No More Good Days

[horngeek]

Vector spoke up at Argonaut's question.  "Could be a trap in Perth..."

 

She sat back, thinking.  "Or it's the sword.  Let's see... what the immediate- argh.  Immediate goals might be, and strike them off first."

 

Catherine grimaced for a moment.  "I'm not going... to be doing any more fighting tonight... I know that much.  But if you give me a way to keep in contact with you, I can at least think, maybe act as mission control.  Perth is hours away by any means of transport any of our 'home' heroes have, so it's just us."

 

Her voice steadied, the pain still evident, but the heroine fighting past it.  "I can collapse once the city's safe."

[Brown Dynamite]

"My communications relay can retain a distance of up to one mile."  If you wish to use a specific frequency such as 6841 khz to use would have limited use in how far as I could respond.  Coupled with the fact that Catherine's labored speech made it seem as if asking her to monitor anything would be placing her at further risk. As long as she could find a way to send a message over radio waves they could hear in theory.  But, Argonaut was not endeavored to let the girl sit out her death waiting for the possibility of a threat that may never materialize itself.  

 

"You're not going to do much standing either.  I would suggest you let the medical services treat you wounds.  The concern could ultimately prove to be misplaced.  I find it is rather difficult to continue my plans when I myself am impaled.  There is the chance that there are major things in the work.  Of course now that he has been incapacitated he should not be able to control such events.  It may truly be over...for now"  There was the fact that he challenged them to incarcerate him anew after before taking out Larrakite.

 

Yves hoped the words she was speaking were not merely a ploy to find some comfort.  They could all use a bit of a reprieve.

Edited June 29, 2014 by HG Morrison

[Avenger Assembled]

"I know well the finest mind in this world. Her genius could penetrate these lies like fire burning through ice. For myself, there is only the use of force, while who knows who suffers in return!" Caradoc punched the wall in frustration, the obsidian concrete that faced the wall crumbling like broken drywall beneath his armored fist, and exposing - a door? Sure enough, he peeled away another layer, this time with his fingers, and the heroes were faced with what was clearly a sealed metal door built right into the structure of the skyscraper. "There must have been some secret switch, or some cunning panel..." He picked up his pike and snapped open the blade, jamming it between the sealed hatch doors, and with a grunt of effort as bloody pain pulled against his ribs, slid the doors apart to reveal a closed elevator shaft opposite. He looked back at the others and said, "We cannot let normal men, even armed, enter the realm of an entropic cultist. We must go on."

[Brown Dynamite]

Argonaut watched as Caradoc took to acting as a personal sledgehammer against the walls.  Revealing a hidden door and literally punching his way to a solution.  "Well, when all you have is a hammer."  Yves commented as Caradoc pried the barrier open with his pike.  She looked over Newman as she stood back up.  Before returning her gaze to Catherine.  "I am also not comfortable with letting local men attempt to handle Newman alone.  Survivors, don't give up easily."  Which was her way of saying, a breathing Omegadrone was a fighting one.  Not that either of them needed reminding.  Merely continuing the list of negatives.

 

"Hooray.  Time to rediscover what it feels like to have a panic attack."  Argonaut sarcastically called out.  Making her way behind Caradoc.  Their half-dead firepower further inspiring little confidence.  Not that she dare point out to Steve his current condition.  Knowing full well if the roles were reversed, she too would ignore any caution.  Bringing her back to the hope that the young woman with them was a bit smarter than the two all too willing to jump into a den of entropy.

Edited June 29, 2014 by HG Morrison

[horngeek]

Catherine looked at the opening for a moment, before sighing.  "I can't walk, I'm not going to be much help down there.  But..."

 

Her gaze turned to the computer on the desk.  "If someone gives me a lift to the chair, I can at least try and look at Newman's files, see if there's any information on there.  It's a long shot, but it's something I can do instead of just sitting here."

 

Her voice was much steadier, now, and her leg's bleeding seemed to be stopping more quickly that might be expected.  The wound wasn't healing, just... not bleeding.  "And if we can keep in contact, I can give you a call if anything urgent comes up."

[Avenger Assembled]

At the bottom of the elevator shaft, the two Omegadrones pushed their way through another double door to find themselves in a bare-walled concrete box that was not quite the decadent lair of an Annihilist, with its unspeakable wall-hangings, writhing cultists, torture devices, or any other of the symbology of horror. Instead there was simply a machine encased in four simple concrete walls; a machine that they both recognized in part. This was a bomb; a powerful, city-killing bomb like those used in the endless wars on the surface of Nihilor itself. The principles of entropic annihilation were no different on Earth-Prime than they were in the Terminus; when it detonated, this bomb would incinerate Darwin down to the bedrock and scatter the ashes into the atmosphere. The interior of the bomb was adorned with something neither of them recognized - the bomb's usual payload had been replaced by clear cylinders holding a grey, sludgy fluid that seemed to writhe ever-so-slightly as they watched. 

