Marvel, Rebirth:

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

"Is it normal for the window to be wide open?"

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Jennifer

 

"Well if you returned from the Peak I'm sure I was mentioned, I've only lived there for the last several years and have dedicated my life to researching and completing scientific investigations for SWORD."

 

"Anyway, I am now with SHIELD and I have come prepared." she said as she turned towards the submersible and then pressed a button on a small remote. The sides of the metal craft suddenly released; turning into hatches that opened up; revealing cubbies within filled with various scientific equipment.

 

"What exactly are you trying to learn from the investigation if I might ask?" Jennifer said.

 

"Do you think there are any civilians trapped under rubble or who are injured that could use aid? That might be a more pressing matter for SHIELD agents, but I am also very new to this." she admitted.

 

IC: Nicole

 

Nicole was quietly driving the car; now switched back into her non-diamond form. "Oh, you're awake. I was hoping you wouldn't wake up till we got there." she sighed.

 

"We are tight Dallas. I just wanted to take you on a little trip somewhere and I knew you wouldn't come along willingly, so I decided to just take the initiative, carpe diem, right?"

 

IC: Triblade

 

"I came up huh," Matt paused. "That's very vague. Did it have to do something with me having some sort of feelings for you?" the words left Matt's lips. There he'd finally said it. It was out in the open now. No more holding back.

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"You're a bad liar, Aella." Tera said kindly, but firmly, as well. "What's wrong?"

[shadow pridak money gang]

"You're dead, sir," one of his two enlisted men explained.

Doc Daneeka jerked his head up quickly with resentful distrust. "What's that?"

"You're dead, sir," repeated the other. That's probably the reason you always feel so cold."

"That's right, sir. You've probably been dead all this time and we just didn't detect it."

- Catch-22, Joseph Heller

 

IC: Alaric James Carlisle

 

Mama, take this badge from me

I can't use it anymore

It's getting dark, too dark to see

Feels like I'm knockin' on heaven's door...

 

"Hey, turn that ###### music off," Ric barked at the pilot. "That's not funny."

 

"Of all the terrible ideas you've ever had..." his sister Anberlyn said from the seat while she calmly perused her e-reader.

 

"Not my fault they initiated the O.J. Simpson Gambit with half the state troopers in Colorado," Alaric replied with a cavalier shrug as he pushed his long, coal-colored bangs away from his eyes and put a hand to his brow as he looked down. The sky above him was blue and wide, roaring at the transport craft with all the tenacity of a wounded lioness. It was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen. It was also fifty percent likely to kill him before he ever saw solid ground again. Fair enough. Whenever I took a final I hadn't studied for all semester, I was always happy with a fifty. "If something goes wrong, remember me."

 

"If something goes wrong, I'll record a Vine of the flesh ripping itself from your body and flapping around like a gull over a picnic," Annie said. "Bye Ric. Remember your safety rules?"

 

"Stay calm. Don't open your mouth. Look both ways before crossing the stratosphere. I remember." Alaric threw up the finger, then a thumbs up with matching grin, and fell gracefully out of the side of the transport craft. The roaring pushed into his ears, and yet again, Alaric James Carlisle was needlessly playing Red Rover with his own impending death.

 

***

 

Hank had found Alaric on the roof, drinking a can of beer at a time, smashing it between two fingers, and chucking it down to the courtyard below. They fell like tin snowflakes, battered and full of holes; they landed suddenly, with little clangs! Ric wore a white jacket, half undone, black jeans and boots, with a black-and-gold concho belt. He wore no cap or gown.

"A kid should have more to say at his graduation."

"It feels like a funeral down there. Nobody ever speaks at their own funeral."

"Getting a diploma isn't the end of the world, Ric," Hank said gently, pulling a half-full can of beer from Alaric's hand before he could chug.

"But it feels like it," protested the wild hyperkinetic. "What about you, Doc? Come to play me a dirge?"

Hank laughed, loud and long, putting an arm around his foster son's shoulder and looking towards the same clump of stars Alaric's ultramarine eyes were trained on. "No, Ric. That comes later. Much later."

He didn't know why he remembered that, but for a second, with his wings outstretched over the Colorado highway like a spirit, suspended over the speeding cars, he thought of Hank, of Ashlynn, of Tara, of John, of Matt. Of Warren. Of Anberlyn. Brooklyn and Bekah. He hated them all, with a sudden surge of emotion that he hadn't felt in over a year - it took him several seconds to realize it wasn't hate at all, but love. Loss. Below him, tire screeches and police sirens played Alaric Carlisle's funeral dirge.

Later always came sooner than people wanted it to.

The howling winds ripped the tears right out of his eyes.

