Devil's Parlay (Chelle)

"You have got to be kidding me........." Lucius said, eyes locked on a set of papers from behind a pair of reading glasses. He couldn't believe the ridiculous fabrications he was seeing. Usually he didn't buy into media coverage, but this was rather important, considering who it concerned. The headline read: Eclipse, heroic Talon or Rise conspirator?

"They latch onto anything, now don't they?" The Prime Minister said to himself as he threw the paper aside. Hector quickly caught it, tucking it under his arm. The paper was saying all manner of things. The only fact they seemed to get right was that Tyuki wasn't dead. Of course, some still thought she was, but they still made claims of a love affair gone wrong with that oh so despicable Lucius Alba. It was a cluster of theories ranging from the heroine being involved in the defeat of the Talons to her being an illuminati sacrifice. Lucius himself was flabbergasted. Stupidity knew no bounds it seemed.

"Get it pulled. She's been through enough." Lucius said to Hector, turning in his chair to face the painting behind him rather then the desk. He tended to do this when he was trying to think. An odd quirk, but everyone had their own ways of clearing their mind.

"Yes, Lucius." Hector said, leaving the room as soon as his creator turned. He knew when Red wanted to be left to himself. After all, If you didn't take the hint, he could get rather angry.

In all sincerity, Lucius did care for the girl he had uprooted. Not in a romantic way, of course. It was a combination of guilt and how he related to the girl. She was the victim of convenience. She was the perfect tool to be used against a stubborn egotist. She was grabbed up just like he was as a young man, to be used for someone else.

No, he didn't want her to be a part of his game. He wanted to find a way he could get to his goal without Tyuki being involved........ But in the end, he did what was easy. He tried to make up for it as best as he could, but was it enough? With these rumors running rampant, would she ever be free of the unwanted attention? Lucius payed no mind of speculation about him, but this was entirely different. He poured himself a drink.

".......Another life left half broken, and for what?" Lucius said to himself, taking a drink of his alcohol. He sighed and cracked his neck, laying back in his chair. It was a cold day in hell that he relaxed anymore.

Of course, he wasn't able to. The second he closed his eyes, the phone rang. He woke up with a rough cough, realizing he nearly fell asleep with a glass in his hand. He quickly set it on his desk, shacking his head to return himself to reality.

"Um, Hello? They're supposed to alert me before i take calls, but i guess you got around that." Lucius said tiredly. He was pretty blah about the whole breach of security thing, apparently.

Lucius heard a woman's voice on the other end of the line, one who had a surprisingly calm tone despite what she was discussing. She wanted to know what he knew about Tyuki, likely some friend or relative of the girl, or highly resourceful reporter who was also a hacker. Lucius was interested now. It's not like this was the standard press call, it took some determination and skill to contact Lucius directly.

He placed the phone against his shirt as she spoke of random business banter that didn't really make sense, clearly buying time. Lucius wasn't stupid, he was aware of how long it took to trace a call. But why not let her? She would just see he was in the second most protected building in the country.

"Trace the call and report any change on the scanners to me." Lucius said, then brought his face back up to the phone. Lucius was pretty much being his usual paranoid self, not that he was fearful. He just kinda assumed when someone got through a secure line and then started rambling on that something was amiss.

"Oh, yes, i know very much about her. In fact, i may know more then anyone..." Lucius said, then hung up the phone. He hit the silent alarm, but security had already been alerted to the fact an unlicensed car was speeding toward the Palace.

"An unauthorized vehicle just pulled up..... There are three.... No, two heat signatures.... One has just disappeared." Hector said over the speakers in the office. At this point, Lucius realized there was probably a breach. It wasn't confirmed, but an odd phone call and a car pulling up was enough to warrant a change of attire.

".......She could have scheduled a meeting. Not sure why everyone has to be so mysterious." Lucius said with a sigh as he got up, pulling out a book from his case which made the whole thing spin, revealing his armor. He spent the next minute or so putting it all on, getting reports of guards being knocked out through his ear piece. Again, why so violent?

Eventually, the door was kicked in. Lucius still had his back to the wall, one arm resting behind him and the other seemingly scanning his collection of books. He had his full suit on now, hood pulled up and everything, and the case was back to normal.

"I really thought i had The Odyssey somewhere around here.............. Oh well." Lucius said, turning finally to face the intruder. It was an interesting person, clearly not human. It wasn't like Red was not used to seeming inhuman things, though, so it didn't surprise him. He noticed his Security Captain, Edward Victus, was behind her, wrist mounted gun trained on the woman's head. Lucius smiled at that.

"Stand down..... But, do stay put. Our guest seems to have a thing for violence." Lucius said, waving the Captain off. He walked past the female, not saying a word before placing himself in the corner of the room, hands folded.

Lucius examined the intruder through red optics, wondering what she was, or more importantly, who she was. She clearly wanted to know about Tyuki, but whether she was friend or foe to the girl wasn't apparent. This would be an interesting little meeting indeed.

"It isn't usually my custom to do business in, well, this. But I'm not the man i used to be, so it is essential." Lucius said, sitting down at his desk and gesturing for the woman to do the same. She wore fancy clothing, which was interesting, considering she went out to invade a government building. Everything about her screamed high class, so why do this dirty work herself?

"What is it you want to know, young lady?" Lucius said with a slight chuckle. Just by seeing her he figured the comment might be irritating.

Lucius watched the little combat between this woman and his security Captain. As marvelous as the male's power was, she was clearly too much for him. Sure Lucius could have stepped in and maybe turned the tide,  but he wasn't in a fighting mood. He let Victus be incapacitated, chuckling to himself once it was over and the woman approached.  She spoke once again, but this time revealed herself. He knew who she was.

