or another, even We lost oversight and returned to the matter of his internment by us. He insisted he be released, and informed us that several individuals he regarded as close friends eagerly awaited his return, not to mention that the presentation of his findings on World 15 was of grave importance. Furthermore, said individuals knew of his incarceration and were beginning to lose their patience. At the time, we believed these to be but idle threats, though in retrospect We grant consideration that he had employed no threatening tones whatsoever. Live and learn, We suppose. Regardless, dawn had broken on the third day when Mr. Zero submitted to Us that he recalled where evidence of his non-affiliation with the Rikti might be found, and that We should set out on retrieval."
"Truth be told, We should have known it was but a farce. But We knew not what We do today, and our force ran headlong into his trap..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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A resounding crack snapped through the air, followed immediately by an even more resounding, "Ow!" neither of which did anything to assuage the clouds of rolling thunder that grumbled their gathered fury within the four walls of the small confinement cell. Figuratively speaking, of course.
"Would you stop hitting me with that?!" Acid roared at the top of his lungs, instinct trying once more to forcefully stamp a boot upon the floor, only to fail yet again at the heavy shackles that held his ankles near the wall. Like the ones about his wrists, their chains were too short to allow for much movement, though they'd strung his arms up above his head - and of course the fact that they'd taken his boots.
After he'd pulled the kodachi from one some time back, he couldn't exactly say he blamed them. Still, he wasn't digitigrade; he may have had clawed toes, but the arch of his foot upon the blank slab of concrete that was the floor was uncomfortably cold - and if his feet were cold, he was cold.
"Oh, how rude of me." an infuriated Lady Grey snarled with unbridled vehemence as her fingers tightened about the baton in her hand, "Would you prefer I hit you with something else?"
"Well..." Acid's pupils wandered sheepishly from side to side, the reptilian only now realizing he'd walked right into that one giving his head a slight shake, "No...not really. No."
"Good!" she cracked the baton over his head once more for good measure, the reptilian growling again in response, snapping at the aggravatingly close little devil of a stick. This was getting really old really fast, Acid bellowing out another, "Stop that already!"
"I will as soon as you tell me the truth!" the Lady Grey hissed through clenched teeth, having lost her patience some time ago now, "You lured us right into a trap! If you're not with the Rikti, then why by the furies of hell did-?!"
"Well what did you expect?!" the reptilian snarled back, "You've had me chained up here three days now, and-!"
"Because you could not keep your claws to yourself!" she brought revanche for her own interruption, "We have lost count of your escape attempts, and each time you cut, claw, or in some other way maim one of my men! I do not even want to speak of the physician whose arm you nearly bit off!"
"It was his own damned fault." Acid declared stoically, averting his eyes from her in theatrical displeasure, "He shouldn't have tried to shove it down my throat."
"He is a doctor!"
"Your point being? Food goes into my mouth - not doctors, not arms, not anything else. Simple as that. Furthermore, I don't like doctors. Quacks, all of 'em." he turned to her again, smiling in most sinister manner, "Besides, I just flayed his flesh off a little. I didn't even tough the bone. And I had to suffer through this horrid aftertaste in my mouth for hours. But how about we get back on track? As I said, you've had me chained up here three days now, and I'm getting sick and tired of it. You would too, and you know it. I was running out of ideas. Heck, I thought that maybe if my robots took a few hostages, yalls'd be willing to trade. Of course, I didn't know you'd bring a bunch of supers along."
"Then again..." the reptilian's visage became a most toothy grin, "Now we do."
"Oh?" the Lady Grey sneered, righting her hair with a huff, "And who are 'we'? Your alien friends that We should be so fearful of?"
As if ordained by divine command, a tremor suddenly surged through the floor. The Lady Grey's head whipped about, a piercing stare of narrowed eyes directed at the large, one-way mirror that sat by the cell's reinforced door. Another tremor followed the first, and within seconds a rhythm that resembled titanic footfalls had developed. Then she heard the characteristic chatter of gunfire.
"Actually..." Acid remarked by the wayside, his tone most casual, "No. It's the human one you should be afraid of. He's a doctor..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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The Lady Grey
"His words held greater candor than We were prepared to believe at the time. The aged bunker complex Vanguard had chosen to be our temporary headquarters during the reconstruction process teemed with frantic exchanges through the radio nearly right away, and Gaussian did not hesitate to lock down the entire facility. Nevertheless, the intruders made frighteningly quick progress. Tales of monsters that sprang from the earth itself raged throughout our personnel, and We lost contact with an ever-increasing number of sectors. Finally, We could take no more."
She let out a heavy sigh, this part of the report weighing on her with distinct heaviness, "We...We struck out at Our prisoner in rage, and to this day Our person does not entirely comprehend just what We sought to accomplish. We have lost our composure on occasion, but...not in such a manner. It stood as a shocking revelation that We were indeed still human, and that Our lower instincts held a considerable amount of sway over Our person. We even applied Our power, taking the years from his body with no regard that without any means of communication upon him, he could not order cassation of the, even had he wanted to...or at least, so We believed."
"Still, We shall fabricate no excuses." she stated into the camera lens with cold, stern eyes, "Our behavior was by no means permissible, ceasing only once the intruders had reached the cell block, sending one of our armed personnel to crash through the observation mirror. The shock of this sudden occurrence returned Us to reality, horrified at that which We had wrought. Until then, We had not even expected Our person capable of such...still, what followed thereafter We had expected to an incomparably lesser degree..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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"You!" she stared in disbelief at the individual beyond the shattered one-way mirror, eyes torn wide-open and mouth agape.
"Me!" the man's snow-white lab coat billowed as he hopped through the gap, shouting back cheerfully and throwing his arms wide in a most generous manner. A frightening grin of lacking sanity curled blissfully beneath his round spectacles of opaque black.
"You!" she cried out again, still not quite believing her eyes.
"Me!" was once more a most postured reply, the man ardently sauntering across the cell to the reptilian.
"You!"
"Me!" he replied vociferously one more time, then leaned just a bit to Acid's side, perceptibly placing a hand beside his mouth, though he kept normal volume, "Does she say anything else?"
"She was a waterfall a minute ago." Acid gave a most innocent shrug, "Pretty raunchy too. You just seem to have this...effect on women."
"I am stunning, aren't I?" the Doc grinned as he slicked back his hair, then reverted to somewhat everyday demeanor, "You want I should get you down?"
"You are Brian Webb!" the Lady Grey exclaimed before Acid could reply, "You are not dead. That cannot be. Is...is it truly you?"
"Yes..." he grinned a most savage grin at her, tilting his head slowly from one side of the other like the Cheshire Cat, speaking with demented intonation while he fiddled with his fingers, "And...no. I am - or rather, was - Brian Webb. I am, however, not your Brian Webb. Please, refer to me simply as the Doc."
"Multiverse." the reptilian sighed with yet another shrug, "Poke around in it even just a little and you'll find all sorts of strange things. What're ya gonna do?"
"Then..." she swallowed hard, a frightening realization dawning upon her, "Then this means..."
"Ah-ah-ah." Acid smirked maliciously, giving his head a slight shake, "No speculation. Speculation never gets you anywhere. I suggest you gather more information before coming to anything that even remotely looks like a conclusion."
Her eyes narrowed at this, curiosity and suspicion becoming one within her pupils as she gradually became conscious of just what he'd said, "What are you implying?"
"Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answer?" Acid retorted philosophically as he looked to the ceiling, "I mean, you've got a bunch of people here basically just hiding out. I know you're rebuilding, but let's face it: Vanguard is in pretty sorry shape compared to what it used to be. I think we can help with that."
The Lady Grey's tone did not falter from its deathly character, "Our deal with the devil would be...?"
"Oh, good grief." the reptilian's eyes rolled as he huffed out a sigh, "Look, our plans may involve humanity, but they certainly don't do so in a bad way. In fact, we're even being hellaciously careful to follow the rules exactly and not change anything too quickly, lest we bring down some catastrophe. But back on the subject, the Rikti attacking humanity isn't good any way you twist it."
"Then why don't you do something about it?" she queried with fervor, expecting to corner him in some manner about how superior some extraterrestrial cultures believed themselves to be, and that they could not 'interfere' in the affairs of 'primitive' civilizations.
"Ah, but we are." the Doc took the word with a most ubiquitous smile, pacing about the back of her, which in turn caused the Lady Grey to instinctively take a few steps forward, "This is what we're doing about it - at least it will be, if you help us."
"We've got enough pull around your world to reallocate some resources." Acid went on to explain, "If you play your cards right, you can probably turn 'some' into 'many'. What we don't have are people. You do. In essence, you're our best chance here."
"We are unconvinced." the Lady Grey stated even so, "While you may speak your true intent, just what is it that you could provide? We highly doubt it would be achievements of your 'superior science'."
"Not important." Acid swept the argument under the rug, "You've got all the know-how you need right here. You just need to get your hands on it. What if I told you I knew someone who could manipulate impervium - turn it into anything you like: weapons, armor, and so on and so forth?"
"We would be skeptical as to the nature of the source."
"A hero. One of your very own, in Paragon City. And no. I just happen to have run into the guy. I can't remember his name right now, but I know his face, and he's in our database. You ask him to do this, there's no way he'll say no, I guarantee it. Furthermore, we know a few things about the Rikti. Not a lot, but you're smart; you can build on it. I know you can. All you'd need to do is follow my orders to the letter when the time comes."
"The time?" the Lady Grey's suspicions grew yet again as she wanted to know, "What time?"
"The second invasion." Acid broke it to her directly, "You don't think they've given up, do you? They'll be back."
"And in greater numbers." the Doc chuckled, but after the stare he earned from both of the unlike conversation partners apologized, "Sorry, bad joke."
"Anyway," Acid turned his attention back to the Lady Grey, "when the time comes, not only will you be ready for them, but if you do what I say then, things will work out. I can promise you that."
The answer came as naught but silence. He could see her mind working behind those icy eyes, considering the possibilities. He was wearing her down, but something yet restrained her.
"Alright." he took a deep breath after a few seconds, "I didn't want to have to do this, but...Lady Grey, I know of your condition."
Her eyes suddenly grew wide, the woman letting out a breathless gasp, "What do you mean?"
"You're dying." the reptilian returned stoically, "The coughing blood, the dizziness, I've seen it before. It's from..."
"My powers, yes." she now admitted, her gaze seeking the floor, "My body is rejecting the stolen years, I know. How...?"
"I can smell it on you. To me, it's like you've got a big sign around your neck."
"And what does my...condition have to do with anything?"
Acid gave a nod to the Doc, "Show her."
The man who was no longer a man produced a minute vial from beneath his white coat, a pale fluid contained within, "This is an elixir that will counteract the rejection."
Her eyes gave a longing twitch, the lady Grey stepping directly in front of the two, "How do We...?"
"I give you my word as a medical professional." the Doc answered most earnestly, all traces of insanity washed from his demeanor, "I'm not sure about your Webb, but I was that sort of doctor first. And I still am. This will not do you harm, I swear upon my oath."
"It's temporary." Acid added, feeling he should give to her the whole truth straight and up-front, "So it needs to be taken repeatedly. But it works, and it works well. Think about it: you could save billions of lives, including your own, a perhaps everlasting one, if you take this deal. Moreover, I'm not even allowed to directly interfere, so you'll have control virtually all the time. Hm...I probably should've mentioned that earlier..."