 

"I don't recognize the charge," said Harrier in a clipped, nearly mechanical voice. Kneeling down, he peered into the bomb's guts - no easy feat given the anti-Escherian architecture of the device, an unholy amalgamation of metallic spheres and trapezoids that were fitted together at an angle that any sentient being would  know was inherently wrong. "But it is active. It would not be otherwise." 

-

 

Upstairs, in a strangely unsecured computer, Vector found evidence of a massive conspiracy to fake Grue sightings in and around greater Perth. Newman had used hidden reserves to buy up all the Grue tissue stocks in Oceania and distribute them freely (through frustratingly unnamed agents) all through the region, all designed to get as many of Australia's superheroes to cluster around the city as possible. 

 

From the half-conscious drone, meanwhile, came the whisper - "You'll look lovely in red and black, girl." 

[horngeek]

"Oh.  You're awake."

 

Vector didn't look at Newman, continuing to look through the computer files, especially for anything that was secured.  Meanwhile, she continued talking- distraction from the pain, why not.  "Interesting choice of words.  I will look lovely in red and black?  I mean, apart from a fashion choice, I get what you're implying, and what I want to know is why the hell would I want to do that?  I mean, personal reason to hold a grudge against the Terminus-"

 

She broke off, looking down at her leg, which she had sticking out to keep it (relatively) comfortable.  "Personal reasons, make that.  Anyway, personal reasons aside, I'm not a bloody insane nihilist."

[Brown Dynamite]

Argonaut examined the bomb.  She would have prefered the torture chamber lined to the wall with cultists.  At least that was a problem that could be solve with dedicated amounts of stabbing.  This did not share that level of convenience.  Caradoc didn't recognize the explosive charge, but both of them were assured that the material had to be some sort of explosive.  Newman likely tried to recreate it without elements found in Nihilor.  Too crazy to use a regular blast that wasn't an entropic tribute I bet.

 

"I assume we are not so fortunate that we can move the explosive somewhere barren without risking setting it off?  In case attempting to disarm it has explosive results."  She tried not to peer into the bomb.  Currently taking his word for it.  They didn't have a timeline of how long there was to go on the countdown.  But, it had to be close enough that Newman felt he could safely arm the bomb without the local caped ones arriving in time.  "If AEGIS had any local authority in this country, I might have been able to call in an evacuation protocol.  And UNISON agents are likely too far away.  Especially if the local heroes are occupied."

 

"Do...you really think Newman was ready to die for his cause?  Enough to get caught up in his own weapon."

[Avenger Assembled]

Caradoc studied the bomb for several long minutes, then brought his uncharged blade down into the device's middle with a single precise stroke. With a faint sound of cracking metal, the glowing lights on the device clicked off. With the power to the unit itself disrupted, even the bubbling nanite fluid in the canisters on the outside stopped moving. "...excellent," he said, a faint tremor in his mechanical voice as he realized his plan had worked. "My woman would be pleased." He looked around the vault uncomfortably, then said, "I have little knowledge of high technology, but these devices are all of the same sort. Do you understand this?" 

[Brown Dynamite]

"I don't understand it well enough to speak of the consequences.  Something was nano suspended inside.  Ready to release into at least the troposphere, at the very least, when the bomb explodes.  I don't know what the end result would be.  All the real bombs in the area makes me think that Newman had no intention of leaving evidence behind for someone to find out before it was too late."  Argonaut wordedly responded saving the snip for when they weren't in the center of a blast zone. Mentally noting to herself that his pride in the disarming was the closest he had sounded to excited thus far.
 
Argonaut shared in Caradoc's discomfort with their shared environment.  It was mixed with the unspoken respect of the manner in which the man disarmed the device.  "There might have once been a time where I could answer the question."  Yves then shrugged noncommittally.  Her eyes focused on the grey fluid contents.  Just what is the payload?

Edited July 10, 2014 by HG Morrison

[horngeek]

Vector's eyes narrowed as she saw the symbol on the screen, and she rapidly put two and two together- hopefully, she'd gotten four and not sixteen, but she had a hunch...

 

She activated the communications device that Caradoc had given her, speaking quickly but clearly.  "Caradoc, Argonaut.  I managed to break into Newman's files, and the... somewhat good news is, there's no traps in Perth for the heroes lured there.  That's a decoy, and nothing else."

