Holding Out for a Hero

[alderwitch]

"Ace, focus, please?" Taylor said with a long suffering sigh as she glanced around Jack at the newest arrival. She'd tensed slightly at Stesha's outright hostility. She'd honestly never seen anything like it from the young woman. Nor did she want to examine too closely the whole 'good friend' thing with Moira. Taylor just wanted to find out what was going on, fix it, then not move for about a day and a half. She did thread her fingers through Jack's in a show of silent support, giving his hand a little squeeze.

"Stesha was about to tell us what was going on with Moira."

[Electra]

"Yes, I was." Stesha took a deep breath and got her mind back in order. Realizing how quickly Jack had moved on, again, was a bit of a shock, not to mention who he'd moved on to, but that was just going to have to wait. She could always throw something later. She waved everyone into the living room, which was nicely appointed and uncluttered but for an empty cedar box on the loveseat and a yellow knapsack sitting open on the couch.

She set the knapsack on her lap and sat down. "I don't know if everybody knows everyone first. Ace, this is Der- Dark Star, I told you a little bit about him when we talked the other week. You know Taylor, and that's Jack, a friend of Moira's." Her voice was completely uninflected on that last bit. "And this is Ace Danger, he's a friend of Moira's and of mine." Figuring everyone could figure everyone else out enough from that much introduction, she moved on, hugging the knapsack as she spoke.

"I don't know if Moira talked to the rest of you this week, but she called me a couple of days ago to ask if I'd watch her plants while she went on a trip. She said it was a family emergency, but she didn't say what. It turns out that her birth family, who are actual honest-to-god Greek god-type-gods, decided that it was time for her to be a goddess too, so they just took her away! She didn't know if she'd ever be able to come back, she didn't want to go or stay with them, but she didn't think there was anything anyone could do to stop it. I told her that anyone, any hero in Freedom City would help her, but by then it was already too late. It was like something, some other personality or some other mind, maybe, was overtaking her. I promised I would help her, and she asked me not to give up, but they just disappeared her right out of this room, right while I was watching, and I couldn't do anything."

Stesha wiped her face again. "But I promised we would do something to save her. I know all of you work with her or are friends with her, I knew you would want to help."

[alderwitch]

Taylor settled down on the loveseat, her posture growing more tense as she listened to some of her earlier fears made manifest. She fiddled with the amulet at her throat while Stesha spoke, a sure tell to her emotions. Unlike almost everyone else in the room, her concerns were more with the plans to head to Olympus to get Moira back than her actual absence. As Stesha finished talking, Taylor pushed off the seat unable to sit still and walked accross the room to the window with quick, almost angry strides.

She knew no one would want to hear what she had to say but it was her piece to say. It was always her piece to say, "We can't just go get her back."

Taylor turned to the room. She owed it to them to say this to their faces but her shoulders were braced, her feet set apart, "Moira's not half human. She's a goddess. An honest-to-Aphrodite goddess. It goes against the tenents of the pact to even have her in the mortal realm in the first place."

Taylor didn't try to point out that she'd tried to look the other way. It wouldn't matter. "Even if we were successful in retrieving her from the Mountain of the Gods - and that's a huge if - they would have every right to demand she be return by authorties that no one can stand against."

[Cyroa]

Dark Star waited patiently as Stesha explained the situation to everyone and then Phantom's response. "It doesn't matter. Goddess or no. Mortal or no. She's an innocent." He paused, contemplating that last statement. "Relatively speaking. Pact or no Pact. She's been here for twenty something years. That pretty much counts as belonging. Not that it matters. She's a companion. She's a sentient. And no being should be forced to another's will. Gods or no gods."

He held up his hands towards Phantom. "Don't misunderstand. I understand your work and have the utmost respect for it. I do not mean to ignore your work or beliefs in maintaining your hard task. But this isn't about rules or laws. It's about what is right. Now, I have no intention of going to Mount Olympus to fight. Indeed, I dislike fighting with anyone. I would prefer to talk. You know this is my way; to avoid conflict whenever I can. For this, my intent is to visit Moira. To make sure she is there of her free will. Not controlled or held captive. If so, then I am more than willing to leave as peacefully as we arrived."

He looked at the others. "If not, then I will stand and fight. And I will not give up until she is free. It isn't about the odds, the power or the numbers. Whether they are gods or not doesn't matter. It isn't even about being able to win. It's about doing what's right. You fight the battles that need fighting when it's the right thing to do."