"C'mon." he urged her on as she still stared at the substance with uncertain eyes, lifting her chin with the tip of his tail so their eyes could look directly into one another, "I'll even take a pseudonym. No one will know until the time is right - and then you'll be able to help so many. Moreover, you'll be around to see it. Isn't that worth it?"
The Lady Grey stood as stone for several seconds, the mind that he could see reflected in her pupils wrestling with herself. Finally, she made her decision.
"I thought you'd see it my way." the reptilian smiled toothily as her fingers closed about the vial, her other hand taking the tail from her chin.
"We think We misjudged you." a smirk not unlike Acid's now crossed the woman's face, though of course it held greatly less teeth.
"Oh, don't be so sure of that just yet." the reptilian chuckled comradely, "C'mon then, get me down from this. Oh, and...could you not touch the underside of my tail like that?"
"Why?" now the woman donned a smile most sinister. She'd been overrun, and her pride demanded she at the very least get a small amount of payback, "Does it make you...uncomfortable?"
"Actually..."
"Men!" she huffed in exasperation, her mouth agape as she released her grip posthaste, "You are all alike! We have not misjudged you one bit...!"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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The Lady Grey
"To state that things came in a way We had not fully expected would be a truly boundless understatement. Though the promised resources came about posthaste, the control we had steeled ourselves to weather remained conspicuously absent. After discovering the initial funding to have come from international sources, Incandescent brought forth the thought of appealing to the United Nations for support. The concept had proved not only viable, but extremely efficient in the small scale, and as the ladies and gentlemen of the Security Council know this day, the same proved decidedly true for the large."
"This applied to the rest of what Mr. Zero had pledged as well, the mentioned hero perishing the very thought of refusing us, and as the months passed, Vanguard not only returned to stand on its own feet once more, but to stand undoubtedly strong upon them. We may not have carried the membership of many a metahuman at the time, but from the information pertaining to the Rikti he gave to us, combined with what we already knew, we managed to extrapolate so very much more. Gaussian even harnessed the knowledge we now possessed to design weapons that allowed our forces of average human beings to strike against Rikti troops with an effectiveness we had previously thought only possible by super-powered beings. Our soldiers became not only a genuine threat to their Rikti counterparts, but superior in single combat - and our technological advance was far from the end."
"While solely human hands forged the aforementioned achievements, we soon learned that Mr. Zero understood to bend the rules he had spoken of. Contrary to expectations, he entrusted to us a form of portal he referred to as a 'light' gate. While not as far-reaching as the apertures employed by Portal Corporation, the resource requirements to construct and maintain this type of gate were truly miniscule. Gaussian spent many a night locked away in his laboratory, endeavoring to discover the secrets of a portal device no larger than the nail of a finger. Ultimately, he did not succeed, for as we discovered at a later date - with credit to Serpent Drummer and the Dark Watcher - the generators operated beyond our understanding of science. Like the relics of Mu, they were technology that worked in ways we could not comprehend as such. We perceived their operation as magic, and with that he could work."
"Fortunately, we had branched into the fields of the arcane arts as well, and retained no shortage of competent witches and wizards. Indeed, it was in the mask of such a one that Mr. Zero had taken as his face with Vanguard: a Sword Sorcerer by the alias of Zed. Nevertheless, he left us free hand. He visited only every now and then, blending seamlessly into our operations, and none but those of us you see here now even knew of him. He operated from the shadows, from the backdrop, solely on occasion making a suggestion or asking that we revisit one thing or the other. In fact, 'Zed' became known within Vanguard as the man of the trademark phrase, 'You should take another look at this.' for this he would state more often than not when he did make one of his sparse appearances."
"Indeed, as you have possibly concluded by now, it was the last such request that had begotten this expedition. Had we not reevaluated the footage of the battle with Nemesis beneath the Rikti ship in Paragon City time and time again, the brassen madman may well have gone about his schemes utterly unimpeded. Only due to the repeated insistence of Mr. Zero did we discover that we had missed something...a most frustrating, annoying, and relentless repeated insistence."
She had stated those last few words with a crooked smirk, her lips and demeanor the embodiment of fond memories of the once-dreadful moment that once stood able to laugh about at a later time. Now, however, her expression gradually disheartened yet again, her stoic tone going on with a slender sigh, "Of course, that all now lay in the past. It no longer mattered. Our person had willfully terminated our covenant...and now the collector came to take his dues..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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"You're kidding me, right?" Randall Grey massaged his temples with a long, drawn-out sigh, "You cannot be seriously telling me that-"
"No, I was!" Solid Shot's sudden outburst turned most everyone's attention to the gray mechanoid's argument with the colorful Toy Dispenser, which had remained somewhat quiet until now. With his response to the robotic mastermind's last statement, however, Solid had quickly gone from whisper to wallop.
"You were most certainly not." Toy replied in an aloof tenor, crossing his arms as he purposely looked away from the other sentient robot, "I said Acid was controlling Vanguard, and there you have it. Given, he wasn't doing it in the way I thought he was, but-"
Solid barked an expletive at his counterpart before turning about-face, crossing his arms as well, "You just don't wanna pay up, you cheater."
"Of course I don't." Toy admitted, unambiguously frank, "But that doesn't change that I was right, at least in the essence of things."
"Actually..." their attention reverted to the Lady Grey as she spoke once more, a miniscule smirk now visible upon her face, "You are not. Solid Shot is quite entitled to his prize."
"Hell yeah!" the gray android victoriously pumped his arm, "What'd I say? I was...wait. Why was he wrong?"
"Because until this point, We held the ultimate authority." her expression became that of cold stone yet again, "As mentioned, Mr. Zero acted solely in the role of an advisor...and at times, not even so. He provided to us little more than pieces to a puzzle, and a far cry from all of them. Levantera, Borea, Inandescent, Gaussian, Serpent Drummer, and Mr. Wilcox and Ourselves were and are those who have forged Vanguard into what we are this day."
"For you see," she waved a would-be protest off before she could be interrupted, "there stands one more detail you should know: during our time functioning in concert, we learned faith in one another, and to such an extent that Mr. Zero submitted to our authority when we came to the junction of our first disagreement; to the judgment of human beings."
"Okay..." Solid whispered to Toy through a thick soup of silence, "Didn't expect that."
"Me neither." the robotic mastermind quietly replied, then approached the Lady Grey, "So wait, if he was taking orders from you, then what was all that now just about? Why didn't you just tell him off? Why was he the one in charge?"
"We had asked him to." she replied, exhaling lengthily, "When we realized what we faced here, we came to the conclusion that we could under no circumstances underestimate our adversaries."
She looked for a moment to the swept-up remains of the Dark Watcher's automaton rusting in a corner before going on, "None of us could be absolved of being susceptible to duplication, subversion, or what countless other horrors We ourselves have seen visited upon the minds and bodies of men. We required an individual whom we could not only be certain to remain true to his essence, but stood capable of receiving our trust as well."
"There existed only one choice..." her icy eyes closed for a moment as a tear ran down her cheek, "A choice We thought wise."
"Okay, I've had about enough of this." Cory Simmons made himself known, pushing past Randall and stepping to the Lady Grey, "We can debate the past and presence or absence of morality and its merits here all day, but from what it sounds like to me, he's not acting a thing like he used to, right?"
"Yeah." Toy Dispenser nodded acutely, confirming the wizard's suspicions, "He's definitely not the guy I know anymore."
"But," he went on before Cory could speak what most thought at this point, "there's no way it's the crystals. That guy who tried to kill us, the one we were talking to - that wasn't any more than a fancy machine. The crystal gunk didn't even touch that."
"Are you so sure?" Randall mumbled suspiciously, putting a hand to his beard as he inquired of the Lady Grey, "I've got this idea that I was right about the isolation ward..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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The Lady Grey
"It appeared dear Randall would indeed keep correct. As we covered the recordings, the conclusion that the vile substance had twisted Mr. Zero to its own whim grew into ever-deepening firmness, soon leaving not a doubt in any of our minds. As the one we had believed unscathed had approached the stricken aspect of Mr. Zero, he had shot forth his fingers and grasped the wrist of the other before said version could react. Within moments, we saw the same horrid, sinister smile upon the faces of both, and as the first curled from the field stretcher with an ease that revealed his unconscious state had been but farce, the second already lent him a steadying hand."
"They spoke only briefly, regarding a plan to be acted upon, the nature of which we stood unable to determine at that time. However, a small number of key details proved sufficient for Toy Dispenser to bridge several gaps, concluding that this Mr. Zero now intended to somehow 'infect' the full number of his separate aspects, as well as the various beings with whom he traveled the stars. Suffice to say, this came to be a prognosis most grim."
"However, the logic of Toy Dispenser also allowed for a glimpse of light: he insisted upon the certainty that the aspect that had escaped us was but a robotic duplicate - highly sophisticated and lifelike, and perhaps true life upon itself, but not the original, biological body. He explained to us that said form seemed to be some manner of key to Mr. Zero, and though he found himself unable to comment on the nature of the relation, he stood convinced that if we could return 'Mr. Zero Number One' to his former state, he could continue the process from there - and as he made a point to distinctly assure, just that primary form still very much resided somewhere among us."
"Though the records showed him to have departed the isolation ward by means of teleportation unknown to Our person, no ship had departed the Jade Moon, and Toy Dispenser stated as fact that Mr. Zero held not the power to jump the whole distance to the planet. He would need a vessel - his own or another; this We felt did not matter - but he would require a craft without doubt."
"The order to secure all space-worthy craft we had since discovered raced through the divisions of Our Vanguard, and it undeniably seemed that we had locked the found ships down in time one after another and in rapid succession, they all became accounted for, and Mr. Zero had been spotted near none; neither the interior nor in the surroundings. Mr. Grey of course brought to light the thought none of us had dared speak until this point. Unfortunately, in the same manner as Our person, he knew of no means to prevent Mr. Zero from acquiring a vessel we had not yet discovered."
"However, it came at just this time that a foreseen, yet... unexpected event took place. Foreseen in that it had been inevitable. Unexpected in that We had not anticipated it to come to pass so quickly...and within the course of only a few minutes, the whole of our situation changed in its entirety..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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"Ah, finally a welcome worthy of one such as myself." the skinless skull of the ostensibly ubiquitous Archlich remarked as he stepped from the churning energies of Vanguard's advent portal with what could very well have been a smile most smug...had the undead sorcerer possessed lips, that was. Being purely skeletal remains, however, Archlich's dark, otherworldly tone came across naught but bare bones bleached by time, "Althoug... I must admit, it is a trifle forceful, would you not agree?"
The inverse-deltoid formation of Vanguard Wizards and Adepts he so eloquently addressed looked about hesitantly, placing their staves upon the floor once more as word of Archlich's earlier presence made the round.
"Heh, I could take 'em." the woman who emerged from behind the undead man smiled broadly as she seductively leaned on his bony frame, her downright fang-like canines now giving her previously mischievous smirk a truly dastardly aura. Rosalind was still charged and in her element from the battle against the golem, mostly due to it having put her in some sort of time field that hadn't let her participate in the brawl nearly enough for her to work off the energy she'd put together in anticipation. She glanced at the collection of arcanists, shooting them an even more menacing grin, "Don't soil your pants, boys and gals, I'm just having some fun with ya."
"Your idea of fun is going to get us killed one of these days." grumbled the creature that had emerged from the portal behind the were-human: Balsk, resident bronze-scaled draconian and current beat cop of the Soul Police Chapter, "Or at least seriously maimed. You might be able to regenerate, but I for one am very attached to my remaining limbs, thank you very much."