 

She paused for a moment.  "He's been moving a lot of his holdings, though, and he's been moving them right here to this building.  What's more, he doesn't have any entries scheduled after today- there's only the Omega symbol.  That's why he made such an obvious play, whatever he's got planned tonight, the... cover... isn't necessary after that.  And while I can't tell what the plan is... he woke up a minute ago, and he's only made one comment.  About how I'd look good in red and black.  Dismissed it as a taunt when he made it, but now..."

 

Vector paused for a second.  "What's down there?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Caradoc got on the phone with someone who turned about to be Miss Americana, the famous tech hero commenting that the bomb's payload resembled infectious or "Grey Goo"-style nanites and that it was a good thing the heroes had been there to save the day. A quick search of Newman's desk revealed the Sword of the Liberator, a blade which Caradoc happened to have in hand when first the Darwin police, then the first Australian superhero, Windtracer (thanks to her speed) arrived on the scene. With Newman in heavily-armed Australian federal custody (silent now thanks to the defeat of his plan), Caradoc and Argonaut made sure the nano-bomb went safely into super-custody. Steve might have preferred the nanites go into the hands of Freedom City's supers, but he knew that was an argument for another day - one he'd have to raise with the much more charismatic Miss Americana. He was not one to successfully argue with so many determined Australian superheroes. 

 

When his debriefing was done, an exhaustive conversation with Windtracer and other Australian heroes, Caradoc (feeling the first bites of fatigue) decided to head for the hospital where the local emergency staff had rushed Vector. The thoughts of Terminus technology in the hands of people who weren't the Freedom League, Gina, or Dragonfly still bothered him intensely, but as he made a landing on the roof and headed inside the building (using the temporary pass he'd gotten from Windtracer as proof he was a legitimate hero), he did his best to put those thoughts aside. The would-be Annihilist had been defeated and Darwin saved from a technological apocalypse - so why was he yet so tense? As he headed for Vector's private room, he knew there was only one answer. When it came to the Terminus, there was no peace; and there never would be 

[horngeek]

Michael Fields passed Caradoc as the hero walked into the room, revealing Catherine Fields- now not in her superhero costume, she greeted the new entrant into her room with a nod.  "What a day, huh."
 
She sighed, sitting up and looking at him.  "City's saved, the villain revealed... today's a day for revelations, it seems.  My own personal ones... actually aren't that big.  The people who'd be inclined to strike at me through family would already be inclined to strike at us."
 
With a look down at her leg, she grimaced.  "The doctors say I'm not going to walk again without a cane or a brace- the damage to my muscles means they can't really support my weight.  Given some work and clever use of powers, I think I can get around that, actually, at least for short bursts."

 

Catherine chuckled.  "They're the same injuries as my mum got during the last Terminus invasion, actually.  Turns out, she was a superhero herself.  Went by Armory, used a suit built by dad."

 

Her gaze returned to Caradoc- becoming a lot more like the look he'd seen that night, when she was bleeding onto the floor and yet was determined to do something.  "And while this incident became a lot larger, both the Australian part of the Terminus invasion and this incident started with the... Sword of the Liberator, was it.  What is that sword, anyway, and what does it have to do with the Terminus?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"It is a free man's blade, used to break the chains of slavery." Still armored, the knight held up the blade - a humble, albeit gleaming golden gladius, whose haft was emblazoned with mystic sigils. "For the Terminus, such is anathema." It seemed to be the only explanation there was. "And there are those there who have a personal grudge. It seems a small thing to have brought so much death at the hands of the forces of entropy" He set the blade down again and said frankly, "I am sorry, Vector. I had thought all other Omegadrones were destroyed. Instead I find one free to worship the dread gods of the Terminus, and work his horrors among your people. Newman will be taken to a facility in Freedom City. His fate will be out of my hands there. I will see that the blade is removed from your nation-state, and will no longer threaten your people."  

[Brown Dynamite]

Argonaut had been spending the past few minutes trying and failing to get into contact with an AEGIS contact.  Her radio communications only had a radius of five miles.  And her current phone plan didn't quite support such an international call.  This is something to bring up when Dr. Volk upgrades the armor.  Her other reason for being on the roof was avoiding the inevitable reactions that would soon follow.  The Aegis A emblazoned upon her chest was far less recognizable outside of the states.  And the lack of a wingspan and her current color palette still meant that she would present herself as an Omegadrone.  There was no way that the regular crimson design wasn't plastered all over the news stations in response to Newman's big power grab.