Why was he doing this? Not rescuing Zack Summers (that's what heroes do, he reminded himself numbly as his wings ripped themselves through the slits in his t-shirt and out of his back) but...this. Traveling the world playing games with Annie, throwing parties, holding hostages...being a King. If teachers were meant to be kings, we'd all be making much more money. He threw it all away thrice, once for Ashlynn, once for Taralynn, and once for Anberlyn. What had it gotten him each time, but pain, and death, and the slow creeping numbness that swallowed his waking life and beat away at his resolve when he opened his eyes every morning? Where did Alaric Carlisle, the plucky, casual hyperkinetic and BSer emeritus of grading essays end, and where had the cavalier, flippant, friendless Black King of the Hellfire Club begun to seep in and rot away the supports? Who really opened the gates for this? A Worthington, a Carlisle? A Summers? A Howlett? A mix and match?

He didn't have much more time to think on it. The ground was coming. Sooner, rather than later.

***

A black streak hurtled into the trunk, and Zack' Summers' car shook like it had been backhanded by Zeus himself. At first, he slowed down, thinking it was some kind of police device that had smashed into his car, or a bomb. Jordan poked his head out through the roof and ducked only when gunshots went whizzing over his head. When it was safe, he stood, but he didn't see a weapon. Instead, he saw the streak stand, saw that it was wearing fine leather boots, pants and a peacoat over his torso, saw its proud features. He saw the beautiful white wings, angel's wings, stretched out like shields from heaven around the car. Alaric, he thought, but Alaric had gone missing in Vegas, Alaric was dead, everyone had said Alaric was dead. He saw Ric Carlisle smirk. That's not possible. Then he saw what was in each hand.

He heard Ric speak, in a voice that sounded like it was coming from right beside Jordan instead of from five feet away, being buffeted by high winds and the sounds of gunfire: "Is there a problem, officers?"

He saw Ric pull the pins and whip his wrists, like he was throwing a baseball; he saw the grenades hit the ground. He saw a few police officers in the vanguard of the chase pull out their guns and start firing, too, but by then they were in the air, and nothing could hurt them.

They had to hold their breaths for a bit (not being geared to flight and different altitudes the way Ric was) but they set foot on the craft and the metal sliding doors shut with a large BANG behind the hyperkinetic. His wings folded gracefully into his back again and he moved his hand up to push the windswept hair from his eyes again. He grinned at Jordan, who was staring at him, gaping with open eyes.

"Ric?"

"Okay, I can explain."

"No, Ric, you--"

"No, look, kid, just hear me out."

"RIC!" Zack and Jordan yelled together.

"What?" snapped the history teacher, clearly sulky at his grand explanation being interrupted.

"You got shot, dumbass," said his sister. Alaric Carlisle turned to the kids, then back to her, and started to laugh. He realized, too late, that the warm taste of copper was on his tongue and lips, and reached down to his chest. His black shirt was wet and clinging to his sternum, and he said "Oh" in a quiet little voice before continuing, "Wake me when we get there, then," falling to his knees and dying.

***

It was always cold, the place Alaric Carlisle went to die. Cold and dark, and the feeling he got when he abandoned it was a lot like having a plunger sucked off your face at once by a frat brother, leaving you to gasp in dry air for the first time in hours. Jordan was leaning over him, eyes wide, face pale. Zack flipped a coin and watched expressionlessly. The Black King blinked groggily at the sunlight in the windshield; his ultramarine eyes danced as the spark of life returned to them, and so did the etching on his Worthington ring; both had pleasant little tangerine sprinkles spritz through them before fading as he sat up. "We about to land?"

"Twenty minutes. You died just on time," said his sister flippantly.

The King blinked. "Right," he said, and turned his gaze toward home. Right. He knew there was something he was forgetting, something he had been worrying about before he felt so cold, but it danced like the sunlight did, just beyond his grasp. Whatever.

It would come to him, sooner or later.

-Tyler

Edited January 19, 2014 by Aegon Targaryen

[Constructelf]

IC Tokiomi

"USADRC and FEMA should be able to take of civilian aid. Now that some time has passed, groups specifically designed for disaster relief should be doing their jobs, leaving room for us SHIELD agents." Tokiomi walked to the edge of the beach and stared out at the ocean. "What exactly am I trying to learn from this investigation? Well, if that giant robot just rose out of the sea in the manner that news broadcasts portrayed it, then it must have been lying down on the ocean floor for some time; as such, it would have let a mark. As well, it had to have gotten here somehow; perhaps we can trace it?"