"You just need to mellow out." the almost perpetually cool and collected Thermoplast remarked in his distinctive tone, resembling more or less a cross of lawyer and surfer bum, "Take a breath. Let it out. Roll with it. I trust her, don't you?"
"Yeah, yeah." the wayward traveler rolled his slitted eyes, inhaling as suggested to calm down a bit. His heart still raced from the fight, and he had to admit the lungful of air did him good. A roll to loosen his shoulders accompanied the exhale, as well as a slight flex of the large pair of wings upon his back, jostling the extra-long broadsword sheathed at his side. It and the belt that held the sheath around his waist seemed to be the only stitch of clothing that Balsk wore. Considering his reptilian nature, he didn't much feel the need for clothing - well, that and the issue he'd run into with getting a tail into pants. That Balsk wished to avoid best as he could, even if the limb was partially cybernetic.
Rosie only smiled toothily as he stepped away from Archlich and led the four into the Vanguard command chamber. She knew Balsk was just trying to look out for them, and reminded herself to do something nice for the lost crossworld voyager later. For now, however, she had a conversation to strike up with the approaching Lady Grey, not to mention the members of Delta Team.
The account concerning the runaround in the last refuge of the Rikti gods didn't take particularly long. With a healthy amount of somewhat bored detachment, as well as a scowl or two from Archlich (who really didn't like this whole 'cooperation' thing; he hadn't to begin with, but Rosalind had somehow managed to get him on her side...just how, of that he still wasn't too sure), the were-human covered the events that had taken place there. Unfortunately, the guardian golem had been the high point of the outing, and it had revealed about as much regarding the fate of the Rikti gods as a regular-old piece of dead, silent, completely uninteresting rock.
Well, to most of them, anyway. She had a sneaking suspicion that Archlich had gotten just a bit more out of the encounter, but she'd wait until the skeletal arcanist judged the time to be right of his own accord.
Thus her manner remained comparatively laid-back as she recounted, placing special emphasis on how she hated to be denied the chance to sharpen her claws. But as soon as her turn to listen came around, the comfortable smile that graced her face abruptly vanished, Rosalind's eyes widening in horror as she heard the tale. Balsk quickly noticed the change in her demeanor, stepping beside her, and while Archlich seemed to not give a damn, even the normally untouched-by-all Thermoplast grew most intrigued at what they'd missed.
"That doesn't make any sense." Rosalind whispered with stricken tone, shaking her head in disbelief. Usually, she could hardly be called emotional - far from anything even remotely resembling thus - but this just struck her hard, "It just...I know Ace. He wouldn't do something like this. He just wouldn't!"
"My point exactly." Toy Dispenser reaffirmed his deductions, "He wouldn't...at least I hope so. That junk that got into him, though...well, it doesn't seem to have any reservations about it. That means we'll have to track him down and get it out of him. You know...I hate to admit it, but I kind of want the guy back too."
"I'll tear that crud out of him myself if I have to!" Rosalind declared with a forceful snarl that bared her fangs, her clawed fingers curling dangerously against one another. Before anyone could even respond, the rage in her eyes whipped the were-human about in a one-eighty, Rosalind barking out, "And what the hell do you want?!"
The figure she'd launched her ire at had only now stepped from the portal, and stood at a height slightly greater than two meters (perhaps two point two), clad entirely in an assembly of dull gray robes that left no clue to his actual features. A thick cloth in the style of a 'reaper' covered the lower half of his face, bulging outward as if some sort of truly maniacal dentist had just stopped working on the jaw beneath. The same cloth extended onto the head over his neck, coming down onto the stranger's forehead like a hijab.
The only visible clue to the new arrival's nature sat in the cloth's opening for the eyes: a pair of large, set-apart oculae that contained slitted pupils with irises of almost blood-toned crimson. They surveyed the scene about closely, as if scrutinizing every detail of every molecule within their grasp. A few strands of long hair in the same crimson hue hung at the edges of the gap, and the man's skin seemed to possess an orange or persimmon tint, as well as a decidedly strange texture. Details were hard to make out in the shadow cast by the thick bulges of head-covering wardrobe, but said skin surely wasnt smooth. The figure was without doubt not human, and his unfamiliar scent now deeply irritated the were-human.
"Guess I came at a bad time." the figure seemed to look about sheepishly, turning his head to get the portal into the corner of his eye, "Hm...guess I can't come back later. I do apologize if I upset anyone. I didn't know..."
"Relax." Thermoplast took the word, placing a thick-gloved hand onto the robed figure's shoulder, a gentle smile in his tenor, "She's just a little edgy right now."
Rosalind, opting to find something else to focus her anger on, in response grumbled off with something to the extent of, "I'll give you edgy...haven't seen me edgy..."
Thermoplast merely allowed himself a hollow chuckle as he pulled his hand back beneath his wide cape, telling the figure, "Don't worry, it's not you. So who are we addressing anyway?"
"Call me Sage." the robed man answered amicably, the conversation soon returning to the matter at hand. Throughout, it seemed that Sage remained unperturbed by anything and everything, merely giving a silent nod every now and then in acknowledgement of this or that, and listening most intently as people filled him in while they returned to going over the isolation ward recordings for any clues they might have missed. Until Acid made a move, they figured it was best to wait until he sprung the trap.
However, this lack of defined, open reaction did raise a bit of suspicion from one around here: Balsk. Like Rosalind, this guy's presence just didn't rub him the right way. Strangely enough, it didn't really do so in anything that he could've called a bad way - just somehow...odd. Yes, that was the word: odd...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
The Spy
Boiling. Boiling over. Yes, that about came closest to her current mood as she once more beheld the unmistakable Rikti architecture of the Jade Moon installation. She turned to the portal that had brought her here, her scowl only deepening as it brought memories of her noticeably forced exodus. But as the fingers of her left hand tightened against one another, they met a familiar resistance. The scowl became a smile as she opened her hand and yet again she looked intently upon the golden watch that now lay in her palm.
It hadn't been there when she'd left. But now it was, a memento of...no. She could think about that later. Right now, she had to find out just where she was and how long she had been gone - and if at all possible, kick the one responsible for her removal in the rear with such vehemence that there'd be no sitting for a week. Who had it been, anyway? Or hell, what? It wasn't as if she'd gotten a good look; or even a look for that matter. All she remembered was that she'd detached from the scouting team for just a few minutes when she'd perceived something odd in the corner of her eye. Her robotic entourage in tow, she'd figured such a short excursion couldn't be that much of a hazard.
Yeah...right. Apparently, someone had it in for her then. Not only had she run into a gaggle of Jaegers, but in the commotion someone had brandished the audacity to sneak up on her and shove her into one of the Rikti portals that had supposedly connected this facility with others before Nemesis had stirred up trouble. Oh, whoever or whatever had done that would be getting skinned once she found out. Just because she was undercover didn't mean she couldn't be just as nasty as some of those Arachnos goons she'd been assigned to surveil. They knew it, villains knew it, and soon that jackass would as well: no one messed with her and got away with it. Nobody crossed her.
Penny Arcade.
Of course, first she had to find this individual...or robot, or spirit, or whatever - and as she thought more and more about it, this seemed much easier said than done.
Fine...back to the basics then.
Guiding her steps down the corridor of alien design, she set course toward where she remembered Vanguard having set up their ops center. It took a few minutes (and one or two about-faces), but she nevertheless found her way there again, and by the look of it, everyone was still here. More than everyone, in fact. There were quite a few more, the most notable being an armored skeleton, a fanged woman with a tail, some sort of bronze-scaled dragonman, and someone that might be best described as a...an inhuman Bedouin?
Before she could complete that thought, she suddenly found something clamped to her leg without warning, instinctively tensing up as she beheld what had just attached itself to her like that.
"Yay, Penny!" Mini Bot beamed happily, giving her a battle drone version of a hug, "You're back!"
A stone fell from her heart as she let out a sigh of relief, the little mechanoid's visage (though robotic and unchanging) wearing the greatest figurative grin she'd ever laid eyes upon, and before she could even think to say anything, a torrential squall of questions roared from Mini Bot's speaker system concerning everything and nothing, both about her absence and what had been happening in the meantime.
Though it took some effort, Penny eventually managed to piece together that not much time at all had passed here, and that this 'Acid' character had turned out to be a giant rat - well, against his will, apparently - whom everyone was after now, lest the Lady Grey perish from the loss of the elixir that kept her body from rejecting the years taken to keep herself going. At first, she couldn't believe what she'd just heard, but as she approached the woman herself with it, the confirmation came candidly and without a doubt.
Truth be told, the shock didn't last too long - and it certainly explained how Vanguard had returned from a pile of ashes to a global power in such short order. Moreover, this Acid guy had been pretty clever about it, letting them do the work while he sat in the background and dispensed advice here and there, and to such an extent that Vanguard's uppermost echelon had been ready to trust him with their very lives.
"Indeed, it is with a heavy heart We set this trap into motion." the Lady Grey concluded her account of the plan, sweeping over everyone with an encompassing gesture of her hand, "We do hope Toy Dispenser will keep right."
"Not to worry." the mechanical mastermind nodded in their direction, his blank slate of a face plate almost seeming to...waggle eyebrows?..."We'll get him. That Sage guy seems to know a good deal too, so between him and me, I think we know enough about the guy to predict his movements."
"I sure hope so." Penny looked to the Lady Grey once more as she stepped beside Toy to aid him where she could, "How long?"
"Four hours, she said, give or take." was the mechanoid's grim answer...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
C'Kelkah awoke from one moment to another, her back arching into the air above her stretcher with a wrenching spasm. She drew a long, fervent gasp, eyes torn wide-open before she slammed back down into the thin layer of cushions, the room still spinning above her.
"Awake..."
Her voice sounded weak, feeble, even to her. But it was there. It was real. She'd beaten it. She'd finally beaten it! She didn't know what it was, what it had wanted, but she remembered clear as crystal moment for moment of the horror - when it had taken control of her form, locked her away in the recesses of her own brain. It had moved her hands, her feet, spoken with her voice. However, the most terrible aspect of it all had been that she'd seen all, heard all, but been powerless do so much as speak; and not just vocally. Not even on the small mental network she'd shared with Cher'tak, Sah'Teece, and Lk'Onik had she managed even the tiniest bit of communication.
She'd been so afraid...so alone. There wasn't even a word to describe how horrid she'd felt then, a prisoner of her own body with virtually no contact to the outside world.
Still, she had seen. And she had heard. Though the terror that had befallen her had tried to subdue her consciousness countless times, it had failed. For she had fought. She had railed against the walls of its control time and again, refusing to have her mind enter the same state as her body - and as she'd lain there, her form still and motionless like the unmoving rock itself, she had heard. She had heard his (their?) words, she had been witness to his (their?) plans. She knew. She had known the entire time, throughout the course of the long, arduous battle for her body, never relenting, never giving in no matter how many times the terrible usurper had pushed her back.
And now she had won. Furthermore, now she knew. She knew!
She had to warn them!
Grinding past the pain of myriads of aching muscles, C'Kelkah groaned off the stretcher and crashed to the floor, her armor sounding loudly against the hard material on impact. However, sound was not her only means now. Already, even as she still staggered up on elbows and knees, she railed, she shouted onto their small network: her warning.
And she was heard.
