Back to the Present [AoO]

[Heridfel]

Poltergeist snarls at Icarus. The shades do follow her down, surrounding her in darkness. Icarus can still see through it, but then, something very strange happens. She touches each of the shadows, and the three of them disappear. They were there, and then, all of a sudden, they were somewhere else.

Despite his confusion, overall, Icarus is proud of himself, and much calmer now that he has not just reacted to what others were doing. With that calm, the mind of Sean Parker is able to return.

"What the..." he trails off, looking around Freedom City. Sean glances back over his shoulder and notices the wings flapping. With a thought, they are absorbed into the armor, and he lands almost exactly where Poltergeist last was.

"I blacked out. It's been years... and I know I haven't had anything to drink," he says. "What's going on? I've got to find the others, and stay out of sight of the Centurion." He starts to float down the street, but quickly realizes that that will draw more attention than he wants. Instead, he concentrates, and the battlesuit takes the form of a t-shirt and blue jeans. It doesn't quite look like cotton and denim, but it's enough for anyone who isn't looking too closely for him. His face is exposed, but heck - he's supposed to be dead here anyway, and he died at twice his apparent age. No one should be able to recognize him except for Nanowire.

[Avalon]

Grimalkin's attack hits a seam in the drone's armor and it crumples to the ground from the blow.

Seeing that the turn of events is not to his liking, Stygwyr issues new order to the remaining drones.

"Drones, retreat back to base. I'll handle them myself..."

Hearing his order, the drones rise up into the air and speed away quickly into the horizon.

"Now, where was I? Oh yes... How effectively can you fight if your organs begin to rot and fester?

Taking a deep breath, he breathes out a poisonous cloud onto the heroes then sinks down fifty feet into the pavement.

[Heridfel]

Foreshadow steps to one side of a dumpster as the cloud of poisonous gas passes by. He doesn't even bother to cover his mouth, but waits for an opening from the Omegadrones or Bloodseeker.

Rant, on the other hand, does duck down and cover his head with his sleeve. He coughs slightly as the miasma envelops him, but when it passes, he doesn't seem harmed. He looks about wildly to see where Bloodseeker went. When he doesn't see anyone, he shouts, "Show yourself, coward!"

[Heritage]

Grim's eyes go wide as the deadly cloud billows in her direction; she quickly drops to the ground and covers her mouth and nose as tightly as possible, but some of it manages to squirm under her eyelids where it stings like battery acid, and the smell manages to reach her hypersensitive nose.

Dear God, what is that? Oh God, it's awful!

Though she is still hiding her form, the gas clearly outlines the space Grim occupies for all to see; she waits a few moments for what she hopes is the worst of the gas to pass, then cautiously raises her head for a look 'round, nose running and red eyes streaming tears as she shimmers back to visibility.

"Where'd he go," she whispers hoarsely.

[Veiled Malice]

Completely unaffected by the cloud of noxious gas by virtue of not having to breathe, Nanowire stormed out of the alleyway in time to see their adversary sink into the ground. There wasn't much he could do to the man when he was out of range in that way, so he instead went up to Grim.

"Are you okay?" he said quietly enough so only she'd be able to hear him. "Did it get you?"

[Avalon]

Stygwyr suddenly bursts out of the pavement some distance away from Rant with both claws aimed at the other's chest.

"Do not think that I have escaped from the battlefield young one. I will just pick you all off at my leisure."

He attempts to stab the young freedom fighter before diving headfirst back into the ground.

[Heritage]

"Are you okay?" he said quietly enough so only she'd be able to hear him. "Did it get you?"

She nods her head as she coughs a bit more before replying in a breathy whisper. "Yeah, I think I missed the worst of it, though I bet I get cancer from it some day."

[Heridfel]

Rant cries out in pain as Bloodseeker slices at him viciously. He falls to the ground, bleeding heavily. He isn't unconscious, but the way he's blinking looks like a deer that was just hit by a car. Another hit like that could easily kill him.

Foreshadow shouts out, "Nanowire, get him out of here. We will regroup in one hour!"

[Veiled Malice]

Hearing his name, Nanowire spun around on Foreshadow and prepared to say something, but chocked it back. "Understood!" he shouted instead.