 

Gesturing to a seemingly random spot in the water, Tokiomi continued speaking. "The robot rose out of the ocean somewhere about half a mile in that direction. From the movements it made when getting up, it would have been in a lying down position at the time. There should be a very noticeable depression in the ocean floor somewhere there; after all, an object of that mass would surely leave a mark. We can work from there. What truly intrigues me, however," he said, his voice growing softer, "is how the much had gotten there in the first place. It didn't seem to have any transformation capabilities, so how did it get to that spot in the first place? And even more startling, how did it slip under our radar?"

[JiMing]

OOC: Gonna have Vivus join the party, as Flaredrick didn't respond to my question in the Discussion topic.

 

IC: TLAW-001 Vivus

 

As Tokiomi and Jennifer were discussing, a small private plane landed not too far away from them. Vivus quickly got out, and walked over to both of them.

 

"Hi, you may or may not know me, but I go by Vivus." he said to Tokiomi. "Didn't you need help with your investigation? I'd be willing to help out any way I can, but I haven't been in the field much..." he muttered, then turning to Jennifer and nodding.

 

OOC: Tell me if anything needs to be changed.

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

"...maybe?" Ashley looked around the room, then glanced at the floor, there was...red stuff?

 

"Oh no."

 

IC: Aella

 

I looked away from Tera, looking back toward the ceiling. "It's...a little hard to explain..." I begin, still unsure if I want to actually tell her. "Sometimes I become...panicked I guess...when I think about certain things I start to feel like I'm in danger...like I'm trapped..." I hugged myself, I was feeling those things as I spoke.

 

"There's something wrong with me isn't there?"

[Constructelf]

IC Tokiomi

"Welcome," Tokiomi greeted as he turned to face the newcomer. "Tokiomi Nagato at your service. I'm not too sure exactly what we will be needing at this moment, but more heads on the case will surely be a help."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"You know, last time you kidnapped me and held me against my will, at least it was kind of cute, in an obsessive way. And we got dinner out of it. I don't remember chains," he groaned. "Or a bottle to the face. What the heII, Nicole? What are you doing?" A couple second went by without an answer. "Do I at least have a right to turn on Pandora?"

 

IC:

 

"I don't know, Summers," Aleks said, eyes in the driver's door mirror, weaving through the traffic with a little more ease the closer they got to New York City. "I don't know what to think, man. I don't know whether to laugh it off, or make fun of Christine, or make fun of you, or believe it, or...what?"

 

-Tyler

[Makuta of Time]

IC: 'Marauder'

He smoked a cig while standing up straight. His face was covered in war and blood from years ago. Now here he is, with a government agency with a huge name that they just call S.H.I.E.L.D. One thing's for sure, New York is becoming a center for disaster. First was the HYDRA attack a year ago, and now this. Things just couldn't get worse.

He got his things ready as he preeped his jet for take off to New York to help assess the damage. The smoke bellowed out of his mouth as the bud of the cigarette light up. He then threw it on the ground, and squished it with his boot. "Can't risk smoking on this flight."

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Conrad

 

Would you look at that. Conrad thought bitterly. In one fell swoop their targets had been snatched from their vehicle and pulled up into the air by what looked like an angel. But Conrad knew better, it was a mutant. He'd been forced to swerve out of the way of an exploding grenade which did more damage to the police car behind him.

 

They were gone, there would be no finding them any time soon now. Conrad hit the brakes and slowed down.

 

"I'm done here, the targets are gone. I received a transmission from Red Skull earlier about two missing experiments. I'm leaving now to track them down. Would either of you care to join me or am I going in alone?" he radioed in to Reptilian and Bootleg in the vehicle ahead of him.

 

IC: Jennifer

 

"Hmm," she said thinking for a moment. "You said it didn't seem to have any transformation abilities, but that doesn't mean it didn't."

 

"It seems we will have to go underwater to take a look. Are you thinking scuba gear or using the submersible?" she had her own hypothesis on possibly how the Sleeper had gotten this close to the city undetected, but she wasn't sure.

 

Jennifer turned to Vivus and then smiled. She recalled him from the Hellicarrier some time ago.

 

"Nice to see you again Vivus, though I wish it were under less dire circumstances. We were just about to attempt to investigate where the sleeper rose from the ocean. And don't worry that makes two of us." she winked.

 

IC: Nicole

 

"Who said you weren't getting dinner out of this?" Nicole pouted. "And when did chains become not cute? They are just dog leashes, don't worry. Plus I thought maybe you were into some kinky stuff." she joked.

 

"Sure you can turn on Pandora, I don't mind." she shrugged as she continued driving. They would be nearing the city soon.

 

"I'm sorry about the bottle to the face thing, I really am. It pained me to harm your beautiful face in any way. Once we have arrived I'll get a healer to look you over and make sure you're perfect again."

