Something Old, Something New (IC)

[Lone Star]

Warlock wiped the sleeping dust from his hands on his robe. "Honestly, I have no freaking idea. This still isn't making sense to me. It's a possibility that this guy wrote those destructive runes, that's what I'm thinking at least. Deep Ones aren't that intelligent, and this guy seemed to be pretty smart. At least, that's what he told me. I still can't imagine why he'd need those artifacts, unless there was something else he was after." He put his arms around his girlfriend's waist, and kissed her cheek. "I was worried about you, babe."

[Raveled]

Ironclad wiggled out of Warlock's arm, patting him on the cheek. "Shouldn't have been," she said, her tone teasing. "Don't you know I'm the mighty and wonderful Ironclad? Paladin of super-science and all around butt-kicker extraordinaire?" She walked over to the far side of the cavern, where the stone bridge widened out to a shelf of sorts. She bent down there and picked up a black rectangle about half her size. "Here's the DNA typer," she said, "along with a whole bunch of test tubes and a couple of needles." She picked a hypodermic up and examined it. "Something on the end -- human blood? Maybe this guy injected himself with something?"

[Lone Star]

Blake walked over to it, and handled it, taking a closer look. "Hmm. Well, there's obviously some science at work here- this much is obvious. This guy may have injected himself with some compound similar to the ones they use in that illegal clinic, the Power-House. I'm betting he used that formula and perfected it, so he could retain his own intellect while being a super-strong badass. That's my theory, anyway. It still doesn't explain about the thaumaturgy symbols. Or why he would need Deep Ones. Want to keep walking?"

[Raveled]

GM

The scientist Blake had fought and laid out began to stir. He also began to shrink before their eyes, losing muscle mass at an appreciable rate and even an inch of height. Before long a much scrawnier figure was lying there. He propped himself up on one elbow and glared at each superhero in turn. "Of course I injected myself," he said, his voice full of spite. "This was the culmination of my life's work. I'd been in contact with those damn antediluvian mutants since college. I managed to isolate the parts of their genome that made them stronger and tougher than humanity, synthesize it, boost it past their potential -- and yes, I injected it in myself. Why should someone else have it!" A sudden coughing fit wracked his body, and when it was done he spit a globule of phlegm into the water. "I've worked my entire life for this. For one damn moment, I was going to be as good as all you freaks. But you had to ruin it, didn't you?" He eased himself back into a prone position, covering his eyes with one arm. "So go ahead. Arrest me or kill me or seal me up in here, I don't care."

[Lone Star]

Blake looked back at the scientist, and smirked at him. "Sorry, I was waiting for you to say 'if it weren't for you meddling kids'. That speech cracks me up everytime I hear it. But no, we're not going to kill you or anything. That'd be much to petty, I think. We're not supervillains or anything. We will have to arrest you, of course, and you'll go to jail for a long time." Blake's expression changed, and it became more serious. "But why through your life away? You're obviously bright, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to give yourself superpowers. You were working in one of the country's premier laboratories. Why do that to yourself?"

[Raveled]

"I had to do it down here," the scientist insisted. "I had to do it on my own, in the worst conditions imaginable, so that everyone would know that I did it!" He was almost in tears by now, even as he kept hurling vitriol at the heroes. "I had to show them all that I could do it without any of those over-developed super-geniuses trying to take credit for my work. Do you know how it feels to ta-- ACK!"

Ironclad moved quickly, even carrying the DNA typer in her hands. Her boot slammed down on his breastbone again, driving the air from the babbling scientist's lungs and cutting off his tirade. As a rule the heroine didn't get mad, but behind her mask she was snarling. "Shut up already! You're supposed to be a scientist? Hiding in the dark and being afraid of someone else 'taking credit' for your work isn't science! Science is about working together with everyone in the world, helping our whole species take steps forward, together! A scientist can't work all alone, concerned with just their own glory. We all have to work together!" She stepped off the man, floating over the water and around Warlock. "You make me sick. If it was up to me, I might just wall you up with fish-face here for a few days. But you're going to face the music for what you did, and then you're going to be locked into an even-smaller cave."

[Lone Star]

Blake's eyes popped open as she slammed her boot down on his chest. He put a hand over her armored gauntlet. "Babe, we can't kill the dude. I know you won't...but he's just an asshole. You know that as well as I do." He glared at the man, and realized how easy it would be for him to die down there. In his heart, he knew it wouldn't be worth it. "He'll be much better off in jail. Just because he wants to take credit for his little experiment doesn't mean he will. In the end, it'll be his price to pay." Blake crossed his arms at the scientist. "You really could have made this into something, you know. People's lives could have been saved, and you had to be an arrogant bastard and keep it to yourself. Like I said, you're lucky we're not supervillains."

[Raveled]

Ironclad hefted the Deep One over one shoulder and lead the way out of the caverns, leaving Warlock to drag the scientist out. She was quiet as they climbed out of the tunnels, choosing to move up the path that her boyfriend had taken down. By the time they emerged in the hallways underneath the museum, the police had already formed a cordon around the hole. They had power nullifier cuffs ready for the Deep One and the scientist. Ironclad watched as the police trucked them away, then armored down.

She stood there for a moment, hugging herself and watching the police vehicles depart. After a minute she turned around and walked back to Blake, her expression downcast. "I'm sorry, babe," she said. "It's just that stuff like this can make me so damn angry."

[Lone Star]

Blake put his arms around her, and held her close. "Babe, it's okay. We're human. And that guy doesn't deserve his degree. He should know that science is for the betterment of mankind. You can't just horde discoveries to yourself, and if it was his project, he would have gotten the recognition he deserved. He was just an arrogant twit who should rot in a jail cell for a while."

He looked into her eyes. "You know what sounds good? Ice cream. I think we kicked enough ass to deserve some chill-time."

[Raveled]

Jessica tried to relax into the hug, but her thoughts kept drifting back to the scientist they had dragged in. She felt the long muscles in her legs twitching; at the moment all she wanted to do was rap open the police van and lay into him. She tried to hold that impulse back and felt herself tensing up. After a moment she stepped away from Blake, hugging herself again. "I'm sorry," she said. "I just... I can't. Not right now." She turned and walked away. Between one step and the next she armored up and leapt into the air, heading... somewhere she could think things through.