"Alarm: immediate!" the crimson-armored Warmaster suddenly burst out, his shout rocketing through the command center like a dozen lightning bolts, whipping Vanguard soldiers and expedition members alike at attention, "Deception: uncovered!"
Too late.
"Sierra Three is launching!" one of the impervium-armored officers in the U-shaped collection of terminals fell into the shouting match, the man's outstretched arm pointing straight up and through the transparent gallery at the discus ship still hovering above the facility.
One of the hangar bays had opened, the soft-seal of an energy field clearly visible.
"Get security up there on the double." the Lady Grey ordered in a composed and collected manner, knowing well that every move she made now had to be most carefully considered. She turned to the members of Delta Team, making brief eye contact with Cher'tak, Sah'Teece, and Sheldon Wallace, "Get to Sierra Two. If he escapes, pursue immediately."
"Right." the inventor nodded in tandem with the Rikti, using his kinetics to boost their speed as the Warmaster commanded the discus ship to recall them to its teleport bay. With Sheldon's aid, they'd be in the second Drop Ship in no time at all.
Still, it wouldn't be enough. They all knew it. Even as Lk'Onik rushed off to aid the stricken scientist in the isolation ward, taking several human medical staff with him, the Lady Grey and Delta Team gathered around the monitor console that had supposedly displayed the hangar of the discus ship they'd positioned Sierra Three in.
No words were exchanged. There was no need. The Vanguard technicians already worked diligently to find whatever had overridden the surveillance for that hangar and shown them the complete and utter fabrication of the Drop Ship still sitting peacefully and under guard, hangar doors closed and hard-sealed. Thankfully, the return of Penny Arcade, along with the presence of mind exhibited by the Ryat unit and Toy Dispenser, sped this along respectably. Before long, they'd managed to purge the loop. The truth, however, was quite disheartening.
On the hangar floor stood Acid, a toothy smirk on his face as he waved at the objective that had him in view for a few seconds before disappearing in the characteristic visual side-effects of the Drop Ship's teleporter. Moments later, the vessel shot from the hangar above their heads...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
The Lady Grey
"The Warmaster did not let time pass him by, initiating pursuit right away. Furthermore, his extensive experience allowed him to follow Our planned strategy without any need for discourse, recalling the remainder of Delta Team onto the second Drop Ship as he piloted the craft after Mr. Zero. However, this is to by no means imply that measures were not taken to preemptively eliminate the need for a direct engagement on the planet. Indeed, remotely taking control of the stolen craft had been attempted no less than two dozen times before reaching planetary orbit, a span of time not significantly greater than a single minute."
"As this took place, those not of Delta Team did not sit idle. We ordered an immediate redoubling of efforts to make ready the captured discus ship, followed by joining the Rikti still in the facility. What C'Kelkah had to say, however, only further complicated the situation. Apparently, and We at this point had no reason to disbelieve her words, Mr. Zero had hatched a plan to force Our hand: he would go before both the Lineage of War, as well as the Lineage of Science, and expose our presence here. Due to the fact that the dominant image of humanity - the great destroyers from another world - still reigned supreme in virtually every element of Rikti social structure, this could lead to only one outcome."
She stayed silent for a few moments to let the gravity of her words sink in, the woman's gaze having burrowed itself into her pages, "War. Therefore...therefore We gave executive order to Sierra Two. We gave order to fire at will; to stop him by any means necessary."
"Unfortunately...or perhaps..." she allowed herself a brief chuckle, "...fortunately, all attempts failed. It seemed Mr. Zero was pilot more competent than any of us had known - even Toy Dispenser. He evaded Cher'tak time and again, and even the weavings of the arcanists Delta Team had acquired since the launch of the expedition could not compete with the flight skill their adversary brought to the table. Of course...this merely describes the situation before the hunter appeared."
"An unidentified craft appeared upon the sensors of Sierra Two shortly after they had passed the demarcation of planetary orbit, and took up immediate pursuit via a direct intercept course. Utilizing an unfamiliar manner of cold-based weaponry - the working principle of which we still do not fully understand; after all, it seemed illogical to strike at a craft designed to navigate an airless vacuum with further cold - the attacker succeeded in dealing significant damage to both Drop Ships as they entered the atmosphere. Fortunately, however, though his craft stood clearly of greater capability in space, it proved inferior to Rikti designs in air, and Mr. Zero as well as Delta Team were able to shake their pursuer."
"Regrettably, neither craft had sustained a level of damage that would allow for continued flight. Worse yet, Sierra Three had taken the worst of it. Though Delta team did succeed in pursuing Mr. Zero to the ruins of a Rikti settlement destroyed by the initial assault of the Freedom Phalanx automatons, courtesy of Nemesis, they were forced to set down a respectable distance from his landing site..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Randall Grey grumbled a few more curses as he rubbed the top of his head with a fist, letting his gaze wander about the Drop Ship's cabin. Everyone seemed to be more or less okay, having strapped in on an earlier order of the Warmaster. Of course, it hadn't been the most comfortable of rides, but g-forces had punched through a few times and rattled the ship, giving its passengers great appreciation toward the presence of their 'seatbelts'. The amalgamation of gradually de-knotting robotic limbs that was Toy Dispenser's entourage stood as deftly bickering witness to that.
"Everyone in one piece back there?" Sheldon Wallace wanted to know from the cockpit section, Randall giving him a wave and a nod in response to signify they were unharmed.
"Apologies: mine." Cher'tak stated as he unlocked his own seat's straps, "Underestimation: piloting skill: opponents."
"Wasn't your fault." the mysterious Sage stated dispassionately as he seemed to test his legs. The long folds of his robes made this somewhat unsure, "I should've seen this coming."
Toy Dispenser allowed himself a curt huff, helping his robots untangle from one another, "Yeah, I noticed you suddenly had an unusual amount of advice to dispense back there. Mind filling us in?"
"Once we're outside." Grey delayed the argument by at least that much, turning to the three ahead, "Warmaster?"
Cher'tak acknowledged, having already started to switch the Drop Ship's personnel teleporter over, and it didn't take much time at all for the members of Delta Team to find themselves outside once more.
"How horrible..." Penny Arcade remarked dejectedly at the land that stretched around them, cloudy skies of dullest green only further serving to enhance the melancholy that the ruins of the once-magnificent Rikti settlement groaned into the desolate air. It wasn't quite large enough to be called a city, though this was probably in part due to Rikti architecture preferring vertical styles, as evidenced by the sad, decrepit remains of tall spires that once shone so proudly in the sea of lights all about them.
Now there reigned only gloom, the power that had sustained most of the star-like illumination long since waned - 'most' because a few still dispensed their pale luminance in small areas here and there, creating isles of dotted light kept alive by independent power sources. One such area the Warmaster had chosen as their landing site: a domed structure with a flat roof, which the Drop Ship had fit on with plenty of room to spare. According to Sah'Teece, this had one been a public transportation terminal, a place akin to a bus station back on Earth. Fully automated, its systems contained heavily protected backup generators. Apparently, the station's architects had anticipated great potential some manner of catastrophe that would require quick evacuation of the settlement.
Just what the nature of this expected disaster was, however, this the former diplomat could not say. It had been before his time. The attack of Nemesis' Freedom Phalanx automatons, however, had certainly not been it.
"You lived here." Rosalind stepped next to the Rikti as he sat on the edge of the roof, overlooking the ruins. Sah'Teece turned his head to look to her with questioning eyes, and she only smiled wryly, thumbing at herself, "Were-human. I can sense these things. Chin up, skinny. We're gonna get to that metalhead soon enough. And when we do, I'm gonna bite him in the rear so hard he won't be able to sit down ever again."
The Rikti gave an approving nod as he grasped her outstretched hand, the unlikely lifter of his spirits returning Sah'Teece to the group as several of its members questioned Sage.
"Look," Randall Grey had raised his large hands to his chest, accompanying his calmly stated request with gradual, gentle gestures, "I didn't say anything when we took you along. I didn't say anything when Balsk here told me there was something fishy about you. I figured I didn't need any more hassle, and you'd come out with it eventually, but now I think we could use some answers. I really don't see this as an unreasonable thing to ask. Do you?"
Sage, however, still seemed very unsure of things, more than once looking to Thermoplast with a nervous glance in his inhuman eyes, as if the cyborg had some manner of vendetta with him. The SPC Detective, however, wasn't even paying attention. Instead, he leaned on an antenna that had the dimensions of a flagpole, his arms crossed as he searched for something interesting in the ruins to alleviate his present boredom.
"I guess not." the veiled man eventually agreed, "Just...do you mind if I keep to-?"
His eyes widened from one moment to another, motion coming into his many-layered robes, and without warning a gun muzzle easily 35 mm in diameter sprang from the folds, followed by the weapon it belonged to: a cannon-like monstrosity that resembled an oversized pistol more than a rifle. Its primary barrel ended just a few centimeters after the stock, which in turn carried a secondary barrel just a little shorter than the first. Clearly capable of discharging multiple types of ammunition, what could only be called a compound hand-cannon sent a sound of thunder to crack through the air not a second later. The head-sized wreckage of the ellipsoid surveillance drone Sage had just put a Randall-Grey-fist-sized hole through crashed to the roof almost right away.
"Sorry about that." he stated with a straightforward tone, the gun still locked in the very same position to show he meant none here any harm, "I'd hoped that wouldn't get here quite so fast."
"Explain." Sheldon Wallace placed a hand against the cannon of Ryat66 almost in tandem with the fingers of Toy Dispenser brining Solid Shot's rifle back down. However, quite a few of the team saw greater wisdom in not lowering their weapons until Sage had brought down his. The inventor's voice remained calm, but a demanding undertone had materialized as he slowly intoned an added, "Now."
Sage didn't answer vocally, instead tossing the veils from his head with the motion of an arm, the majority of his robes that had been trailing on the ground now falling to it. As expected, he was of course not human. Clothed in the vestment that seemed to have been the innermost robe until now stood a being that had only the number of arms and legs in common with a human, albeit the bipedal, upright stature could be considered comparable as well. The head (with enough imagination) could've been considered that of a dragon, though the sharp angle the forehead and eye section made with the elongated lower part of the skull mostly destroyed that comparison. Sage's hair did the rest there, the large mass of long, crimson strands that jutted from above his deep-gray headband in a loose, spiky fashion finishing off the relation. A pair of horns was however present, their almost silver hue in stark contrast to the blood-red mane.
He stood armored too, finely overlapping and interlocking scales of all sizes covering every bit of his body, from the tiny specks of the face to the larger examples of the chest below the neck, the vestment's wide collar allowing view extending to where a human's collarbones would have been. A hue of copper orange encompassed the largest partition of the coat of scales, although it followed the standard fashion of lightening toward the frontal areas. The hide that covered Sage's throat and below carried an almost golden distinction.
His arms could compare to an athletic human, though the hands held only four digits (three fingers and one thumb each) that terminated in rounded claws instead of cupped ends. The legs looked massive in comparison, though that resulted mostly from the optical illusion his large feet created. Sage was not digitigrade, and legs that ended in respectably wide feet, which in turn seemed halfway composed of three huge claws created the imaginative distortion. The fact that the robe-like vestment reached only to his kneecaps only furthered the impression. His heels looked humanoid enough, but the bone bridges composed only about half his feet, nature having made up the difference with three long toes, encasing them in thick, bony claws to compensate for the resulting balance problem. His tail seemed intended to help with this as well - though long, the fifth appendage looked respectably muscular, carrying enough mass to balance the body it belonged to impeccably.