 

IC: Triblade

 

"I don't know what to do either, but its the truth." he said as he looked out the window.

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

For several long moments, silence reigned. Aella kept hugging herself, looking away from Tera so she couldn't see her reaction, trying to deal with the emotional turmoil within her. All she could hear were the distant sounds of Mikhail cooking, and the steady, quiet pace of Tera's breath.

 

Finally, the silence was broken,.

 

"Aella, look at me." A pause, then Tera gently pushed Aella's head slightly to the right so she could see her face. "Look at me, and listen very, very carefully."

 

"There's nothing wrong with you."

 

"You were kept captive for over year, and furthermore, that year is all that you can remember. You were forced to undergo God knows what during that time, and you've only been free a day. You could very well be traumatized, and no one would blame you one bit." She paused, smiling slightly. "Truthfully, I'm shocked that you're able to even think about trusting anyone so quickly."

 

The martial artist leaned down, hugging her tightly. "You're a good person, and a strong one at that. But you're scared. Scared that you'll be captured, scared they'll find you, and maybe even a little scared of what you might find in the world. But that's okay. Being scared is normal."

[Makuta of Time]

IC: Maruader

He then gets the jet set, and takes off to New York which was who knows how far away from the Carrier's current position.

Edited January 19, 2014 by Punished Snake

[Snelly]

IC: Aella

 

As Tera hugged me I just lay there, like a statue. She was right, I was scared, terrified really. It was paralyzing. I knew what they would do to me if they caught me, it would be something for worse than anything they'd put me through before...

 

Tera though, she was the one thing that was making me feel safe, I could feel the tension ease away. Finally I returned the hug just as tightly, I buried my face into her shirt. I couldn't even cry, I was too exhausted.

 

"Will these feelings ever go away?" I dared to ask into her shirt, but I was afraid of what the answer might be.

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"I don't know." Tera admitted quietly, tightening her embrace slightly. "I've never dealt with this before. But I think it will. You're a strong person, and I intend to make sure that you have a good long time to get better. After all, the quicker you get better the sooner you don't have to stay in an apartment meant for one or two with a SHIELD agent, a curious little girl, and myself."

 

"I suspect that that would be a nice incentive."

[EmperorWhenua]

Ic:

Annie Worthington stared at the deck of cards on the table in front of her with suspicion. "You mean to tell me," she said slowly, "that you can flip all fifty-two cards out and remember what order they are in, even after I shuffle them to make sure you're not cheating?" She was only a teenager then, barely fifteen and already spirited as ever. Her high-pitched voice and innate curiosity was only countered by her careful demeanor and mature analysis of the scene.

"Yes," the man said. "It's easy, really. The memorization of the order of these cards is, well, child's play." It was supposed to be a quip to her age but it fell short like a V-Bomb and missed the target entirely, garnering the man no reaction from the girl he was sorely trying to break the ice with. His assistant grimaced from the humorless phrase.

Annie stroked her cheekbone in thought. "How?"

"It's simple, really," he began. He tapped his forehead. "It's a technique that dates back to the ancient Greeks, called the 'mind palace.' I take everything I learn and put it in a place in my 'mind palace' and recall it by pictures, images, the like, all of which are placed in rooms, walls, hallways, furniture, etcetera. Playing cards such as these," he explained as he picked one up and showed it off -- a king of diamonds -- "are just pictures. They're easily stashed."

The rail-thin girl leaned back in her chair and folded her arms, causing her black leather biker's jacket to creak from the movements. It was obvious that she wasn't buying it, but something in her eyes shared that she was still intrigued. The two middle-aged men in the employ of a mafioso didn't seem all too enthused by that telling, however; they knew that they were in the company of an unpredictable, vengeful crime queen. Her size and voice had nothing to do with her temperament or violent tendencies. Or so they were told beforehand.

"You don't seem impressed," the man said. He hoped it wasn't his lame not-joke. Anything but that. Anything that didn't awaken the dragon.

"I'm just thinking," Annie said but didn't immediately follow through with the thought. The men seated opposite her exchanged worried glances. Bad things were said to happen when Annie exercised her venerable head. She dispelled their concerns by finally wrapping her sentence up: "Why a palace?"

"Excuse me?"

"It just doesn't make much sense. Why is it called a mind palace?"

"Because it's supposed to be a large place with many rooms and walls to put things in. It's only a name..."

"Well, it's a stupid name," she blurted out. "What you're making me imagine isn't a palace at all, it's a virtual museum. That sound right?"

"I suppose."