 

It'd be more inconspicuous to walk around unarmored.  But that was simply a luxury she didn't feel comfortable risking.  Yves still had a task to accomplish.  The sword, was to enter AEGIS custody.  Unlike Lemuria sites of Terminus conflict was not barred from contact by the UN.  So, Argonaut had to rely on the people she trusted to keep such items safe.  Which meant another confrontation with an Omegadrone.  This one not a servant of entropy.

 

So she came down from the roof access.  Her eyes looked forward forcing herself to enter into a tunnel vision.  Ignoring any lingering gazes that came.  As long as gunfire didn't follow she was in the clear.  It was difficult enough to get vet by the cognizance of the local heroes as both an Omegadrone and a member for a foreign intelligence agency.  It would likely be even harder after a second commotion.  Upon arriving outside Catherine Field's room  Argonaut knocked on the door.  Entering and closing it behind her.

[horngeek]

The heroine chuckled.  "It would be, wouldn't it."  She moved on, addressing the next topic.

 

"No, you don't need to apologise."

 

Catherine nodded to Argonaut as she entered the room.  "If anyone's at fault for this, it's Newman- and, ultimately, Omega himself.  Besides, he hid his true nature from everyone, not just you."  She sighed.  "I'll admit, part of me wants Newman to be locked away here.  But Australia doesn't have any prisons for powered individuals anyway, so it's not practical." She sighed.  "So, as long as that bloody key gets thrown away, it'll have to do.  I know the prevaling attitude in Australia is 'we want nothing involved with the Terminus here'."

 

She looked at both superheroes.  "Personally, I want nothing under the command of the Terminus here.  Those that work against is... that's fine.  And I'm not in costume right now, call me Catherine."

[Avenger Assembled]

"My name is Murdock," replied Caradoc. He looked up at Argonaut as she entered and, suddenly aware of how alien his fellow drone looked without a disguise, reached up and switched off his holoemitters. "You may vomit if you watch me," he warned Vector. For a moment an unspeakable horror was sitting by Vector's beside, then a nightmarish transition of flesh and metal and blood like a demonic puzzle, and then that brown-skinned, scarred man she'd met before was sitting by her bed. He stood up to retract his pike and attach the shrunken blade to his belt, leaving him a towering figure in the room. With his height and bulk, it was easy to see where the metal went - deep inside his scarred and folded flesh. "It is done, by their laws. Will you return to America?" he asked Argonaut. 

[Brown Dynamite]

"I dont get the vomit warning?"  Argonaut joked.  She new it was an unneeded warning.  "Yes.  I have little reason to linger any longer.  What are your plans?  I don't think a torture souls bowling league is in order.  But, perhaps some sort of intermittent communication could be arranged in the future."  She then walked further into the room.  Looking over Catherine.

 

"Back, where I came from.  Before well he knows.  But in my original home, we would have had you all fixed up in a matter of hours.  It hurts me to know there is no comfort that can be provided.  If I had realized Newman's intentions sooner I would have taken the wound in your place."  She then turned her wrist upwards and pushed a combination of buttons on the wrist panel.    The pieces of metal armor detached itself from her flesh.  Propelled by a magnetic system the material folded and contorted itself until it was shaped into a briefcase.  "If you need anything contact AEGIS directly and claim you have knowledge of Project Argonaut and wish to speak to the Agent in charge.  It should fast track even an international call." 

 

She then turned back to Steve.  "About the blade.  I will be needing it for my return voyage."

[horngeek]

"..." Catherine was silent, for a moment.  "Vomit wouldn't be what I'd go for.  I'd say the knight suits you better than the drone, though."

 

She sighed at Argonaut's second statement.  "I accepted the risks when I went into this whole business.  And I'm luckier than some this night."  She fell silent again, remembering Newman's first strike.  

 

Then, she looked at Argonaut as she requested the blade.  This... could be a point of contention.  

[Avenger Assembled]

"So that is the A on your armor," remarked Harrier as he bent down to retrieve the sword, mindful of the injuries he'd sustained in their terrible fight with Newman. "I had wondered." The people of Earth-Prime did love their secrets, he mused. Argonaut having been found and restored to life to AEGIS would explain why he had never heard of an Omegadrone active on the side of good on Earth-Prime. When the sword was in his hand, he reassured her. "Worry not. Caradoc is a close ally of Miss American and Dragonfly, and the Sword will be protected by the greatest defenders of Earth-Prime." The realization that this was, in fact, the Sword of the Liberator in his hand, the one his parents had told him of as a child, was only gradually beginning to catch up with him after the events of this long, hard day. "I have seen this broken and smashed so many times," he commented quietly as he studied the gleaming blade. "To see it now in safe hands is...remarkable." 