Oddly enough, he seemed to have an affinity for black leather - or at least a leather-like substance. Fingerless gloves covered his hands, armbands of the same just a few centimeters above them. A thick collar wrapped about Sage's neck, adorned with a metallic ring just below its lower rim. A narrow spike of azure crystal had in turn been attached to the ring, the thing almost giving the metal its own iridescence. Finally, the cloth belt about Sage's waist that tied together the vestment looked to be reinforced with the leather-like stuff as well. His hands returned the hand-cannon he wielded to the right side of said belt.
"I don't know our attacker's name." Sage followed up with somber tone, the teeth of his jaw surprisingly non-predatory in appearance, "I do know that he is a bounty hunter, and that the price on my severed head is high. Hence the disguise. I'd also appreciate if you'd kept calling me Sage for now."
"Why?" the inventor inquired with a scowl, "What's the point of a pseudonym if your enemy's already seen through it?"
"Because he didn't." Toy fell into the conversation, his faceplate seeming to stare intently at Sage, "He's after Acid."
The draconian being only gave a silent nod, his gaze lowering somewhat, "I'm sorry. I didn't think he had the capability to come here after him. We just got in the way. Probably thought we were out to snatch Acid for ourselves...and in a way, I guess we are. He doesn't like competition."
"Sarcasm: what: first clue?" the Warmaster grumbled from beside the heavily damaged ship, his armored arms inside a maintenance panel.
"Hmh." Randall Grey considered the change in their situation, pointing out the destroyed drone as he asked, "Do you think that thing managed to get its observations to him?"
"Hard to say. I like to think I shoot fast, but..." Sage shook his head, "I underestimated him once already."
"Right." Delta Team's leader agreed, "Then we move. Warmaster?"
"Chance: squat." Cher'tak gave his answer. The Drop Ship wouldn't fly again anytime soon, if ever, "Damage summation: greater than expected. Continue: on foot."
"Too late." Rosalind suddenly snarled, baring her fangs as the were-human's head snapped about to face what she sensed.
The hunter.
"You're kidding me, right?"
Solid's remark sat right on the money. He certainly didn't look like much: around two and a half meters tall and built like an amalgamation of organic power poles, the guy's compact body mostly resembled an aerodynamic crab, standing atop two double-jointed legs that accounted for nearly three quarters of his total height. A long, lanky arm stretched for nearly the same length from each shoulder, though the inhuman, oversized hand accounted for a good bit of that. It held five fingers, but they appeared nearly symmetrically arranged about a long central digit, the peripheral ones clearly having the function of thumbs. In addition, the hands carried nearly no palm at all, the fingers more or less directly attached to the being's arms.
The mouthless head curved over the compact body in a long and narrow manner, bearing just a bit of resemblance to the skulls of the Alien movies. Still, it was a good bit smaller, and attached by only a short, stout neck, while the three toes of the creature's feet extended radially and appeared very capable of deft dexterity, despite their rigid-looking structure. Indeed, no one was quite sure if the ornately ridged exterior of the being was an exoskeleton, a suit, or a combination of both. The thicker shells covering shins and lower arms, as well as the smooth, crystalline appearance of the narrow head, gave no clues one way or another, and the color scheme of obsidian blue and black luster didn't help much either - the former more prevalent on head and hands while the latter seemed to coat the rest of his shell-like exterior. What bore faint resemblance to a backpack, however, most likely wasn't part of the hunter's body, though it certainly could've been of organic nature as well.
"Careful." Cory Simmons reminded Solid to mind judging his opponents by their appearance, "I sense a terrible chill about him."
"He's right." Toy slowly drummed the fingers of one hand against the side of his leg, gradually reaching for his pulse rifle with his free hand, "That thing on his back's cold as hell, and the rest of him ain't much warmer. I'm guessing those holes below his wrists are part of it too. Watch it."
"I'm too tired for this." Grey huffed a frustrated heave, having had more than enough surprises for the day. He set himself into motion toward the coral- or crab-like alien, ensuring the pace of his steps came neither too fast nor too slow, and attempted a diplomatic solution with calm and forthcoming tone, "Look, whoever you are, I'm sure we can find a resolution we can all live with. Can you understand me?"
"Gris'va!" spat the hunter in a hollow, gaseous voice that seemed to come from just below his head, rasping back to Randall, "You will cease your pursuit. Zero is my quarry. Not yours."
Grey breathed a sigh of relief. So at least the guy could talk. He didn't seem exactly willing, but the first step had been taken. Now he just needed to figure out how to get a bounty hunter to stop chasing his livelihood. After all, for all he knew, this being wasn't doing anything illegal. He'd learned from Acid that many cultures condoned and furthered the practice, and he didn't feel quite right about attacking someone who was just doing his job. Indeed, he remembered only too well the annoyance and frustration several small-time villains had brought to his crew in the reconstruction of Paragon City. But what would cause the hunter to let off chasing Acid?
Chasing someone else.
The thought had come with a glance to Sage, and the very next instant Randall shuddered that he'd even let the mere notion enter his mind. No - that wasn't how he worked. So long as it was his choice, his life, he could set it at risk. But he couldn't simply place someone else in that position.
Meanwhile, the whispers within the group had become more frequent, several members working on their own ideas. Even Archlich...although he was more concerned with finding a way to do the hunter in. While the skeletal arcanist often behaved in an arrogant and condescending manner, the true being that was Archlich knew well not to dismiss the dangers of a foe one knew next to nothing about. Worse, the hunter's demeanor suggested great power indeed, and Toy's findings only supported that deduction. He wasn't afraid, but he had to admit he didn't feel much like tangling with this guy; at least not until he knew more about him.
"Why is he staring at me like that?" Balsk quietly queried of Sage, having noticed the head...crystal...eye...whatever focusing on him specifically, "Giving me the chills just looking at him."
"You look a lot like someone else he's after." the more humanoid draconian whispered back, "This is bad. Even if we get him to leave, there's no way we can get him to not just chase after Acid again."
Unless...
Sage swallowed his fears, then stepped forward and out of the group, catching the attention of the hunter with a shot and loud, "Hey! You!"
Up ahead, Randall's eyes opened wide. No! He wasn't...!
"What?" the hunter hissed in his hollow tone, "What do you want of me, reptile?"
"To tell you that you're blinded by greed." Sage stated snarkily, clawed fingers hovering near his oversized gun, "You lost me on the COLOSSUS, and you're too blind to see me now. Yeah, that's right. I'm the Dark Dragon."
"E'ssita!" hissed the being, throwing his arms forward and up as Sage snatched the gun from his belt fast as he could.
Buy the hunter was faster.
A cloud of fine, crystalline white erupted from his wrists as he channeled a potent wave of bitter cold across his fingers and into the air, sending the strike that appeared to be an ice blast at his previous target, and then following the first split-second discharge with a volley of four more in less than two seconds. As the cloud of icy particles cleared enough to see, only a frost-covered figure now stood in his path.
Randall Grey.
Too tired for this.
The massive man shattered the layers of ice that had built up across the front of his hulking granite armor, the stout tanker closing the distance to the hunter with only a few quaking steps, his right fist aquiver with rage.
Too. Freaking. Tired for this!
The KO blow struck the hunter with more force than an industrial-grade wrecking ball, smashing right through the ice armor he'd prepared to defend himself during the battle he now expected, sending the alien to sail into the air and clear off the roof. His forceful impact below echoed all the way back to the Drop Ship, followed by a second crunch as the hunter bounced off the hard ground, leaving a decent crater, and then repeated this several more times, finally skidding to a halt across what could've been a street.
"Is he...?" Penny gasped as she saw him motionless at first, but quickly spotted the hunter's attempt to stand. His head and arms trembled violently, however, and after a single try, he slipped into unconsciousness, his extremities dropping back to the ground.
"No." Sage stated coldly, "Just in a lot of pain. Nice punch there, Mr. Grey."
"Mhm." Randall nodded stoically as the boulders of his granite armor fell from his body once again, the man turning to the rest of the team with a gruff tone, "Well, what's everyone standing around doing nothing for? We've got someone to find, remember? So get going."
Several turned immediately, following Sah'Teece to the route that would take them to street level. Others soon followed. Sage, however, remained with Delta Team's leader a little while longer, turning to the massive man with a sigh, "Sorry if I overstepped my boundaries. I just couldn't think of anything else. Just...just make sure you get Acid back, okay? I'll manage some-"
He stopped quite suddenly as he felt Grey's heavy hand on his shoulder, the taller man smiling at him through his beard.
"Thank you."
A smirk appeared on Sage's face as well, and though far from human, Randall understood. He gave an approving nod as he too began heading for the path downstairs, leaving the draconian being alone with his thoughts.
"Hey!"
Well, only for a moment.
"Hey, pseudo-me!" Balsk shouted again from the other end of the roof, "You coming or what...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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The Overwatch
The eyes of Captain Salvius narrowed to thin slits beneath his crimson visor, his fingers tightening their grip about the blade mace in his hands as the Drop Ship sped thunderously toward them, choking the air behind it with a trail of thick, black smoke.
"I don't like this." he told Commander Cynic with his usual, gravely serious tone, leaning to the man next to him, "That's a lot of mass coming at us."
"Salvius, stop yer bellyachin' already." the gung-ho voice of Aether Pilot Trigen came over the channel, the man of course having heard the Captain's words, "Relax, we're the ultimate authority, remember? This is just like always: good guys win, bad guys lose, and as always, order prevails. Right, Commander?"
"Right." Cynic couldn't help but smirk beneath his own helmet, taking another count of the troops he'd assembled around the calculated crash site, watching closely as the division's Order Controllers flawlessly formed their semicircle ahead and to his sides. They had better - even a single misstep would send Captain Salvius into lecture mode again, and none of them wanted that.
An amusing thought. But now was neither the time nor place, for Sierra Three hit the ground hard roaring up tons of dirt, debris, and wreckage of the Rikti settlement in a titanic wave that the Drop Ship now rolled toward Cynic and his troops, grinding and heaving as it tore a deep trench into the earth. Still, none of them moved. They stood there firm as the rock itself, blade maces in their hands and at the ready, the Drop Ship coming to rest not a few meters from the Commander himself.
"Told ya." Trigen chucked over the channel, "The boys 'n me are in position. Just say the word 'n we'll come at 'em like a ton o' bricks."
Cynic acknowledged. It felt good to have the situation well in hand - and he had, no doubt about it. Even if the craft's passengers proved too crafty for the troops assembled here, he had more than half scattered all about in reserve. Of course, calling them in wouldn't even be necessary unless they could somehow manage to escape the cloaked Aether Pilots already lurking in the ruins near the ship.
Still, this required something actually happening. Why was nothing happening?
"Now what?" Salvius grunted, "Move in?"
"Not just yet, Captain." the Commander stayed his hand, "Let's give them a moment to wake up."
The minutes passed. The restless Aether Pilots were getting increasingly impatient, Trigen at the front of them all with that, but Salvius retained firm control. Reckless and twitchy was they were, even the Aether Pilots wouldn't move again if he said so. Every decision he'd ever made had been for naught but the good of the Overwatch and his men. He'd be damned if he ever made a choice that didn't follow these ideals - and every single one of his men knew it. Though he might have been the harshest of protocol mongers, they had absolute faith in him when it came to battle.