"Doctor, we live in a world inhabited by mutants. They may be rare but they are more common than you think. You know I'm one, right?" Annie said. She remained in her relaxed, -all posture, arms crossed, leaned back, chair rocking gently on its rear legs, eyes sort of lazily drilling into the skull of the men with her. Those eyes, so vibrant with energy but remarkably relaxed, seemed to peer at everything with critical sense, and the two men hired to teach Annie a thing or two about mental capabilities were left shaking in their wingtips from the eye brief contact. They felt violated by those eyes, oppressed even, as if they were being scanned for any hint of worry. They were a pitbull's eyes, seeking fear, inspiring it and feeding off of it.

"I do," the psychologist asserted. "That's no secret."

"That's basically one of the only things that keeps me alive and in charge around here. You think these goons would follow a girl who can't even legally drive, smoke or blow a college kid's whistle? no. They listen to me because of what I am. But if there's me, there are plenty of others. I hear the Big Apple has lots of other mutants. Some, I'd bet, are psychic freaks."

"I'm not sure what you're getting at," the man said, honestly not following the girl he now clearly figured was demented in some way.

"I'll tell you what I'm getting at: I'm a high-value, high-risk target. I see things, do things, things that are not important to some cocksucker on highlife street but important to plenty of sods, pathétiques and coppers. I have a reputation. Now, imagine what would happen if some other guy wanted to know what I know? What if I stored anything I learned in some mental vault? What if some psychic freak tried to get at my head? Well, that wouldn't be any good for me, would it?" she scoffed and lit a cigarette before nonchalantly sucking the smoke out of it and blowing it at the two men. "I'll keep my mind palace in my ..." She brushed her hair aside with her free hand and poked her forehead with the index finger. "Up here, though, I'll have my mental fortess, filled with traps and snares and bloodstained walls. If anyone gets in my head I want them to suffer for it." The men didn't question it.

She laughed, basically snickered, then leaned forward, shuffled the deck of cards and nudged them to the psychologist in the brown polyester shirt. "Now, show me what you came here to show. Impress me." It was his last chance. She needed to know she wasn't being played a fool.

The doctor obliged by picking the deck up and quickly flipping through each card in silence, spending only a fraction of a second on each one. When he was finished he passed the deck back to Annie. "Pick each card up and look at it to yourself; I'll tell you what you're looking at." And so he did. One after the other after the other, fifty-two times. She urged him to do it again and a third time in a burst of enthusiastic intrigue, each time trying and failing to find a cheating method. Finally, she was satisfied that it was legit.

She picked the deck up and threw it in the air. The cards all fell in a scatter around them and Annie's thin smile seemed to broaden. "Thank you for the demonstration, it was cool; and I'll be sure to look up 'mind palace' on Wikipedia and books and . But while you shared something with me, I also shared with you."

"What was that?" the men said, getting up, sensing the meeting was coming to a close.

"Sit your asses back down. I'm not getting up yet," the commanded with the authority of royalty; the men slowly and reluctantly did so. "My approval, my worries and my strategy," she answered. "Letting you go back to the don wouldn't be wise of me. I'm no kid. I'm not naive. I don't make kid mistakes." Those eyes. "So I'm going to murder you!" she chirped.

* * * * *

"So what did you do to them?" Alaric asked his sister as they sat in opposite lounge chairs, looking at a crackling morning fire and sipping matching Irish coffees. After a full-night's rest from their return trip to the Hellfire mansion they had eagerly reunited to share stories of their past lives, or at least Alaric was very interested in his sister and she was more than willing to indulge him.

"What do you think I did? I killed them. How? I shrank them down to rat size and popped their heads like grapes." She sipped the steaming drink as if she just stated the most obvious factoid ever. "I sent their bodies back to the don with my thank-you card, telling him they were quite the circus acts. He never figured that I took their lesson to heart and never bothered me afterward."

 

The silent footsteps of a servant and the muffled clatter of a serving tray on a table vaguely alerted them to the coming message. "Sir, madam, your breakfasts," he said and offered them both covered silver platters. "Next time I'll tell you how I got the Jewish mafia to be my b's," she teased before she seized her fork and attacked the smiley face pancakes with the ferocity of a tigress.

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

IC: "Well I have no idea how to track angels, so continuing this chase is futile," Bootleg answered to Conrad, "And seems a shame to waste getting all dolled up. Count me in."

 

 

IC: The sewers were unpleasant but at least they were quiet. There were always rumours about alligators, mutants and mutant alligators, and Magnitude was always a bit uneasy in confined spaces. He wasn't claustrophobic, he just didn't like having the growth aspects of his power rendered more of a liability than an advantage.

 

"We nearly there," he asked Scorcher, who was leading

 

 

IC: Alec let the girls go, Tali having nothing to add and Kristen clearly wanting to be elsewhere. Since John didn't seem to be up to anything of his usual standard of terrible at the moment, what else could he, Alec Trask, Master Problem Solver, find to fix in the school...