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack introduced himself very quickly to Ace, knowing that it was a little silly not to do so when so many people were around who knew his name and who'd be calling him by it. As first Stesha, then Phantom, then Dark Star talked, Jack came to an increasingly uncomfortable realization about his opinions and his relationship with everyone in the room. He was going to have to disagree with Taylor. "I agree," he said, not looking very happy about saying it. "Moira is our friend and we can't just abandon her at the whims of some distant pantheon on top of Mt. Olympus. I'm not saying we need to drag her back here regardless of anything else," he added, "but we need to at least find her and ask her if this is really what she wants."

[angrydurf]

Ace watched as the group quickly started drawing their lines in the proverbial sand and spoke up, "Now now, before we all settle into intractable stuborness in one way or another lets remember that Moira is a friend of all of ours and we all have the same goal." He eyed everyone carefully before continueing, "We all want her to make the choice not her parents or whoever else in Olympus is pulling the strings." Ace had his concerns that this may be bigger than Moira, the games that gods play rarely were so simple. He for one did not plan on playing by their rules.

Ace paused and looked for agreement from the assemblage.

"Now, as noble as it may be that will not be achieved by pushing Phantom to break her oaths, nor by challenging the gods." He cooly explained.

Looking to Phantom he began to formulate a plan, "I admit my knowledge is limited but my understanding is that there is a pact that binds the divine from directly entering this plane, that seems the likely reasons invoked to take Moira." He looked to the rest ofthe group then as he continued, "We have at our disposal one of the foremost experts on the Pact at our disposal I suggest we take advantage of that fact and utilize our strengths in a meaningful way."

[Electra]

"Wait a minute, what's this pact, and why should it stop us from being able to help?" Stesha demanded, confused. "She lives here, she's one of us, an American citizen, and she was kidnapped. What sort of horrible agreement would make that be okay? You can't just say "Oh, we don't want a fight, so here, have some innocent person's life and do whatever you want with it. That's wrong on every level. It's the opposite of being a hero."

[alderwitch]

Through the speeches and disagreements, Taylor stood quietly poised. It was no less than she'd expected. Only finally at Stesha's heartfelt proclimation about this being the opposite of everything a hero stood for, did Taylor visibally flinch.

"The pact," She provided in a tone void of emotion, "Is the only thing that holds gods and demons from walking among us. As a goddess, Moira is subject to that ancient pact. No matter how much any of us wish it otherwise, as long as she possess godhead, I have no power to change that. No one does."

Taylor refused to let her shoulders slump as she kept her gaze on her friends, "Its an aspect of the multiverse, as inevitable and, yes, as cruel as death. Fighting to retrieve her will not work, not because you can't win but because short of obliterating an entire pantheon of gods they will always have the power to call her home."

[Cyroa]

Dark Star shook his head. "I understand your point Phantom. I'd like your help in traveling there to make thing easier all around. It would certainly be easier and safer than me punching holes into reality until I get it right. I would not ask you to violate your oaths, beliefs or do anything you do not wish to do. But that does not negate the need for us to go. It is what's right; I'll stand by those convictions just as you would yours. I will go alone if I need to; leaving you completely out of it if that would be best for you. But we, I will see her and find out if she is there of her own free will or not."

He paused. "Though I may be mistaken, Moira does lack a key component to being a deity. She has no followers, no religion, no worshipers. If it comes to it, maybe she could give up that option if she so chose? Either way, we will not know until we get there."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Taylor, you and I both know people who've transcended death. And we both know a god on Earth." It was an unaccustomedly optimistic speech from Jack, especially for those who knew him as Avenger. "I'm not saying we'll be able to bring Moira back. Maybe she won't want to come; maybe her family will be too powerful for us to overcome. I know it took a whole Freedom League to fight a Greek God back in the 60s, and that was with the Centurion in charge." He looked at her levelly. "But the loyalty we owe to friends, to each other, is to try."

[angrydurf]

Ace rolled his eyes, "No one is talking about giving up and going home." He eyed each of them as he spoke. The selfrightousness was thick and he was sick of it.

"What we need to do is figure out a meaningfull, possible way to get her back IF she wants to come back." Ace explained sucinctly adding to Stesha, "I realize she expressed not wanting to go when you last saw her but for all her many charms Moira is not the most even keeled lady around she may well have changed her mind by now."

"So how about we all agree to stop postureing about who's a better friend and why the laws of reality are unfair and move on to seeing what can actually be done to help if she needs it?" Despite his obvious frustration with the bickering his speech was not unkind but rather intended to bring out what had brought them all here in the first place. A friend in need.

