Hellbound gets Airborne

[Hellbound]

Hellbound sat up and tried to catch his breath.

"Heheh... heh... just bench pressed a Buick, huh?" He asked, grinning like a maniac. Getting the chance to cut loose like that was both a unique and exhilerating experience.

"Not bad for a couch potato. An' I never doubted you for a minute, Doc. Keep the challenges coming."

Though he wasn't exactly a couch potato, Hellbound knew that the lack of quality workout gear was hampering his abilities a bit. If he was given regular access to machines like this then he fully expected to be able to vastly increase his own power.

"Just gimme' a minute to catch my breath."

Once his breathing and heart rate were dropping back to normal, and the sound of rushing blood faded from his ears, Hellbound rose and stepped towards the drone. The thing looked intimidating in an industrial-accident sort of way, but Hellbound didn't like the sound of 'basic'. When it came to combat, the last word he wanted used to describe himself was 'basic'.

But he assumed that the doc knew what he was doing. If he felt this was the machine Hellbound should start on then that's where he'd begin. There'd be no holding back on it, however. Even if the 'droid looked like it couldn't manage to tie its own shoes, Hellbound would assume it was as dangerous as anyone else he'd faced in the ring.

"Hoo-haa!" Hellbound crowed as he leaped towards the machine. It hadn't actually moved, yet. Hopefully Archeville had managed to already turn it on or else this was likely going to be a short fight.

[Hellbound]

The robot did, indeed, react to Hellbound's incoming blows. Though it moved sluggishly at first and found no mercy from the blows raining down on it, the contraption began to move more and more quickly as the session went on.

As Hellbound discovered that this portion of the test would not require him to dodge, the aggressive fighter opened his stance to gain the best chance of getting through the robot's defenses. Again and again, Hellbound found paths through its weaving arms and dodging body. For a while it seemed like there was no chace at all of it escaping the punishment being served up.

Not until the very end did it begin to show some success at evasion. Either through Hellbound getting fatigued, cocky or a combination of both, the last few seconds of the mock combat hade him swinging at air. Though it did take the highest setting Archeville was willing to unleash to come up with that result.

[Hellbound]

With the flurry of blows going against the 'bot, now it was the mechanical man's turn to come at Hellbound. That was fine, he didn't like hitting opponents that didn't fight back anyway.

Once more it seemed that he had the automated trainer easily outmatched as he dodged and wove his way through the titanium onslaught. Limbs and well-worn fists slipped along Hellbound's blocking arms each time and the only blows to land against him weren't enough to really do any damage.

Though, unfortunately, it was towards the end, again, when the pair was nothing but a whirling set of flailing limbs and attacking appendages that the hero failed in his task. This time it was a most nasty shot that got in a solid crack against his chin.

Almost instantly, Hellbound was down and spitting blood across the doctor's well maintained floor. Even as that fluid made contact with the air, however, it sputtered into flaming life. Soon there was a thick cloud of evil looking fumes floating about Hellbound's body.

[Dr Archeville]

WOO-HOO! Gooo, Com-bot!

Crap!

Archeville wasn't sure if the fear he felt was a reaction from the fumes, or form the very real threat to his teammate. But he knew what he had to do.

"Don't move! Stay right dere!"

He zipped over to a white box set on one wall, a box with a big red cross painted on it. When he opened it and started taking things out, a light on top of it began to flash, and after a few moments some tiny (cat-sized) wheeled robots zipped out from concealed spaces along the walls and moved towards Hellbound.

Say, this is the perfect time to test that experimental regeneration serum!

What?! No!

Aww, c'mon! It's worked fine in all the most recent animal trials! He probably won't explode!

Archeville worked with surprising speed, running scanners over Hellbound (especially his head and face) and applying various creams and salves, and at one point some weird headband-type thing with flashing lights.

"Alright, I dink dat... has... got it!" he said triumphantly. Surprisingly, once Archeville drew back, he realized he felt almost good as new. He was still missing a few teeth, and he had what could at worst be described as a minor headache, but other than that, he felt fine. "I am very sorry about dat, I had not realized dat de protective coating on de combat-bot's striking surfaces had worn avay so much!"