So they stayed.
Finally, something happened. But of course first it came different and second than one thought. With a cacophonous crack of thunder, the Drop Ship's dorsal hatch shot into the sky atop a tiny mushroom cloud. The dented structure of Rikti architecture took over eight seconds to return to earth, burying itself into a crater with a vehement crash that again sent junk flying all over the place. Thankfully, the debris wasn't very large this time. Cynic's own fingers now grew tighter as he watched the rising haze atop the ship, eagerly anticipating the first catch of the day. Oh, how surprised that poor sucker would be - and he came. Finally, something emerged from the smoke.
A black work boot.
The boot was of course followed by the wearer: an oddly dressed, scaleless reptilian that seemed to have a tendency toward the anthropomorphic. Of course, if someone had told this to said reptilian, the Khelari would've taken boundless offense at being compared to a human. But as all stayed silent for the moment, only the steady, gradual steps of his boots against the Drop Ship's hull echoed through the air.
"Civilian!" Commander Cynic's voice came from the speakers of his helmet with crisp and clear volume, unmistakeably directed at the new arrival, "Stop where you are! Present immediately your identification, proof of citizenship of World Three, and proof of allegiance! You have fifteen seconds to comply!"
The reptilian's lips curled into a most sinsiter, sly grin, drawing back from rows of sharp, predatory teeth. He answered only with silence, his head rotating slowly as if to survey the placement of the Overwatch troops. Cynic couldn't help but feel somewhat nervous as the seconds ticked by. Where had he seen this being before? He looked so...familiar - and not in a good way.
Acid Zero.
The thought had shot through his mind like some terrible bolt of lighting. Yet despite his perturbation, not a single response left the recesses of his mind. Yes, he remembered Acid. He remembered Acid well...which was just one more reason to shoot first and ask questions never. Yes, he would give the order to shoot now.
No.
No, on second thought, he'd just let the men handle it. They could use the practice. Besides, there was no way in hell the Khelari would be producing any of the demanded. Especially not just standing there like that. No, he'd just wait for the seconds to tick by. There was no way to escape, this he knew. The Aether Pilots could strike even those who had phased to another aspect of this dimension. No, Acid wouldn't be getting away from them.
And the clock struck zero...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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"Okay, what gives?" Jake finally broke the silence that had trailed the group for almost a minute now, scratching the white hair above his goggles in puzzlement, "I know I seem to be the outsider around here, but doesn't anyone-?"
"No." Toy Dispenser stated colloquially, walking listlessly by the youth, "And just in case you're wondering: no. They're heroes, remember?"
"It is what they do." Archlich added, spreading the fingers of a hand ceremonially, "At times, their actions are neither smart, nor logical, nor...have anything remotely in common with common sense. This time, however, I find I do not mind. The hunter is no threat to our combined force."
"I'll say." Solid Shot snickered wryly, "Did you see the way Randy just clocked that guy? That was so freakin' awesome."
"Precisely." the skeletal arcanist gave a nod of his skinless skull, "Even had he been stronger, let us harbor no delusions: he was a fool to engage the number of us."
Jake had to admit, they had a point. Running into a whole team of metahumanss and/or meta-comparable beings just wasn't a good idea, no matter which way you twisted and turned the proposition. Apparently, the hunter hadn't been aware of that.
Still...
The young man didn't believe the alien had given up. After all, had he been in this situation, he would've just called for backup. Then again...maybe the hunter didn't have anything like Arachnos. Sage had said the guy was being too greedy, not to mention that he'd outright tried to kill (or at least very forcefully deter) them for chasing after his payday. Yeah, come to think of it, he didn't seem like the type to send for help - and alone they could beat him any day of the week. Rosalind certainly seemed to think so, hounding (no pun intended) Sage for answers along with her more dragon-like draconian, whose people actually derived their name from the word.
"No, I'm not." the robed one replied to the latest part of the inquisition, the curious were-human wanting to know all about this Dark Dragon business, and having already recounted to her the tale of the fleet he'd been with getting run into a trap and torn apart, "I just threw that at him to get him after me."
"Then spill it already." Rosie demanded playfully, having heard a few references from Acid in the past, but always denied any sort of coherent explanation. Her fangs poked devilishly through the smile she wore, "Or do I have to pull my answers out of you one by one? Because I will."
"Nono, I'll tell, I'll tell." Sage threw his hands up defensively, "I'm...just not sure where to start. It's a pretty long story."
"Then lemme fast-forward that a bit." Balsk added to the conversation, giving to Sage in brief words what they already knew from Acid: of the war, the Concile, his not liking how 'it was done', and various other tidbits they could remember.
"I see." Sage nodded, apparently quite taken aback by how much the Khelari had already revealed, "Um...yes, that makes it a little easier. Okay, so you know there was already a resistance before Acid came around. Well, there still is, and a long time ago someone called its leader Luun Drokar, which literally translates to Dark Dragon in English. The name stuck. Anyway, about 20 years ago, he brings Acid onto the galactic field. Tries to use him as an assassin. Acid didn't like that. He felt there had to be another way than waging a guerilla war against the Concile, since supposedly innocent people always get caught in the crossfire."
"Personally, I don't believe in that." Sage admitted his conviction, "I'm going to be frank with you: I hate the Concile, and if you're not willing to fight with us against them, you might as well be one of their minions. But I don't want to discuss my beliefs right now. In any case, Acid left. Founded his own group, and with a few of our best at his side, too: Vern and Kerat."
Rosie nodded, for once remaining quiet. If she recalled correctly, Allen had been with the Khelari from about that time on as well. Did this mean Sage wasn't telling the whole truth? Or just that the wolf-man she adored so had joined up with Acid at a later date, but around the same general time frame?
"And before you ask," the draconian went on, "yes I still disagree with the man, but I don't hate him or anything. He's still a good person, and getting gutted by a bounty hunter is the very last thing I'd want to happen to him."
"So you came to warn him." Balsk concluded, "Little late, huh?"
"Mhm." Sage gave a disheartened nod, going on to what the bronze-scaled dragonman had already guessed, "I spent too much time looking for phantoms in shadows. Like I said, part of what I told the hunter was true, you know: I really was on the COLOSSUS when they lured our fleet into that trap. So...yeah, I was scared he'd come after me too, just to finish the job."
"Aw, c'mon." Rosie snickered as she nudged him in the upper arm with a fist, "Big, strong guy like you scared? That's gonna cost ya some man points."
"Don't worry about it." Balsk smirked as Sage looked to him with a confused expression, giving a nod in return.
"What he said." Thermoplast's laid-back tone sounded unexpectedly from right behind them, a stiff twitch running through the body of the more humanoid draconian, "The ways of this world are sometimes very strange."
Wearing a sudden scowl, Rosalind turned the Detective away from Sage with both hands, the man's boots digging shallow trenches into the ground as she pushed against his angled back, crating a rather humorous picture, "Geez T, what's the matter with you sometimes? Can't you see you're making the guy nervous as hell?"
"Yes." Thermoplast admitted with an innocent shrug, "But I just want to know why."
"That's what I was about to ask. Just stay at a little distance until we can clear this up, okay?"
The Detective nodded silently upon his release, returning to his high-leaping surveillance of the area while Rosalind revisited the front mass of the group, "Sorry about that. But you know, T's really a very nice guy. Why do you tense up like that every time he gets near you?"
"He..."
...he's a hunter too.
"He reminds me of someone." Sage stated evasively, "Someone who's caused me a lot of pain. It's...it's just gonna take me a while to get over it."
...I hope.
"Well, okay." Rosie accepted, wagging a stern index finger at him, which of course caused Balsk to chuckle uncontrollably, "But you work on it, young man, otherwise I'm going to get very cross with you. Is that clear?"
"Crystal." Sage smiled comfortably.
"So why didn't you just tell that ice guy who you really were then?" was the very next thing she wanted to know, immediately bringing the conversation back on track, "You said you were afraid he'd come after you too. Why'd you lie and say you were the Dark Dragon?"
"Because...because it was the only thing that popped into my head at the time." Sage bared the palms of his hands with a helpless smirk, "He's the only person whose name I could be sure would definitely cause the guy to kick chasing Acid to the side. Just me...would've been a gamble. I didn't want to chance it."
"Well, it worked, I'll say that much. Sheesh, the guy practically exploded right then and there." she patted the large back of Randall Grey, "Good thing we've got our meat shield here."
"Hmh." was the tanker's sole acknowledgement, having walked in the silence of his thoughts until now. Before the were-human could do something suitably appalling to get another reaction, however, her head snapped in another direction: ahead and to the left a little.
"Smell something?" Balsk wanted to know, the answer coming in the form of a curt nod as Rosalind transformed, a suddenly appeared black-and-white border collie sprinting in the direction she'd indicated, followed without delay by the rest of Delta Team across several mounds of rubble and smaller wreckage between the low, ruined walls of once-tall spires.
"Whoa." Grey remarked in a manner most curt as he came over the peak of the mound beyond which Rosie had stopped, eyes wide as he spied the mass of people lying motionlessly upon the uneven ground, their strange uniform-armor familiar to not one of them.
"They're alive." Cory Simmons preempted the question, causing Penny to breathe a sigh of relief, both of them now crouching beside the nearest Overwatch Order Controller. The wizard turned his head to Grey, "Any ideas?"
"Looks like they've been paralyzed." Sage gave answer instead, slowly waving the claws of one hand across the face of the soldier he knelt over. He'd removed the man's visor, and could observe a response to the motion in his eyes, "Wide-area dispersal, I'd say. They'll be okay...eventually. But if I can tell anything from this armor, it was a pretty heavy dose. Like..."
"Over here!" Ryat66 interrupted with a shout, having already advanced up the next ridge and past a few more walls. Upon joining him, people quickly saw what he meant, for at the end of a long, deep trench laid the second Drop Ship. In addition, more of the unfamiliar soldiers lay dotted all about the downed and still-smoking craft. Already the members of Delta Team could tell there existed more than one armor type among them, the uniforms of the soldiers lying in a somewhat scattered fashion carrying defined differences to the ones in the semi-circle before the ship's nose.
And one of them stirred.
Commander Cynic...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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One Man
Fire.
His lips did not move.
Fire!
Cynic's mind reeled in shock as the word again refused to pass his lips. What was going on here? Why couldn't he speak? Moreover, why weren't the others shooting already?! Even without his order, they should have by now!
But they weren't. They just...stood there. Like statues.
No. Not like statues. They were moving. Falling. Falling to the ground, all over, every one of them. Why? Why was this happening? What had gone wrong?!
Acid.
The Commander looked upon the still-grinning Khelari, and then he finally felt the sensation of gravity upon him as his vision tilted and the ground leaped up toward him. Only then did he realize he'd been falling as well. Falling...and unable to feel it. Even the impact in the rubble produced no discernible sensation. Cynic could see. Cynic could hear. And hear he did.
Steps.
Oh yes, hear he did. Hear the crunch of loose debris beneath the solid sole of a heavy boot. Hear the crunch time and again as the one he could not see approached his helpless form, coming into his field of vision only after the steps had sunk into silence once again.
"Hi." the scaleless, reptilian visage hung over him, breathing the word with soft demeanor, "I don't know who you are, and to be honest with you, I don't really care. This world is going to be dead soon. You should leave as long as you still have the chance."