[Brown Dynamite]

The brown skinned scarred woman ran her fingers through the small bob of hair sitting upon her head while sighing.  Well it wasn't really her hair so to speak.  It was a wig, albeit one as attached to her scalp as it possibly could be.  Bt the hair was grown on someone else's head.  Much like the other heavily scarred person in the room.  Her flesh was barren soil as far as hair follicles were concerned.  "I understand.  And I'm sure you have the utmost faith in your allies.  Whereas I have faith in AEGIS and its ability to not only keep the sword safe.  But to keep it out of sight as well.  So the next Newman doesnt get any ideas."

 

Yves wasn't emotionally attached to the sword.  She never heard any of the stories of hope from it.  And Steve's earlier explanation was interrupted by the racist distractors.  Recovering it was simply a job to be done.  And another reminder of the Terminus after a day full of one to many reminders.  "Your defenders can contend with Steelgrave if he ever seeks out the Atlantean relic.  But, mine can make sure he never finds it."

Edited August 3, 2014 by HG Morrison

[Avenger Assembled]

"Steelgrave's aggressions against this world are not driven by the sword, but by his desire to profane its defenders and cast all that lives here into the ever-burning fires of the Doom Coil." Surely a drone must know these things - must have heard the words in her mind for uncounted days of endless nightmare until her liberation. But perhaps she was like Prometheus and had no recall of those days. "The forces of the Terminus are not pirates, or bandits, or even conquerors. They come to destroy, to violate, to murder. This sword is simply the private obsession of one Annihilist. It is better kept in the hands of those who have defeated the forces of the Terminus before." 

[Brown Dynamite]

"I need no reminder on the goals of the Terminus.  I remember them quite clearly.  I've lived through that horror first hand.  And shall ask that you try and not suggest I am making light of such a threat.  In the end their is only Omega and Entropy.  I recall."  She stepped forward looking up at the man who had a quite a bit of height on her.

 

"So you agree they should be kept in the hands of those whom have defeated the forces of the Terminus in Earth Prime?  Because, 20 years ago AEGIS played no small part in routing the Terminus.  I also recall that day vividly if you must know.  Having been a part of the losing side.  Or are only the allies you know qualified in your estimation to hold on to the lump of metal?"  

 

She crossed her arms.  Her face upholding an emotionless glare.  There was no enmity as her gaze fell directly into the eyes of the other drone.  "You want to know what I think?  It's not the Annihilist obsession coming into question.  It is the drone who wishes to fell that very Annihilist when he returns."  She knew she could easily claim that the sword was lost in the skirmish.  There would be no question, and it would be a simple matter.  He hadn't asked, simply assumed he could do what he wished with it.  Nor had she offered and also assumed she could repossess it as she wished.  It was too touchy of a matter to not be difficult over.

[horngeek]

Catherine glared.  "Really?  You're doing this here?"

 

She sighed.  "Personally, I don't think Newman would have changed anything if the sword didn't exist.  Except maybe he wouldn't have make a move that exposed his nature.  So, the sword's contribution to tonight was basically to act as a warning.  It being out in the open actually helped us tonight."

 

Raising her head, she gazed at both ex-Omegadrones.  "Maybe I'm butting into something that I might not be fully able to understand, but if it were up to me... I'd want the sword somewhere it was used.  Against the Terminus... anyone who keeps people in chains."

 

She shifted in her bed.  "Just my five cents."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Long ago, in the days before this world harnessed the power of the skies, there was another world. A world with an Atlantis, and a Sword, and those who wielded it throughout history. By the time of my grandparents, those who carried the sword were the Champions of Liberty, leaders and captains of the Heroic Assembly." It might have been a proud memory, except that Steve slunk down in his seat as he spoke, the chair creaking beneath his great weight. "When Steelguard began to change, it was the Champion of Liberty who spoke out against him. Until his capture and death. In the days before his end, my mother visited him in his cell to rebuke him in Steelguard's name. Not long after that, Omega's vessel appeared above the capitol, and the end of all things came. Steelgrave has the blade of that world still." 

 

He looked up at Argonaut and said, "Yes. My parents were of that world, just as I am of dread Nihilor. If Steelgrave is struck down by mehe will return, as when his clone was killed by my replacement during the Day of Wrath. As will Omega, in time. You and I, and all of existence, face an enemy that cannot be destroyed, that cannot be overthrown, that can only be...defeated. It is our fate." He looked down at the sword and said, "This sword belongs to no body made by laws and governments. It belongs to all."