[Hellbound]

Hellbound wasn't much in a position to resist, so he suffered the ministrations of the doctor despite being mortified. This is what happened when a guy got cockey and let his guard down. Honestly, the 'bot simply hadn't been all that scary up until now.

"Ya' make a mean right hook, doc." Hellbound managed to say once his jaw was properly hinged again and he'd stopped spitting bloody fire. "I'll be seeing stars for a week. Sorry about the floor."

It'd been an interesting sight, once the blood had really started flowing. Hellbound had fallen to hands and knees with a thick trail of liquid fire running from his mouth and ruined teeth. Thick smoke billowed around his head and it was clear where the hellish aspect of his image came from. Watching the shabby looking man practically vomit up fire and brimstone could very well have conjured up images of the devil himself.

Plus, the seemingly hideous injury didn't seem to phase Hellbound much. Though he'd been in agony just moments before with a shattered jaw and broken teeth, he really didn't think much of it now that he'd been patched back together.

"So what's the next test? I'll try to remember to duck this time."

[Dr Archeville]

Ah, thank goodness, it seems there'll be no permanent damage.

Except for the teeth.

Well, yes, but those can be easily replaced.

I still say we should've tested the regeneration serum on him.

As Archeville worked he tried to get one of the robots to collect some samples of Hellbound's blood (either catching it as it fell or scraping it off the floor), but all their collecting equipment melted when they tried. He made a mental note to find some other way to collect it.

"Vell, I am concerned about lasting neurological damage from dat blow," he said while finishing his exam. He rose up and began gliding towards another part of the gym, "if you vould follow me, please."

He stopped at what looked like a thick 12-sided pillar with assorted monitors and controls set into every other side/wall. He pressed one of the plain sides, and it swung open, revealing that inside was reclining chair, and that the interior 'walls' of the contraption were 12 full-length mirrors. Attached to the headrest of the chair, via a short cable, was a skullcap with a chin-strap.

"Please, have a seat, Hellbound. Dis device shall help me get a proper mapping of your brain, und of any damage it still has vhice I may haff missed. Since I did de scan of you earlier, I haff dat to use as a baseline for comparison."

Once Hellbound was on the chair, Archeville put the skullcap on, and adjusted it so it was snug but not overly tight. "De screens here vill soon be showing assorted flashing patterns und repetitve sounds, slowly at first but steadily building in speed. I vill monitor your brain to see how you react to dem." Before Hellbound could say anything, Archeville was already out and had closed the 'door' behind him, leaving Hellbound in an odd Hall of Mirrors-type environment.

Hellbound thought he heard another Mad Scientist laugh from outside, and then the mirrored screens flared to life, showing a quickly changing series of images and playing a range of sounds.

[Hellbound]

"Yeah, okay..." Hellbound wasn't so sure about this. The doc claimed that he was only checking for damage, but this seemed like a pretty crazy setup for something like that. He'd taken some nice shots in the ring (granted, nothing like what that combat 'bot could dish out), and they'd never strapped him into a rig like this.

He'd been about to ask Archeville if he were sure about all of this when Hellbound was suddenly locked in and alone. It could have just been the continued ringing in his ears but he was pretty sure he'd heard that trademark cackle fire off once more.

"What the frag?" He asked himself as the machine flared into life. It didn't take long to figure out that he'd been suckered into another round of tests that probably had nothing to do with the blow to his head. Once more, adrenaline surged through his system as he watched the nauseating lights move faster and faster in front of his eyes.

It didn't help much, however. Between the disorientation of the images and the maddening sounds, he was very quickly over the edge. To him, this whole thing seemed insane. It was just a lot of light and noise, but the whole thing just caused his stomach to churn.

It was shortly after the second round began, when the angered adrenaline surge failed to help throw off the effects, that a strange change came over Hellbound's brain. Some part of it pulsed with new activity, analyzing the stress that the machine was causing.

Almost instantly after this odd cranial activity began, counter signals were produced and transmitted along both his optic and cochlear nerves. To Archeville's ever-watching equipment it strongly resembled noise canceling software in that it was producing counter frequencies to diminish the most distressing qualities of the sensory input.

Unfortunately, it was too little and too late. Hellbound ended losing his lunch long before the trial was over.

By the time the entire ordeal had run its course, Hellbound was a nauseated wreck. He'd managed to make a mess of himself as the contents of his stomach disgorged and spilled out. The room immediately began to reek of half-digested roast beef and french fries.