[Electra]

Stesha bridled at the suggestion that Moira wouldn't know her own mind enough to tell whether she was being kidnapped, but it was hard to actually argue the fact that her friend's attitudes could be a little capricious. "I still think it's wrong that they can do that, but if we can find her and talk to her and know she's not in danger, even if she doesn't want to come back..." She broke off and blinked hard a few times, pressing her lips together and giving the knapsack a harder squeeze. "If she's okay and she doesn't want to come back, that's very different. But we don't know that unless we find her. I think she's in trouble, though. I think they're trying to change her into something she doesn't want."

[alderwitch]

Taylor rubbed her eyes with one hand wearily, trying to find the words to explain the unexplainable, without losing her temper or it all getting mangled in the process.

Her gaze swept around the room, "If I wasn't willing to help, I wouldn't be trying to explain the problem. This is my area of expertise. It will do little good to any of us if you can't trust what I'm telling you. I don't think any of you would thank me if I took you to Olympus only to have Moira yanked back again two weeks later."

She flicked her gaze over to Jack finally, "Of course, we owe it to Moira to find out what's going on. Knowing this particular pantheon, I think there's a very good likelihood that at some point trickery was involved. In fact, I'm hoping for it."

She shifted, beginning to pace the room with quick stiff steps, "Firstly, we need to remember that this is Moira's family, not some faceless threat. If they have tricked her like I hope they have, its most likely motivated by a parental desire not a malevolent one. If that's the case, summoning her to speak shoudn't prove an overly difficult task but it doesn't preclude an honest response."

Taylor paced back to the window, one hand still twisting the necklace on its chain before she resumed her seat finally. "Let's start with what everyone knows about Moira's past, then go over the events directly preceding her ascension. I admit there is a great deal I don't know. I've been avoiding contact with Moira since I met the Knights."

[Cyroa]

Dark Star looked at Ace quizzically, if a black empty face could have such an expression. "Posturing; I simply state my thoughts openly and speak plainly the only way I know how. Nor do I claim any exceptional friendship. Indeed, everyone here likely knows her better and is certainly more of a friend to her than I. I put forth the idea of going alone for a simple reason, and would have done offered the same for a stranger or companion, hero or innocent citizen. One life is all the reason I need. The reason is simple. If this is likely as risky as Taylor says it is, and I would be foolish to not listen to her expertise, I would rather risk my own life than all of yours."

He turned back to Phantom. "I don't know too much. She was raised here by foster parents effectively. Her parents, Ares and Aphrodite, revealed true nature around her 21st birthday though I don't know the details. Sometime about a time of testing but I'm again uncertain as to the specifics. It was quite a while ago that I learned most of this."

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack frowned too, not needing yet another heckler on this already very difficult day. "Moira is a creature of her appetites," Jack commented. "I don't mean that to sound insulting; she's a hedonist, not a monster. From what I know of Greek mythology," Which comes from Clash of the Titans and that Centurion movie where Christopher Reeves fights Terence Stamp "she reminded me a great deal of how I always heard those gods described. But she was a creature of this world, not that one. She was mostly an Irish girl from the West End who happened to be as beautiful as the sun," There's a good metaphor, Jack. "and as strong as a titan."

[angrydurf]

Ace ignored the frowns in favor of continueing the progress they had made.

"My knowledge of Moira is rather limited. Honestly today is the first I have heard of her ancestry though looking back at our encounters it makes a certain degree of sense." He explained plainly.

"If she is indeed a full blooded daughter of Aphrodite and Ares then the pact should have been in effect from her birth." He looked to Phantom for confermation on his understanding of the issue, "So if we can discover why she was allowed to be here in the first place and the method of her being taken we can begin to ascertain how to get her back."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, "As for contacting her to ensure she is being held against her will, I may have a solution that does not require invading Olympus, or risk Phantom violating her oaths getting more involved than she has."

[Electra]

Stesha glared at Jack. "It's not like you have any business talking about people being creatures of their appetites, especially where Moira is concerned," she snapped, then attempted to rein herself in for the good of the actual discussion. "Honestly, I didn't know anything about any of this until just today. Moira told me she grew up here, with her father, and that he left her the bar in his will. She's not really a goddess, even if she looks like one, she doesn't want to take over the world or have people sacrificing to her or anything." She slid a little closer to Dark Star, though that was largely a fruitless exercise, and spoke to Ace. "If you know any way to solve this without anyone getting hurt or put at risk, we can try that first thing."