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"It looks like someone got drunk." I say distastefully, having never liked alcohol's taste or effects. "Maybe they jumped."

[Eevee]

IC

 

Lynae had made it away from her guests and had snuck into her male counter part's room. She crinkled her nose in disgust as she walked through, her eyes looking at the empty bottles lined up at the window.

 

Disguisting.

 

She sighed and sat down in one of Alaric's chairs, glass of wine in her perfectly manicured hand. Her fangs were slightly pertruding as she faced away from the door, playing the waiting game was never fun.

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Conrad

 

"Excellent," Conrad commented. "Now let me pull some of my resources..." he said. He pulled out his laptop and set it on his lap before he began furiously typing away. He sent an encrypted message to one of his contacts. A very skilled hacker named Ryck.

 

>>I'm looking for two escaped Hydra experiments. Aella and Trininty. I'm sending you they're files for reference. I want you to hack every surveliance camera you can find in the world and use your program to match their faces.

 

>>You don't have to explain to me how to do my job. I want 5,000.

 

>>5,000 it is. Now hurry I want to find these little doves soon and return them to the nest.

 

>>Good. I'm running it now. Shouldn't be long until I catch a glimpse of them somewhere...

IC: Scorcher

 

"Yeah we are. Just about another 100 feet." he said. He was currently walking ahead with both hands lit on fire so they could see.

 

"Its disgusting down here." Miranda said from somewhere behind.

 

"Yeah well this was the best option. Suck it up we're almost done." he said. He then stopped and looked up at a metal ladder. "This leads up to a manhole in the alley next to our apartment. We're here." he said. He then let the fire die down on his hands and grasped the metal ladder before climbing upwards. He pushed the manhole open and then pulled himself up to the alleyway above.

 

IC: Mimic

 

Christine stopped at the Danger Room control panel and typed in her usual acess codes for the setting and dificulty she enjoyed. She then stepped inside and waited as the metal door slid shut and the hologram started up. The metal room around her suddenly shifted into the redwood forrest. Christine looked upwards as the massive trees extended what seemed like forever towards the sky above. Her vision focused infront of her as she saw some blue code start to take the shape of three figures. Then they solidified into familiar people: Aleks, Matt and John. She liked to train herself against people she knew. Not because she had anything against them; but because it gave her the option to absorb one of their powers, and help her to train in that power.

 

"Well then let's get started." Christine smirked. She raised her gun and then fired at her three foes. A burst of kinetic energy tore through Matt's chest; knocking the bullets away. One of the bullets hit John in his shoulder. He grunted as he slid his claws out and then charged towards her.

Edited January 19, 2014 by Flex Cop

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"I think I'm swelling," Dal complained. "What the heII, Nicole, you couldn't have just asked me if I wanted to go the city--why are we going to the city anyway? Watched the news lately?"

 

IC:

 

Alaric chewed on a strip of bacon and listened with one ear to Anberlyn's increasingly disturbed, recurringly macabre war stories about her early life. His childhood had been dances and cheating on tests, outlandish vacations and spring breaks, a landslide victory to king of the senior prom instead of muscling his way into king of the streets. From the sounds of things, he would have given anything not to be her. Or a mob enforcer, he thought, and smirked wryly. His smartphone vibrated in his pocket and he snapped the piece of bacon in two nimbly between his fingers. With his left hand he pulled the iPhone out of his pocket and tapped in his passcode, eating one strip of bacon out of his grip and then the other.

 

Ric... I'm feeling a bit lonely, honey. I'm waiting for you in your room <3

 

Sigh.

 

Momma always told me not to keep a lady waiting. Alaric's impending departure must have been sensed somehow, because Annie looked up and made the typical "do you have tooooo" noises. He shrugged her off with a "It's just business" even though with his Black Queen just business could spin into any number of other meanings and tangents with a single misplaced word, flirtatious or otherwise. Her appointment had been a concession to some of the more supernatural elements in the club, and Annie had protested it every step of the way, but the old White Queen had been killed at her lover's hands and Lynae had stepped right into it. It wouldn't do to have both siblings as Black King and Queen, so to keep eyes and ears on more people Alaric had given her the title of White Queen and taken Lynae on as his own partner.

 

As time went on, the pragmatic display seemed like less and less of a raw deal. He'd grown fond of Lynae, in his own way, and though he had a time-tested record of falling for redheads, only a fool would deny that she was easy on the eyes. Smart, too. Not as brash as Jace Pulliam was, not as psychotic as my sister, but just as dangerous as either.