His head still spinning, and indeed he wasn't certain that the machine had truly stopped, Hellbound was an upset, dazed mess by the time anyone came to clean him up.

[Dr Archeville]

What the devil?

Hunh, that is odd. He's adapting to the stresses.

Wonder how far we can take 'im?

Whoah, waitasec!

When the room stopped spinning and Hellbound could tell up from down again, he found he was propped up against the dais in the middle of the gym, with a half-empty (or half-full?) glass of water by his hand. Doc was checking him over with some sort of scanner, and murmuring to himself.

"Ah, fully back now, ja? Good!" he exclaimed.

Beyond Doc, Hellbound could make out some robots going in and out of the chamber he'd been in. Two carried hoses. Three carried buckets. He also realized that he was no longer wearing his shirt; looking around he saw two other robots working on it.

"I haff good news, und... vell, very good news, I suppose," he continued, clearly excited, "de tests show no sign of brain damage, but more amazingly, it showed dat your body actually altered itself in response to de negative stimuli. You vere adapting to de dangers! De adaptations faded as soon as de stimuli vere gone, und since it happened so fast dere is little I could tell for sure about dem, but... vell, first off, has dis ever happeend to you before?"

[Hellbound]

The room might no longer be spinning, but Hellbound didn't exactly feel 100% back to normal. Water was helping somewhat, but he was pretty sure a cold beer would have gone much farther in throwing off the effects of the machine.

As that thought filtered through his mind, along with a slight churning of his stomach, he reconsidered the choice of libation. Water would do just fine, thank you very much.

"No sign of brain damage, huh?" He verified between sips. "Then why was I dumb enough to climb into that thing in the first place?"

That wasn't really a fair statement, but Hellbound was in a pretty foul mood. He'd rather get dropped off of a cliff, at this point, rather than go through anything like that ever again.

"Not sure what you mean by adapting though, Doc. Once you had that thing cranked up to full power, it was all just lights, noises and vomit after that."

He was referring to the second setting that Archeville had used. The adrenaline that surged through his body at the start, and which led into the attempted counter frequencies, had begun after that and kept the negative effects relatively stable. Though they were still more than he could handle, for him the machine really didn't seem to get any worse after that.

Hellbound naturally assumed that was its top speed. What he didn't realize is that the newly awakening part of his being had kept it from being as bad as it rightfully should have been.

"Ah... hey, you know? Something like that did happen to me once, though. Remember that cruise ship that blew up a while back? Me, Dark Star, Scarab and a couple others helped save a few people? I had to swim out to the ship and figured I'd be fighting hypothermia half the way there since the water had to be killer-cold. 'Felt just fine, though. Even after I got out and was standing around soaking wet I didn't get so much as a shiver.

"That the sort of thing you're talking about?"

[Dr Archeville]

We've got a gauntlet we can run him through, right? Swinging blades, retracting floors, whirling-

Give him a moment to catch his breath!

Ooh, good one, an underwater section!

... dammit!

"Ja, ja, dat is exactly vhat I mean," he replied, excitedly pacing back and forth. "Ja, I do believe de rest of today's tests shall focus on dat...."

"Tests? Uh, Doc, I thought you were just measuring me for my new wings?"

"Hrm? Oh, ja, ja, dose," he replied, though his gaze was already elsewhere on the gym. "Vell, I... vant to make sure I make dem out of someding dat can vithstand de vear und tear your activities vould put upon dem. If you can adapt to assorted hazards, dey should be able to as vell, so dat dey do not get easily shredded or scorched."

Hellbound soon realized Doc was looking at the back part of the gym. The part which looked like a firing range.

"Say, how good are you at de game 'Vhere's Valdo'?"

[Hellbound]

Hellbound opened his mouth as if to protest, a part of him not really buying that Archeville wasn't getting a kick out of this. But he considered the words that'd just been used.

Shredded... scorched... if the Doc had just used the phrase 'beaten mercilessly' as well, then he'd probably have described a pretty good weekend for Hellbound. Undoubtedly the wings actually were going to have to be built around his unique hobbies.

"Who the hell's Valdo?" Hellbound asked, distracted by the gun range. "Oh, you mean Where's Waldo? Never really my thing as a kid. All those dudes looked alike to me.