"Fine." the Khelari sighed with a shrug of his shoulders, then scratched at something that must've itched quite savagely between his eyes, atop the long bone bridge that formed the equivalent of his forehead, "Keep doing whatever it is you think you're doing then. Not my problem. But just so you know: you're wrong. And you're out of your league..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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"I didn't see where he went after that." the Commander concluded his account, then heaved forward with a hacking cough, batting back a sudden wave of nausea before he managed to straighten enough to accept the bottle from Randall Grey again, "Just heard that...disgustingly carefree whistling of his. Like he was just strolling along through the nicest of parks."
"Lou." Solid Shot remarked fleetingly, poking another Overwatch member with his rifle, "So...what about these guys?"
"They'll be okay." Sage affirmed somewhat quietly, his head turned skyward, eyes trying to penetrate the cloudy night sky above until Solid quirked his head to the side, wanting to know in a skeptical tone, "What are you doing?"
"Trying my luck." the draconian gave his head a few swift shakes as he leveled out again, then massaged his eyes, "Which apparently is bad. I don't see the ship anywhere."
"Ship?" Cynic managed to croak out, "What ship?"
"He thinks there's a space ship somewhere up there that done nailed ya." Ryat66 explained, "Says what flattened you couldn't have been handheld."
Randall let out a huff. On one hand, it didn't seem very logical. On the other, Sage seemed to know his stuff, and he had to admit, from what he knew of Acid...if he hadn't always held back, he would've had no trouble with a 'nuke the site from orbit' policy. Still, if he had a ship up there - aside from the frightening proposition that it would mean he'd already infected a large part of 'himself' with that green crystal garbage - why not just do so literally?
"What do you think?" he inquired of Toy Dispenser, but the robotic mastermind only gave a helpless shrug.
"High-altitude drone maybe?" he hypothesized unconvincingly while the familiar beat of large wings grew steadily louder in the air over their heads, "I don't know."
"Well, whatever it was, it's either gone now or it was a one-shot deal." Balsk concluded as his clawed feet touched solid ground again, the bronze-scaled draconian catching his remaining velocity easily, then folded his wings against his back again, "Just the fact that it hasn't hit us in all this time gives that away. Also I saw squat."
"Hmh." Grey accentuated his solemn nod, turning to Cynic again, "I'm afraid we can't do much for your men right now. But I think he was right. You'e police. Police are just outmatched here, even the interdimensional kind. Take your people home, Commander. We appreciate-"
Rosalind's sudden growl interrupted just about everything, the border collie's ongoing, downright bestial snarl directed in Jake's general direction. Rosie's lips had curled far past her gums, baring her teeth in a most terrifying manner. She looked like she'd jump at the youth's throat at any moment now.
"Stop!" Cynic's shout echoed over the vehement growl, though it of course wasn't directed at the were-human, "Aether Pilot Trigen, stand down!"
Trigen ceased every moment as he heard the order, still as a rock for a few moments before he disengaged his ingenious cloaking device, appearing almost directly beside the teenager - after returning his blade mace to its holster, of course. Even the cockiest of Aether Pilots knew it wasn't a good idea to come into view right in front of someone with a lethal weapon in their face. Jake fumed enough without that sort of provocation.
"Sorry about that." the Commander apologized for his subordinate as Jake flew off the handle at the now significantly confused Trigen, "Guess he didn't catch everyone after all. Allow me to introduce...wait. I just said his name. Done and over with. Don't blame him. It's my fault, really. I forgot to cancel the order to treat everyone here as hostile."
"But Commander." the Aether Pilot tried to counter, "They do not-"
"They have already presented it to me." Cynic lied, referring to the same documents he'd demanded from Acid earlier. Of course he'd left quite a few things out of the story he'd told Grey and the rest of Delta Team, not presenting the Overwatch for what it truly was, but as a police force holding the sole mission to uphold law, order, peace, and justice for all across the multiverse. The oppressive, homicidal regime of World Three he hadn't even touched on, nor that to them, the entirety of Delta Team really was the enemy. As a matter of fact, Cynic suspected the whole Vanguard expedition to be working with Lord Nemesis, operating to disrupt Malta's operation here so the brassen madman could steal something from them.
"Aiding a stranger leaves no doubt in my mind." he told Randall as he returned to him the bottle, making it look as though Trigen would have finished with 'have the same ideals as we do' or something of that nature. Cynic very much doubted they actually trusted him, probably regarding the Commander like an unfamiliar Etoile Islander working with Vanguard, but that was fine for now. He just didn't want a fight at this very moment. No, that could wait until they'd caught up with Acid. Then he'd call in his second division and massacre them all...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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The Pilot
He smiled. This was good. A little unorthodox, but good. Cynic's actions had secured friendly (if most likely not actually trusting) relations with Delta Team, and Captain Salvius had by now shaken off his paralysis as well. True, describing him as groggy right now would've been a titanic understatement, but considering he didn't carry the bodily modifications of the Overwatch Commander, it was no stretch of the imagination that he'd feel a bit stiff for some time to come. Aether Pilot Trigen had been out of range when the paralyzer wave had come down, which just about qualified him as the only fully functional member of the Overwatch around at this point. Not that Cynic accepted this - for the Commander was coming along, whether Delta Team thought he was able to or not, this was clear for all to see.
The resulting argument was rather obvious as well. Couldn't be helped, really. The Overwatch division hadn't exactly performed too well back there. They'd jumped the gun, and if circumstances had been different, would've paid dearly for it. Grey definitely didn't want something like that on his conscience. He had enough of an issue feeling responsible for the people with him already, and the proposition of two more who appeared vastly outclassed here didn't sit well at all with the man. Still, Cynic eventually managed to convince him, if only because Trigen was an expert tracker and Rosalind could really use the help. Khelari carried extremely little scent (unlike so many people with their perfumes and such, they didn't like smelling like anything for most of the year), and even in her original form, the were-human wasn't having the easiest time following their pursuee. And with that, Cynic and Trigen set out with Delta Team.
Good.
He tapped the side of his head, the contact signaling the deep-blue hologram across his eyes to disappear, effectively 'putting away his binoculars'. They'd get here soon enough, which meant he had to get ready with the proper welcome. He leaped from his vantage point - a pylon of the large, stadium-like building he'd chosen as the site for this phase of the plan - his boots giving a satisfied crunch against the loose rubble, but he checked the placement of everything one more time, just to be sure. Yes, everything was securely in place.
The Khelari smiled in a most toothy, sinister manner as he guided his steps into the closest archway of the battle-damaged stadium, looking back one more time. Yeah, they didn't have a chance in the galaxy of going around here if they wanted to get to him. They'd run into it no matter what...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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"...that's our theory right now, at least." Solid Shot had spent the last few minutes filling Cynic in but only on what he thought the man should know. He may have been an android, but he wasn't dense. He didn't trust this guy as far as he could throw him, which was saying quite a bit; the armored man looked decently unthrowable if he didn't want to be.
"I see." the Commander remarked opaquely, eyes still following Trien and Rosalind. His mind, however, was entirely elsewhere. He too had forested through the logic Grey had not long ago, and found it sorely lacking in sense as well. His conclusion, however, had been greatly more straightforward: it was all a Nemesis plot. The brassen madman had put this up as a facade to confuse him. Well, he wouldn't be falling for it; but he'd sure pretend to. After all, if he could get them to let their guard down, he might just get a direct shot at the steam-driven lunatic sooner than he thought.
However, that also meant he now needed to take expressive care. If Nemesis was trying to fool him, then he was almost certainly on to the Commander's game. That meant he had channels, connections, and such could be very dangerous indeed. It meant he knew of him, knew of the Overwatch, and knew of World Three. Fortunately, it seemed he'd neglected to brief his underlings about all the details, for they'd taken his story at face value. He doubted they'd believed him fully, but they certainly hadn't called him on any of his lies. Had they known the truth, Cynic was confident he would've noticed at least a tiny detail amiss by now.
Trigen's raised hand interrupted his thoughts. The Aether Pilot had stopped, and with him the entire team. They'd reached the ruins of a truly massive structure, reminiscent of an oversized football stadium, and now stood not twenty meters from one of the towering arches that composed the exterior of its ground floor. For a moment, Cynic's thoughts wandered to Salvius. He would've loved to see this. The Captain had found the Rikti homeworld delightfully exotic thus far, and even though the structure before them had seen better days, the architecture still spoke volumes of the Rikti mind. Still, the troops had needed someone to watch over them; even once the second division arrived after Delta Team had departed - if only to fill them in without going through any communications that might've tipped Nemesis' goons off. Cynic especially didn't like the look of that walking skeleton.
"There's something here." the words of Penny Arcade redirected their attention to the woman, as well as the large mound of rubble she now stood at the base of. A piece of cloth, half red, half blue, stuck from the debris in a conspicuous fashion, clearly out of place amidst the colors preferred by Rikti in their building materials.
"Okay, now that's just a bit too obvious." Solid was the first to make a skeptic remark, though several others of course harbored the very same thoughts, "Still...I just wanna pull on that for some reason. It's just too tempting. Like a big red button."
He'd stated the last few words with a glance to Randall Grey, who seemed to be mulling over the idea. Acid wasn't known to set traps, but then again, he decidedly wasn't being his usual self. Had whatever corruption the crystalline energy had brought about changed his tactics as well? He couldn't deny the possibility beyond a doubt, that much was sure.
"I don't see anything dangerous." Toy Dispenser took the word before he could, the team knowing well that by 'see' the robotic mastermind meant respectably more than just an optical inspection, "What about you?"
"I can detect no insidious magic." the one he'd queried gave answer, Archlich sweeping his armored hand over the site as he turned to Cory Simmons, "I would however not deny the offer of a second opinion."
"Oh, sure." the villainous arcanist's counterpart agreed, doing what he could to try and detect any would-be trap in there. Like the lich, however, he found nothing meant to do them harm.
"Well, just in case." Randall now moved forward, layering the earth's protections about his large body as best he could. He played it smart, however, not employing his armor of granite boulders, favoring flexibility over raw resilience in the wake of the unknown, "Everyone, stand back."
A great hand reached around the fabric, then pulled upon it most softly. Grey immediately noted the resistance to his applied force, and began to dig into the rubble as an alternative, shoving bit by bit aside until he'd exposed that which the tiny speck of color that did not belong stood attached to.
Penny's eyes widened in shock as she saw the thing, almost gasping, "Is that...?"
Statesman's head!
Indeed, she wasn't the only one as Grey pulled the thing from its resting place amidst the wreckage. She was however, the singular individual whose gasp had been that of surprise and great interest, and not of someone appalled in one way or another. Moreover, she flocked to what had once been part of Statesman's very own Nemesis Automaton almost immediately, ripping it from Randall's hands to begin her studies upon it.
"Um..." the tanker wasn't quite sure how to react for a moment there, "Miss Arcade?"
"One moment." she shot out quickly, yet politely, then sank into the mumbling of technobabble as most of the team gathered about her. She'd connected some manner of diagnostic station to the severed mechanical head, having whipped the device from who knew where, and already seemed intent to disassemble the incriminating thing after she'd gotten done with her current doings.
"You think we can get it?" Sheldon Wallace joined her in only a few seconds' time, the team's inventive technologists having already skipped multiple steps ahead of the team, seeking the proof Vanguard so desperately needed.
"I'm not sure." she admitted with a grunt after a bit of silence, then slipped into more robotic jargon along with Wallace. Grey left them be. He was fairly sure he'd gotten the idea of what they were after - and if not, Sheldon would explain it to him in all detail later on anyway. So he turned back to the stadium's archway, figuring he'd be more useful looking for anything else they might be able to use.