He looked back down at Grimalkin. "Sorry about this in advance," he said with no small amount of regret. Without waiting for a response, Nanowire scooped the girl up and slung her over his shoulder. Right now, he needed both his arms for carrying people, and didn't have the time to situate her properly. He'd get yelled at later, no doubt, but at least she'd be out of there.

With Grimalkin being carried like a sack of potatoes, Nanowire swung towards Rant and boosted towards him, fully intending to scoop him up while on the run.

[Heritage]

"Sorry about this in advance."

There is a quick yelp from Grim as she is snatched up, but then she quickly goes limp.

"No worries; I love it when I don't die."

Ren can hear the smile in her soft voice, and a gloved hand strokes his smooth metalic back.

[Heridfel]

Foreshadow leaps off a wall, grabbing onto a fire escape and quickly climbing up two flights of rickety metal stairs. By the time that Bloodseeker next emerges from the ground, the alleyway has been cleared of the foes that he had been attacking. The sound of a rocket blasting away gives some hint as to where some of them may have gone, but they certainly seem to know how to retreat.

[Heridfel]

Sean walks down the street. Even though the weather is a little muggy, most of the people on the street seem to be wearing more concealing clothes than what he has on. But even more disturbing than the poor fashion sense displayed is the universal expression on their faces. They look afraid, but more than that - tired. They seem to have accepted that life is misery, and that's something that Sean had never thought he'd see on Freedom City-dwellers' faces. No one even seems willing to meet his eyes, and they shy away from him, like they can sense there's something different about him.

Across the street from him, two sets of eyes notice Sean's presence. One of the sets, belonging to a tall man with long, dark brown hair and wiry muscles stretched tight under a mechanic's worksuit, blinks twice, then looks to his companion. He nudges the man next to him, who is as fat as the other man is tall. His hair has receded halfway up his head, and he doesn't look like he's ever worked a day in his life.

"You see him?" he asks. The fat man shades his eyes from the sun and steps forward. He nods slowly, growing in confidence.

"He's going to get himself killed. And I'm not going to let that happen again," he says. The tall man grits his teeth. When he speaks, it's like a hiss.

"You don't even remember him, except for pictures and the stories Grandmom told us. I remember when he handed you to me, told me to keep you safe. We both owe him more than we could ever repay," he says.

The fat man... shifts. Where he stood is now a young woman a head shorter than the man beside her.

"He looks so young - younger than you, even," she says. "What if he's not the one?"

The tall man glances over to her and frowns, "Of course it's him. Don't you see the resemblence?" She studies him, and Sean, who's nearly a block away by now.

"Not from here. Come on, let's get closer," she says, and pulls him along after her.

[Veiled Malice]

Scooping up the sonic blaster Rant along the way, Nanowire tore across the open alley, angling for an area he hoped that creepy psycho couldn't chase them. Not being able to fly in this situation had a definite downside, though, as he didn't know what the man's limitations on his phasing were, if any. Maybe if he got to higher ground...

"Hang on tight, Grim!" he hollered at the girl a second before he hurled himself into the air, using his prodigious strength to vault up on top of the nearest building. His massive form slammed into the flat roof of the warehouse he landed upon. The added weight from Grimalkin and Rant, ill-distributed as it was, forced him to stop and re-plant himself so he didn't tip over and mash one of them under his nearly half-ton body.

He checked his radar and glanced around, trying to spot the man. When he didn't sense anything after a few moments, he set Grimalkin down carefully, then did the same for Rant, significantly less gently. You all look alike to me, my big polycarbonite butt, he thought maliciously.

"Okay, I don't see him anywhere," Nanowire said to Grimalkin. "Of course, we're now lost in a future dystopia with no real hope of getting home and being chased by the forces of the resident megalomaniac, who undoubtedly wants us for some horrible purpose." He sighed heavily, his vocal synthesizers making it sound more like a growl than an expression of dismay. "So, any ideas? Because I have no idea where we're supposed to regroup at. Unless Foreshadow somehow meant back at their hideout, and we have no idea where that is, being all underground and hidden and whatnot."