"Why?"

[Dr Archeville]

Okay, you can have your gauntlet, but only the paint-based one.

What? Oh, come on, how is that a real test?

It's a test of his senses and reflexes. It's a very good test, since it can show us exactly where he's hit, without harming him.

Like I said, how is that a real test if there's no harm?

"Vell, I vould like to test your senses und your reflexes, in order to be sure you suffered no permanent damage from mein com-bot, und to see if you can adapt to non-damaging und indirect challenges. Plus," he chuckled, "I like to know vhat mein teammates can do."

Archeville manipulated his E.S. again -- Hellbound realized it was being used as a Universal Remote for the entire house -- and the firing range shifted around a bit. Lights came on here and there, some short walls popped up form the floor, and some metallic tentacles drooped down from the ceiling. At the far end, he could see life-sized holograms of assorted people appear. One slowly rose up and hovered above the rest for a few moments, then sank back down.

It was Moira, in a tight red-and-white striped outfit.

"I dink you should be able to spot dat, ja?" he said with a sly grin. He then swung out part of the short wall before them so Hellbound could actually enter the range. "Dere are some obstacles, of course. Nothing lethal: paintball guns, sections of floor dat open to a short three-inch drop into a reservoir of paint, large padded bats coated in paint dat sving down to strike you, und so on. Nothing vill be harmed but your pride."

[Hellbound]

"Nothing lethal?" Hellbound asked, having problems taking his eyes off of Moira's likeness. "Where's the fun in that?"

Regardless, the whole run sounded like a trip to him. Paintballs or not, it was going to be a challenge. This wasn't anything that he'd put himself through before, it sounded a lot like actual military combat training. This was the sort of thing he was never ever able to put himself through before, and it would be interesting to see how he stacked up to the real pros.

His entire life, he'd been relying on little more than his own superhuman physique to get him by. But now that he was in the game for real, an honest-to-goodness superhero who would no doubt be relied upon some day to save the world, then it would be necessary to start expanding his training in addition to his body.

Hellbound stepped up to the starting line and moved into Archeville's alley of painted death. He tried to put into his mind that this was a truly life threatening situation, but he was just having problems accepting the challenge of avoiding paint. Unlike before, the rage that he normally could call upon just wasn't there.

To be honest... getting hit with painted bats just wasn't that intimidating.

He did okay, for a rank amateur. That had to be admitted. Even though he was having problems spotting the Moira targets before they managed to fire on him (or drop him into paint pits... or smack him with paint bats..), his agility was able to get him out of the way.

Quite often the threat of dyeing was close, but he casually stepped out of the way or in general avoided the various pitfalls and hazards of the course.

At first, that is. Only at first. Once the challenges really started to crank up and threat levels reached high-end-professional, he took his first hit. A bat snapped out of the wall to tag him even though he managed to avoid the tilting floor next to it.

That's when he started to lose his edge, however. The course cranked up to what only the best-of-the-best should be able to handle, and Hellbound was lost. He found himself being tagged from all sides as paint balls surprised him, bats threw him off balance and pits dropped him into their shallow pools of paint.

He really wasn't able to keep up with the mechanics of the course from that point on and it was fairly clear what his limits were for this one. By the time he exited the obstacle run, he was a dripping, multi-hued mess of tied-dyed superhero.

[Dr Archeville]

Hunh - he's faster than we expected.

Indeed. Most intriguing. We'll need to remember to go back and re-examine his central nervous system.

We get to play with his brain?!

No, we meant the scans and the hologram.

At the exit, two of the vacuum-bots were waiting. They circled and looked over him first, then began to wipe and drain away the paint.

Archeville was also waiting. It was clear he was trying hard not to laugh.

"Vell, you... you did much better dan I... I expected. Ja, you... your reflexes are qvite a bit better dan I... I had initially anticipated. Dough I suppose... *ahem* I suppose dat vould be mein own fault, for not taking time to properly examine de readings I took earlier."

One of the robots was trying to pull off Hellbound's paint-stained shirt.

"I believe dat von likes you," he said with a chuckle. "Seriously, dough, your clothes could use another vash, von more thorough dan de last von dey gave. Und you could probably use a hot shower."