And then he saw Acid.
Shouts rang out as the reptilian bolted, Toy's entourage already rushing after him nearly the very next instant, the roar of their rockets echoing loudly through the dark, lifeless halls that had once served so many people. The chase didn't last long, and quite soon they'd cornered the Khelari in a larger hall. It appeared to have once held the purpose of a materials depot, but now lay utterly barren, only one of the large doors in its four long walls open and accessible. In response, the reptilian had of course put up a wide-spanned shield, but even that wouldn't help him if they all went for him. This both sides knew.
"Just stay calm, okay?" Balsk was already in the process of trying to talk the Khelari down, his experience in the SPC having given him a decent level of familiarity in the art of negotiation. Of course, generally it took place at the point of his sword, but this time he'd chosen to leave the weapon in is sheath, "We don't want to hurt you..."
"I do." Cynic growled quietly, but didn't receive any attention for it.
"...and you've nowhere to go. So just come with us. This doesn't have to get violent."
"Oh, but what if I want it to?" the reptilian grinned nastily, a demented chuckle coming over his lips. Even with light from multiple sources now, the chamber's gloom permitted the vile green iridescence in the Khelari's eyes to stand out harshly against his much darker hide, "What are you going to do then?"
"Beat on you until you don't get back up." Toy Dispenser took the word, his tone solemn and direct, but not entirely threatening. He was simply being perfectly honest, "Since when do you want things to get violent in the first place, huh? Acid, this isn't you. Something's controlling you, corrupting you. Don't give me this 'I was being mind controlled, I didn't know what I was doing' junk. I know you better than that. You're stronger than this. Now get your old self in gear and fi-"
A bout of psychotic laughter from the reptilian overpowered the mechanoid's words, the Khelari's jaws wide open at what he seemed to think was the most hilarious thing in the universe right now, "Oh, poor Toy. You still don't get it, do you? None of you do. This is the old me! This is what I was before I came here; before I went soft! Well, not anymore. Acid Zero is back, and he's going to bring the house down. I'm going to stop Nemesis and make sure no one can ever do what he tried again - and if you keep trying to get in my way, I'll do the same to you."
"Ace!" Rosalind barked out, almost literally, despite being in her human form, "Snap out of it! The Rikti are just innocent people, you know that!"
"Innocent?" the Khelari chuckled again, declaring with devilish tone, "There is no innocent. You're either part of the problem, or part of the solution - and if you're not fighting to solve the problem, you might as well die with it."
Sage's scales grew just a tad lighter at these words, a lump forming in his throat.
"Guys, I really don't think this is going anywhere." Randall reluctantly admitted, letting a sigh into his beard, "Let's get it over with."
"Good idea." the Khelari replied bemusedly, and the very next moment disappeared in the hole that had unexpectedly appeared in the chamber floor. No, not a hole - a crack. A long, straight crack that formed when a pair of large base plates came apart, continuing to slide and retract until they'd cleared a hollow square that covered almost a quarter of the chamber's floor space. Even before it had opened to full extension, however, what lay below was clearly visible: a wide and decidedly tall tunnel, constructed of metals belonging to Rikti architecture. Moreover, a multitude of narrow, luminous rods filled the space below the chamber with soft orange light, almost like a European highway tunnel back on Earth, and judging by the mad rush of 18-wheeler-sized vehicles that roared by in an almost constant stream, that's exactly what it was.
"A container street." Sah'Teece put in plain words, seeing well the question written on many of the group's faces, "I had no idea this one still operated. I thought it destroyed in the initial assault."
"So that's what that line of orange lights was when we came in overhead." Sheldon mumbled, fascinated by the 'containers' roaring by, "They're hovering. How fast are these things going?"
"Average speed: 4300 kph." the Rikti Warmaster replied, "Some: give-take."
"So why-?" the inventor reached into the hole, but yanked his hand back in alarm the very next moment, having felt the rabid rush of highly accelerated air against the palm of his glove. With hasty breath, he concluded that if he had reached in there with his bare hand, more than one layer of skin would've been flayed right off, "Okay, I see. So...how do we get in there? Force fields?"
"We could, but Acid Zero would receive too great of a head start." the former diplomat retorted, pointing to another plate in the floor at the far end of the chamber even while he walked to one of the other doors, "No, we will need something faster to catch him. And we shall employ that access ramp to reach the street. Randall Grey, I require your assistance please."
The large man gave a nod, helping Sah'Teece wedge open the doors he'd indicated. Beyond sat another chamber, much like this one. The key difference, however, stood out immediately: that one wasn't empty. Several large containers sat inactive within its walls, and though they looked a bit older than those in the tunnel below, these vehicles were doubtlessly of the same type: large, box-like machines that carried a pair of thrusters attached to the sides of one end, and what looked like a raised wedge at the other. However, the most notable difference only appeared once Sah'Teece had wiped his hand across one of them, thinning the layer of dirt and grime that had collected over the years.
"That's a nice color." Toy Dispenser remarked at the vehicle's green-and-gold paint job, "But I don't see where this is going. Is this thing here faster?"
"What lies inside is." Sah'Teece proclaimed, almost with a twinge of humor in his tone, while he climbed atop the container and manipulated something behind the front end's wedge. The container powered up with the characteristic hum of energy, rising a few centimeters above the floor, and then a ramp at its rear rolled to the floor, allowing view of its interior.
"This one was mine." the former diplomat introduced, the sleek, aerodynamic vehicle in the container, the machine reminding the members of Delta Team of a crossover between fighter plane and race car - partly due to the fact that the latter described it almost perfectly.
Only now did Gaussian's words ring within Randall's head once more; the ones he'd heard so long ago when the man had described Sah'Teece to him: "Apparently he was a Rikti sports hero before he became a diplomat. Some kind of racing, I guess."
Grey found himself wearing a sudden smile in his beard as the former diplomat brought the racer's engines to life, machinery thundering with the satisfied roar of high-powered turbines. Now they had the edge...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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Black.
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No other word could describe this darkness, this utter and complete absence of light.
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No, not complete...not quite.
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It was green. It was tiny. But it was light. Weak, yet steady, the soft green glow of a single LED sat alone in the dark, staving off the shadows with the timeless diligence of a cold machine.
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It would soon receive a respectable amount of help.
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A staccato of thunder tore through the dark, spearheading a shower of sparks as ten shaped charges detonated in simultaneity down to the millisecond, blasting the heavy frame of the reinforced door clear off its hinges with calamitous cacophony. With a crash that nearly rivaled the noise of the demolition, the thick slab of metal made forceful contact with the concrete floor, sending several cracks to spider into the heavy-duty material as it threw a mass of fine dust into the air.
The bright-white cones of flashlights fingered their way into the room, their light dancing about in the haze as brilliant cascades of illumination. With immaculate precision, they wandered into the darkness, chasing the shadows from banks of mothballed monitors and long rows of dusty databases, sweeping light where there had been none for quite some time, and carefully inspecting each and every shelf, keyboard, phone, and rolling chair for anything even remotely threatening.
The seconds ticked by.
Cause now followed effect as the flashlight of a cone crept into the gloom at shoulder height, riding atop the finely crafted muzzle of a decidedly high-tech assault rifle. Barrel followed muzzle, trigger followed barrel, and so did the fingers of the weapon's wielder, trained hands in fingerless gloves holding the rifle steady as a rock.
It was left at that, but not for long - just time enough for the electronic iris of the rifle's scope-mounted thermal camera to pull the far wall into focus. Then the weapon lurched through the doorway at the head of several more, the rapid taps of combat boots sounding upon the concrete, speedily propelling the uniformed individuals they carried into the shadows of the room.
Cones of light swept about once more, but with much less haste now, gently caressing every corner of the formerly pitch-black chamber, their journey now gradual and most careful indeed. They hovered over folders and papers, typed reports and hideously scrawled notes alike, but judging by their unceasing motions, found not that which they sought.
Until one fell upon the light.
One cone vanished to black as the operator's hand slid over the lens of his flashlight, the fingerless glove not permitting the escape of even a single ray. The rifle slowly sank, and in the twilight cast by other cones, a man in midnight blue reached to the apex of his armored helmet, pulling a pair of lowlight goggles before his eyes.
Green iridescence leaped from the electronic eyes, and with a satisfied smirk beneath his identity-obscuring mask, the Tactical Operative threw a pair of fingers first to the right of the active LED, and then the left. Four of his comrades quickly obeyed the silent command, taking up position and sweeping the area for booby traps. After a few seconds, one raised a hand, positioning his fingers to give the all clear.
It didn't take long at all for an Operation Engineer to snatch a nearby rolling chair and place himself in front of the monitor frame that held the active LED. Placing his rifle within his lap, the man cracked his knuckles and pulled a satchel of small tools from his waist. Then he pushed the tip of a finger against the LED. The button depressed.
A line of flicker ran across the monitor, and after a few seconds had passed, a content pane requesting a password be entered appeared in the center of the screen. However, it hadn't appeared alone. While the background had stayed mostly black, a faint symbol stood barely visible behind the password window.
The emblem of Vanguard.
The tech-savvy operative gave a nod of approval, then fished around in his satchel until his search bore fruit: a slip of yellow paper, folded twice. He concealed the note within a fist, turning the chair about to face the black operatives who'd continued their sweeps without interruption.
"All clear." one of them finally confirmed, speaking into a handheld radio as well as to those in the room, "Bunker level 6 is secure. Surveillance presence: negative. It's safe to talk."
The Operation Engineer faced about once more, now unfolding the paper in his hands and placing it before a keyboard on the counter. The slip held a series of letters and numbers, scribbled in careless black, but that didn't seem to bother the Malta Operative. With steady fingers, he entered them into the still-active system, licking his lips in eager anticipation as he tapped the last key.
The system accepted.
In a short burst of static, the password window disappeared, as did the dark background, and not half a second later an image had usurped the monitor in its entirety - an image of a human eye; the iris, to be precise.
"Ready, everybody?" spoke a melodious female voice, and then the eyeball retreated, backing away from the camera just enough to show a small part of the woman's fair face before she moved out of the picture.
A scene of the gathered could now be seen, several people standing or sitting in and about large, old-English wooden chairs, complete with deep-green upholstery and and a tea table that formed the centerpiece. Shelves upon shelves of drab, yet colorful books occupied the background, and the gently flickering flame of a respectably large fireplace provided more than enough illumination, down to the seams in the wooden floor upon which sat a fine Persian rug.
However, the furnishings were decidedly not the interesting aspect of the room shown. That honor belonged to those who'd gathered there: the entire upper echelon of Vanguard. The Dark Watcher of course stood somewhat to the side, looking detached as always, and Borea seemed to be trying her best to imitate him. Gaussian and Levantera occupied two of the chairs, the high-tech hero even having drawn up a soft footstool and placed his boots upon it. Serpent Drummer sat upon the floor with his legs complexly crossed, appearing halfway in mediation, and the Lady Grey formed the scene's centerpiece in a chair of her own.
In her hands she held a sizeable notepad, partially supported by having placed her left leg over her right, several pages already spilling over the pad's upper edge. Her eyes rested upon what stood written there, and it was certain whatever stood on that pad did nothing at all to lift her spirits. The woman who'd a moment ago moved away hadn't reappeared, but she did speak once more.
"Recording..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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