[alderwitch]

Taylor raised silent eyebrows at the venom Stesha kept spitting at Jack. Her ego really didn't need to know what relationship, if any, that Jack had with their goddess teammate. There's an act to follow...

"Before we go summoning Moira, Ace, we need to know if she was mortal-born. If she was born of a mortal woman, we'll have a better chance. It gets much more complicated if she was left on earth as a baby with her goddess-hood stripped from her. If we can make the arguement that she belongs here on Earth-Prime, we'll have something at least. In that, I would be required to retrieve her." Taylor pointed out, trying to keep on task. "I'll deal with my oath and any reprecussions that come from my actions. Let's put that off the table."

Just by chosing to help, the die was cast and there was no point in worrying about that now. Taylor reached up to rub the back of her neck. "Ace might be able to dig up some dirt on that end. Now, what happened - in detail - right before she Ascended?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Dammit, Stesha, this is not the time for this," Jack fired at her unexpectedly. He had turned briefly white during her denunciation of him, but now was more annoyed and guilty than anything else. "The thing the three of us had is _not_ worth fighting over when Moira's life, or at least her future, may be in danger." He folded his arms, looking uncomfortable even being there. "And that's all I think we should say on the subject. There are more important things at stake."

[Cyroa]

Dark Star listened to what everyone knew about Moira. Apparently, not that much. "Phantom, do you need anything to to do this? I'm not sure how this works. And if there is a consequence, I'll happily stand by or for you." He was more focus on Stesha's close proximity (always a distraction) and on Phantom. But he did look over at Jack. "I don't understand but that's enough please. There's no need for foul language."

[angrydurf]

Through sheer will Ace resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands. Instead he sighed resignedly and explained, "Alright, it seems we can not just move of then. Very well," He turned to Stesha, "You are happily with Dark Star now be glad for that you had a wonderfull time with Jack and Moira I'm sure but are better off where you are, casual sex isn't for everyone."

He turned to Jack then, "Obviously Stesha took things to be more signifigant than you did, you have alot to learn if you're going to continue this lifestyle I only hope you have been more forthright withTaylor as she is not nearly as passive a young lady."

He pasued looking around the group then spoke again, "And just so we don't have to cover it later. No I have not actually slept with any of you though I am open." He eyed jack briefly before continueing, "I did purchase some lovely lingerie for Taylor that I'm sure Jack will enjoy if he can keep his act together."

"If there is nothing else perhaps we can move on?" He inquired, "Or is all of this too much to get past because frankly if it is we should just give up now. We need to work together to do this."

Ace waited silently for objections.

[Electra]

Stesha flushed pink at Jack's insinuation, then crimson at Ace's misinterpretation. Given that her face was already blotchy and swollen, it definitely wasn't a good look for her. "That is not how it happened at all," she told Derrick, though it wasn't entirely clear he was currently on the same planet with the rest of them. "If you want to speculate on something," she told Ace, "why don't you tell us the plan you said you had? That's what we're interested in hearing." She wrapped her arms around her knapsack and squeezed it again, holding it like a security blanket.

[alderwitch]

Taylor, after a truely appalled look at Ace for mentioning the shopping trip, turned to frown up at Jack, her chin starting to lift slightly, "Three of you? What do you mean 'three of you shared'?"

Personally, she'd rather have this settled before trying to perform some sort of Hellenistic summoning song and dance. She was tired and frustrated enough before adding this into the mix.

[Avenger Assembled]

"It...wait, you made it sound differently than I meant it!" Jack shot at Ace. And to think I used to watch your cartoons! To Taylor, he said, "I went out with Stesha once and it didn't work out. Moira talked her into coming to see me to have it out with me, and so that's what we did. And yeah, then Moira and I had a thing, but that was just once." He gave his girlfriend a level look. "It was just once, and we both regretted it later. I'm over that. It wasn't...sordid, like that." Well, maybe a little. "And the only part of that, of any of this, that matters is that we all care about Moira, for our own reasons."

[Cyroa]

Dark Star looked at Ace quizzically once more as the man ranted. "What?" Then to Stesha, "Not how what happened?" And then on to Taylor and Jack. "Ok...What is going on?" He paused. "Nevermind. I don't need to know right now. Later, someone can explain all this to me. All that matters right now is that I trust you all implicitly. We are companions. Heroes. And we have work to do. Ok?" He was confused but earnest in his desire to help ... anyone really.