[Veiled Malice]

"Maybe we should just keep to the alleys until wonderboy here wakes up," Nanowire commented in Grimalkin's uncharacteristic silence. "I took a big enough chance bringing us up here to begin with, but in the end, I think we'll be safer on street level. At least we'll be less obtrusive down there."

So saying, Nanowire lifted Grimalkin back up - this time using the crook of his arm to support the girl instead of his shoulder - and leapt back down into the alley out back after scooping Rant into his grasp.

[Heritage]

There is a startled squawk from Grim as she is hoisted aloft a second time on the way back down to the street. Once they touch down, Grim eels out of his grasp and stands there looking completely flustered.

"Jeez, dude! I was deep in thought back there!" She runs a gloved hand through her short spiky hair and laughs morosely. "Actually I was standing there feeling frightened, spastic and completely overwhelmed. I dunno, I guess I could try to track Foreshadow." She points to her nose. "Though wanna bet he doesn't sweat? Probably had all his pores surgically removed; he's that dedicated."

Suddenly Grim has a thought; she steps over to Rant and pokes him in the side with an extruded claw, just hard enough to hurt. "Or maybe Noisy Boy knows where we can find him! How 'bout it, Rant?"

[Heridfel]

"Bloodseeker can smell us too," he says. "We need to keep moving. Foreshadow will find us." He frees himself from Nanowire's grasp, presuming that the robotic teen isn't actually trying to hold him in place. There's blood oozing from where Grimalkin poked at him, and he looks daggers at her.

"And if you do that again, you'll find out just how noisy I can get," he says, then mutters something even saltier under his breath. Grimalkin can hear it, but Nanowire can't make it out. Rant looks down the alleyway, then points down to the end. "We're going that way. You either got to lose that armor or turn on stealth mode. Any powers not sworn to Omega draw down his enforcers. Bloodseeker's a wannabe compared to the Nihilists."

[Veiled Malice]

"Jeez, dude! I was deep in thought back there!" She runs a gloved hand through her short spiky hair and laughs morosely. "Actually I was standing there feeling frightened, spastic and completely overwhelmed. I dunno, I guess I could try to track Foreshadow." She points to her nose. "Though wanna bet he doesn't sweat? Probably had all his pores surgically removed; he's that dedicated."

"Deep in thought? You?" Nanowire snorted jokingly, though in his metallic form it came out as all inflections did - as a metallic growl, albeit a lighter growl than normal. To show he was kidding, he held up his massive hands in a warding gesture. "How can I be sure you haven't been replaced by your evil twin, hmm?"

"We're going that way. You either got to lose that armor or turn on stealth mode."

Against his better judgement, Nanowire nodded at Rant's suggestion. He had no idea what he'd be up against if he decided to go in with full battle regalia, and had no real desire to find out. The polycarbonite substance sloughed off of him at Ren's mental command, literally melting into a pile of unrecognizable junk in a matter of seconds. "All right, done." Ren took an uneasy look around. "I don't suppose you'd tell us about these Nihilists? How to recognize and avoid them, perhaps?"

[Heridfel]

"If you see them, it's probably already too late," Rant says grimly. "One's a battlesuit in black and gold - Shadivan Steelgrave. Mandragora's a tall Asian guy with a big burn on his face. He usually rides his dragons around. Madrigal Martinet's a tall woman with black hair - hotter than any other chick, but cold as ice. She's also got a thing for Mandragora, but he's playing hard to get."

He straightens up as best he can and looks out of the alleyway.

"Try to blend in. Don't meet anybody's eye, and if some of Omega's jackbooted thugs come around, don't just attack 'em. Most of the people calling themselves heroes died a lot faster than the villains did, and there's a reason for that," he says, somewhat snidely.

[Heritage]

Grim shifts into a version of her old panhandling get-up; scuffed sneakers, ratty jeans and a faded New Jersey Devils hoodie. She stares down blankly at her shoes as she stumbles along, hands in her pockets as she brings herself alongside Ren.

"Some kinda day, huh? Or night, or whatever it is. God, all I want to do is sleep; time lag has jet lag beat to all hell, that's for sure."

She yawns loudly and covers her mouth with a dirty hand (is it real dirt?). "Scuse me! Damn, I'm really feelin' it now; like I'm walking through wet sand." She kicks a stone and watches it leap and run. "First thing I'm gonna do when I get back, other than sleeping forever, is get me a hot dog with lots of onions and greasy fries. How 'bout you?"