 

Stopping only for a few seconds to wash his hands after breakfast (nothing like cleanliness) he rode the elevator up to his floor of the Hellfire mansion. The door to the living room of his villa was only a few paces to the right and he turned the knob mildly enough to slip in. Lynae was on his loveseat, curled up with a glass of red (very red) and a short black dress.

 

"Momma taught me well, I guess," he said, taking off his jacket and hanging it up a little neurotically. The bullet wound in his chest peeked out through the v in the neck of his t-shirt; his wounds always took a day or two to disappear completely after his resuscitation. He would have felt a little uncomfortable about wearing just a t-shirt, but if he couldn't feel comfortable on his own days off, in his own Mansion, then what was the point of unlimited power?

 

He performed a sort of trust fall into the seat across from Lynae and pushed his long, jet black hair out of his eyes again. Might be time for a cut.

 

-Tyler

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Nicole

 

"Here take some of these," Nicole said as she tossed a bottle of pills towards Dallas. "They should help with the swelling."

 

"The news? Not really. I hate the news, its sooo boring. We're headed into the city because there is a nice mansion I want to show you. Its my new home away from home." she continued to speed down the road; taking the exit off the freeway and now merging onto one of the streets within the city. It would be only a few more minutes until they were there, Nicole was so excited.

 

"Plus there is someone I'm sure you want to see again." she smiled. If only Dallas knew who he would find still alive.

[AuRon the champion]

Ic:

 

Trinity quietly flipped through the pocket dictionary, waiting for Tera to stop talking to Aella to ask her next question.

[Eevee]

IC

 

Lynae grinned, extending her long legs to gently brush against his. "Mmm I'm glad you came so quickly.." She slowly stood up, leaning over Ric.

 

"Tsk, you're starting to look like a mess, my dear." She commented as she looked at his hair.

 

"Everyone who saw me on YouTube said I looked gorgeous," he said back with a deliberate pout, eyes closed.

 

"Yes the foolish mortals..." She jokingly said as she caressed his cheeks before taking her place on his lap.

 

"I spent two years as a history teacher. I've seen what passed for gorgeous back in the day - I'm better looking than all of them." Alaric opened his eyes and tilted his head at Lynae curiously, like a feline. "Try not to spill that on me. Blood's a ###### to get out of clothes, and I've lost four shirts since Thanksgiving.

 

"Mmm I wouldn't spill this... It's my favorite." She his peered softly in his ear, her fangs gracing his skin in such a way that it sent shivers down his spin.

 

"I hope you brushed this morning," said Alaric Carlisle dryly. "I like your dress."

 

"Of course I did. I'm not a savage." She retorted, before looking at him. "Oh? What do you like about it?"

 

"The fabric," he shot back.

 

"Mmm yess... It is a nice fabric.." She gently rubbed his shoulders. "Sadly, I didn't call you here to play, Ric my dear. We have business to attend to."

[Snelly]

IC: Aella

 

"Well..when you put it like that...I think it will probably be a while. I mean, it could end up being delayed even...you never know."

 

IC: Ashley

 

Ashley glanced at the window. "Maybe..." Somehow she sensed that Dallas hadn't been in this room however.

 

"We should check Alaric's old classroom....I've got a hunch from a tomato plant that we should look in there."

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"From a what?"

[EmperorWhenua]

Ic: Anberlyn stared at the fire with those same curious eyes and got lost in the flickering tongues as Alaric's footsteps slowly echoed away. "Hey, flames," she whispered mildly as she tore through half a bacon slice. The little flames lapped the wood with the gentleness of a kitten's tongue as it drank milk. "It seems you're my friends for the morning."

 

They crackled back meekly but the White Queen wasn't happy with it; she tossed the remaining half of her bacon into the pit and the fire instantly feasted on the grease with ravenous fury and it wasted no time to continue its rampage on the wood. Anberlyn mused on that display and thought on how the simplest of things could become so violent if they were just teased with the promise of opportunity. Oftentimes the most stupid and simple of men were enraptured with lustful desires that were truly out of their reach for a good long while, but if they were just granted a taste of something great they would surge forward with renewed energy and devour even the lesser things in their re-energized path. But it was a destructive path to all parties; the bacon grease was long lone by the time the fire went on to disestablish the log formation and send it crashing down, smothering the fires back to their previous state of meek lapping.

 

Only the goddess remained, the giver of bacon, and was left untouched for being so far removed from the conflict despite being the one to catalyze it in the first place. She knew how to play that game as the amoral overlord; that was how she survived all those years, starting in the orphanages and foster homes, then the Buffalo streets, the Brooklyn blocks, the Manhattan parks. She toyed with people, saw their desires, granted them and then let them destroy themselves like little kamikaze bombs.