[Hellbound]

Hellbound tapped at the insistent 'bot with a finger and assertion that the didn't 'swing that way'. Once the digital assistant had been backed off, though, Hellbound stripped the shirt off without any sense of modesty.

Beneath the clothes he had a clean and chiseled physique. There were muscles plainly evident, yes, but nothing of the bulky, steroid-driven masses of might that one would normally expect. Certainly nothing gave any indication of his true weight, not even the way he moved. Hellbound might be strong and massive, but he was at the same time his raw agility bordered on the superhuman.

"Hey, just think of how much faster I'd have moved if you used real bullets."

[Dr Archeville]

When Hellbound emerged from the showers -- and he could not shake the 'being watched' feeling the whole time -- he was met by an unexpected sight: Doc was sitting in a leather chair, notepad in hand; next to him was an empty leather couch. There was also a small table with a pitcher of ice water and two glasses.

You really think he's gonna go for this?

Why wouldn't he? It's unexpected.

It's boring! And I bet he won't finish.

We shall see.

"Ah, all refreshed now, ja? Good, good. Please, have a seat, or lie down, vhichever you prefer."

"I haff just about all de data I need from you to make de vings you requested, buy vhile mein automated systems work on de prototype, I vould like to take a few moments to ask you a few qvestions. To get to know you better. Ve are going to be vorking together some, after all, und it is only right dat ve know what ve can of one another. So, fist off, tell me: vhy do you do de Hero ding?"

[Hellbound]

Fortunately, 'being watched' was one of the things that Hellbound did best. There was a natural exhibitionist within him, part of what had lead him to start appearing on stage, and he didn't mind in the least that this shower might be on camera. If nothing else, it gave him a little newfound respect for the Doc having a bit of a perverted side and a part of him hoped the whole thing might end up on YouTube.

After all, word of a superhero showering online might just bump his fanbase up a bit. That wouldn't hurt Blackavar's reputation one bit.

Underneath all the rough grime and lack of personal grooming was actually a fairly attractive guy. His body had good proportion to it, with both long legs and arms with a chiseled appearance to his entire form. The long hair gave him a bit of a European quality and even his face was almost perfectly symmetrical in that way that modern social scientists claimed physical beauty was based upon.

It didn't hurt one bit that he also has a pretty cute butt.

The workout that Archeville had put him through was fairly rough, even by Hellbound's standards, and he was happy to just sit for a while. The fact that he was being given the opportunity to talk about himself was only icing on the cake to what'd been a nicely interesting day.

"Why? Well... why not?" Hellbound wasn't exactly sure how to answer the question about his superhero status.

After all, given his disposition and powers, he could have just as easily gone the other way and become a bad guy. It really seemed to fit more in line with his personal habits of hurting people and breaking things.

"I mean, 'gotta fight someone, right? I'm bullet proof and superhumanly strong. What am I going to do, be a longshoreman? Haul freight around? Get a job as a forklift operator and then forget to bring the forklift?

"Nah. There's just something inside of me that won't let me be that... passive? I guess that's what you'd call it. It's like I was built to beat on people, and I want to beat on the ones who'd be the best challenge."

He leaned forward in his seat, as if he were somehow confiding in the Doc with his next statement.

"No offense, but the good guys? They all seem like they hold themselves back too much. Avenger aside, how many of you dudes really fight dirty? How many of you would do what it took to win, even if it meant letting your minions die or innocents fall into the line of fire? Good guys have limits, things they won't do in order to grab victory."

Hellbound let himself settle back into the chair, assuming a more relaxed position once again.

"But bad guys? What won't they do? Name me one tactic or technique they're unwilling to pull out of their bags of nastiness in order to beat us. I figure, if I want to face the toughest, the roughest and the dirtiest fighters out there, then I need to be a good guy.

"Otherwise I'm just kicking around a bunch of Boy Scouts in spandex. Now how would that look?"

There was more to his philosophy than just that, however. Burning even further inside was the need to protect people. It was like a set of instructions had been layered into his mental makeup not just to fight, but also to follow order and protect. Just what he was supposed to protect? He had no idea, but fortunately he'd managed to throw off the desire to follow orders.

These last few pieces of information weren't something he had adequate words to describe, but he did his best to communicate them to Archeville, anyway.