[Veiled Malice]

"Some kinda day, huh? Or night, or whatever it is. God, all I want to do is sleep; time lag has jet lag beat to all hell, that's for sure."

"That's a good point," Ren said, taking a cue from Lynn and scuffing up his clothes a bit to make himself look more "downtrodden". "We've been running on adrenaline for a while now. Once we get to someplace safe, we're definitely going to need some downtime." A lie, but if Lynn was feeling the drain, it would probably be appropriate for him to make like he needed sleep as well.

"...How 'bout you?"

"Actual media," Ren answered immediately. "I feel cut off here without being able to... well, check things out. And I get the feeling that network television is going to consist mainly of the 'We Love Omega' hour reruns." He looked to Rant as he followed along behind the man. "How about it? Anything good on TV these days?"

[Heridfel]

"Sure," Rant says. "Not much news, but all the stupid sitcoms, 'reality TV', and sports you could ask for. It allows them to forget reality, and believe me, a lot of people want to forget reality these days. Now stay quiet as we go."

With that, he leads them out of the alleyway. The streets are not very crowded, but beyond that, it still doesn't feel like the Freedom City that they know. Rant was right that most people aren't looking up, and when they do, they don't make eye contact. The vibe of the city seems to be "don't bother me". The three of them continue north.

---

Sean is still being tailed by the young man and woman, and he's starting to notice something funny. Even though his suit has taken a different form, it still has all of its functionality, including the radar. Magic shape-changing has its advantages - the heads-up display still works fine for him, even though his head appears exposed. He picks up his pace slightly and sees the two people pick it up along with him. At the first chance, he ducks down an alleyway and looks quickly to make sure it's empty. Once he's sure, he levitates up to the fire escape and climbs on top of it. He doesn't want to be caught, and everyone's a suspect here.

The young man and woman reach the alleyway and look down it as well. It deadends, and the man pauses for a moment to look around. The girl looks up just in time to see Sean's shadow disappear. She stretches out, her arms reaching nearly 10 feet in length, and pulls herself up the fire escape quickly. When the man notices her, he frowns but then floats up much as Sean did, even to the same sort of vibration accompanying his path. They reach the top of the building in time to see Sean at the other end of it.

[Veiled Malice]

Ren had gotten used to the looks like the ones he was getting now from his time as a homeless person. No one wanted to be associated with someone who looked like they didn't belong, after all. The only thing was that here, no one belonged. Everyone was too scared to do anything but be involved with themselves.

It formed an uncomfortable comparison to his current lifestyle.

They walked in silence, each ignoring the existence of the others, trying not to acknowledge their pain.

[Heritage]

Almost without thinking, Lynn reaches out and takes Ren's hand and gives it a little squeeze; she doesn't lift her eyes up from the ground, but there's a hint of a smile on her lips as she rubs the back of his hand with her thumb.

[Heridfel]

Sean turns back and sees the pair still following him. "There's no way they could have followed me that fast," he thinks. "That is, without powers." His cover has been blown. It's time to run. He takes a step forward, then over the ledge. He doesn't drop more than five feet before catching himself, remaining near the top of the building as he flies down the alleyway.

The man shouts out, "Wait, D..." then sighs. He looks over to the woman. "We're going to have chase him," he says. "Try not to draw the Nihilists' attention too much." She just smiles back at him, as if to say, "Who, me?" She changes form again, growing more strongly muscled and dressing in a running outfit. She takes off toward where Sean threw himself over as the man begins to fly again.

---

Grimalkin can hear it before anyone else. It's a familiar sound, like a low-pitched hum, coming from a nearby building. It takes her a moment to recognize it, but then she has it. That's the sound that Icarus' flight made when he was taking off from inside the cave.

[Heritage]

Grimalkin can hear it before anyone else. It's a familiar sound, like a low-pitched hum, coming from a nearby building. It takes her a moment to recognize it, but then she has it. That's the sound that Icarus' flight made when he was taking off from inside the cave.

Lynn's head suddenly snaps up and to the side. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I can hear Icarus; he's flying and he's right over there." She indicates the direction with a jerk of her head.