 

It was a long struggle to the top, and even then she was only queen bee because she didn't abide with having people over her. She hated authority, despised it, and whenever some bigger boss tried to lay a finger on her to settle her into his own game she would bite back with the vicious energy of a cornered tigress and left the same sort of message all over: I make my own rules.

 

She left those bosses alone for the most part. She still hated them but despite her loathe of authority she accepted that they were still useful, even to her. They kept other lesser bosses out of her way and some even pledged to help "the little queen of the Lower East Side." Despite everything she did stick to her word, and through that she won allies -- no friends, just allies. Honor was a desirable facet of a crime lord's personality, after all. By the time she declared her job over she had turned the little biker gang of miscreants into a miniature army of drug and gun runners.

 

It was surprisingly easy to let that old life go. For her underlings it was a way of life, something that they felt alive doing, and though it was likely to land them in an early grave they loved doing it. Annie felt no such attachment to it; it was just a job to her, a means to an end. Four years as queen didn't make her change her opinion of it. Instead, it was always about crawling out of that pit, clawing up skyscrapers to reach for the polluted skyline that lingered out of reach, just for the chance -- for the chance! -- to brake her father's spine and carve his wings off like he was a roasted turkey on a Thanksgiving table. She, too, was like those flames... once. She, too, had been a meek little thing trying to make her way through to a higher existence... once.

 

She made it to the top. She got what she strove for. It was all hers now: The name, the title, the money, the power, even the revenge was tantalizingly close. But not close enough.

 

The flames were dying, saved only by a servant's deft hand at restructuring the pile of charred logs and tossing more fuel to the embers. But the flames' jobs weren't done yet; the servant stacked two more logs to replace the broken ones.

 

The job was never done.

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

"Well...plants that get exposed to my powers sometimes...become sentient..." Ashley began explaining as they headed out of the party room and toward the classrooms.

 

"Well, once a plant becomes self-aware and all that...I can communicate with it telepathically." Ashley sighed, "They say a lot of strange things to me in my head quite often."

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"So, if you were to not water one, you could hear it's dying screams of agony?" I say, following her out of the room. "Sorry. That's not funny."

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

"Yeahhhhhhh....that's why I'm so enthusiastic about gardening." Ashley sighed, "They complain about how we pluck things off them and eat it too, but I keep explaining to them that we'd all starve to death if we didn't."

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"Is there anyway to reverse it? Seems like you would get tired of little voices in your head. I only have one and is a BIG problem." What am I talking about?

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"Oh?" Tera asked, one eyebrow raising as a note of amusement crept into her voice. She carefully sat back up, resuming the position that allowed her to look down at Aella from her seated posture. "If I didn't know better, I'd say it sounded like you weren't too keen to go."

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

"It's okay I'm friends with all the voices in my head!" Ashley chirped as they entered the classroom. She grew rather silent as she looked around, there was lots of booze, some broken glass, and more RED STUFF.

 

"Oh yeah...Dallas was definitely here."

 

IC: Aella

 

"Well, I don't really have anywhere to go anyway...and besides I don't think I'm ever leaving this couch." I smiled cheekily.

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"So this Dallas...he must party rough if this is the norm for him. Either that or he's a magnet for trouble."

Edited January 19, 2014 by Cupcake Killer

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

"Yeahhhhhhh...kind of both..." Ashley knelt down to investigate the crime scene further, the tomato plant on the window sill nearby started twitching for the briefest moment.

 

Ashley could smell a really strange and overdone scent of perfume, it was almost too much for her nose.

 

​"Ohhhh I get it! Nicole probably knocked Dallas unconscious and dragged him out the window!" She looked up at the tomato plant. "Wait...SHE KIDNAPPED HIM!"

 

Ashley screamed.

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"Yeah, you've got a point there."

 

Tera paused, surveying the room. "I'll probably claim that section of floor near the window when we sleep tonight. It's carpeted, so it'll be more comfortable than most of the other options."

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"Who's Nicole?"

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

"She's another student here, she was the former President's daughter and stuff..." Ashley slowly stood up, actually looking a bit worried and unnerved, something that was rare for her. "Anyway, she tends to do things that are against the law! Like kidnapping my boyfriend."

 

Ashley dashed toward the open window. "We need to find them! Maybe they didn't get that far!" She was already putting a leg out of the window, ready to jump.

 

IC: Aella

 

"Well...we could share the couch...I mean it's pretty big!" The floor didn't sound all that comfortable to me.

Edited January 19, 2014 by Yoko Littner

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"Do you have a plan to avoid becoming an Ashley pancake?"

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

Ashley looked out the window and took a good long look at the ground below. "Ummmmm...I didn't get that far with the plan no."