"Oh, you have plenty of reason to, Rochelle. I think at least a third of the planet does, in fact......." Lucius mused to himself,  grabbing a metal sphere from his desk. It was a gift he was given at the last UN meeting he was called to, supposedly being some alien metal. This element in particular wasn't special in the slightest, however.

He tossed it back and forth between gauntlet clad hands, his expressionless mask staring blankly at the woman across from him. The nerve she had. Regardless of her reason for being here, he wasn't going to make getting what she wanted easy. You don't walk into his country, much less his home, and act like you're the one in charge. It was a matter of principle he make her life harder now.

"So, are you going to keep sucking blood and blowing off steam or are you going to ask me a question? I don't have all day, as you may know." Lucius said after a bit of slience. He continued tossing the sphere back and forth, leaning back in his chair as his optics remained trained on the woman. He looked at her like a boss wanting you to explain yourself would. He assumed she wanted to know where Tyuki was, but he wasn't going to spew that at the mere sight of this woman.

Now she was apologizing? It wasn't like Lucius had asked for that...... He so far didn't like the way this was going, all back and forth. It felt like she was going down the check list of things to try. Fear, compassion, flattery. She would probably keep going until something worked.

Now, perhaps she was just a concerned relative, one with a temper, but that meant nothing to Lucius. He didn't care about anyone involved in this except Tyuki,  slightly. He had returned what was due and that was the end of it,  he didn't owe anyone anything. He wouldn't tell Chelle for the same reason he didn't tell Phoenix, because he didn't have to.

He just sat there silent,  watching a few tears come from the woman's eye. Yeah, wasn't doing anything for him. Coming from what previously looked like a demon sadness just seemed ironic. He even laughed a little when she asked him if he knew what love was. As if relating to the situation was going to make him talk. He either would or he wouldn't,  practically begging for it wasn't going to get her anywhere.

"I need a lot of things, dear. I need my life back, i need my soul cleansed, i need my actions to be recognised for what they are. But the thing is, we don't always get what we need, much less what we want." Lucius said, setting the metal sphere on his desk before leaning slightly forward from his relaxed position. He then pulled his hood off and the mask followed. He wasn't in any real danger anyway.  He set the mask down and half smiled at the woman.

"So much power, so much influence....... You're a goddess among ants, yet you sit here like a grieving child begging me. I've lost so much, but never brought myself down to the disgusting level you just did."  Lucius said. He was very conscious of what worked on him, and he simply wasn't allowing it, even if he didn't care about giving her the information. She had tried several angles already, and was clearly not the most honest person,  so he wasn't giving her anything. Did she expect to appeal to the good nature of a man with his reputation? Did she expect to use any amount of love he may have felt in the past to get what she wanted?

"You said this was business, not the salvation army. In this world you either take what you want, or you give me something of equal value. So tell me, dearest girl, what does Tyuki mean to you?" Lucius said,  pouring himself and his guest some Bourbon before sitting back once again.

Lucius was leaned forward as he awaited Chelle's reaction, grey eyes piercing his target, looking for that little glint of anger he was hoping for. After a moment of silence though, he saw the woman smile, and then his own half grin returned. He backed off, listening to the surprisingly still calm woman he thought would blow her lid. He didn't get what he wanted, but at least he managed to make it clear where he stood.

In the end, this next round of dialogue didn't serve to change anything. He still wasn't convinced, and frankly just didn't like this woman. He was about to continue his roast and then have her removed, using whatever means he needed to, but that's when he noticed something odd.

She was shaking somewhat, biting her lip, her pupils dilated. Lucius watched in half interest at it all. Considering she was some sort of vampire and just bit several people, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together. He had taken his mask off, which must have triggered the woman's hunger. She seemed fine before that, so the two logical conclusions were that she just really badly needed a cigarette or wanted another drink of plasma.

"....You seem to be uncomfortable in that chair. Is your thirst really that bad dear? Despite you trying to hide it, it's quite obvious. I can spot an addict when i see one." Lucius said. It was true really, he was a master of picking up clues in actions. From what he knew of the woman, that's all it could have been. Yes it was abductive reasoning, but it's not like he had a large pool of information to draw from to definitively deduce what was up.

"Well, i wouldn't drink my blood...... It's a bit caustic you see. My powers may be dormant, but my system is still primed for their return.... If you like the taste of drain cleaner, go right ahead." Lucius said, tilting his head to the side to expose the side of his neck. He wasn't bluffing, he was still a metahuman, and your body has to make a few changes when it holds something like his energy. One of those permanent changes was his increased mental capacity, and another was the fact his body was a perfect vessel for the corrosive energy he manipulated. This meant his blood didn't make the best beverage. There were also several other complicated reasons why it was a bad idea to go sucking the man's blood, as everyone who had tried so far ended up in bad shape, but one explanation he figured would do.

"Please get this animal out of my office." Lucius said, pressing a button on the pager at his desk. In a few minutes, they would have the means to get rid of even Chelle. This meeting was over.

She didn't want to listen, did she? Apparently Lucius' blood was a bit of a delicacy to her, so the warning wasn't heeded. That was just too bad, because what he described would be the least of her issues by the end of this. You just don't suck Lucius Alba's blood and get away with it, even if he did (sarcastically) offer.

Now, he could have activated his teleporter, or any number of defensive systems in his suit for that matter, but he had something far more fun in store. He was quickly grabbed, seeing every movement the woman made despite her incredible speed, yet he just let it happen.

Prime the energy converter and make a back up charge of 1% power. Lucius said over Soul Sync to his AI, which cooperated, doing as asked. Next thing you know, his gauntlet was charged and ready to do any manner of things, just as the woman stuck her teeth into his neck.

She was nice enough to avoid severely injuring or even killing him, which was a mistake she would soon regret. When she began drinking his blood, Lucius got to work. You see, as was stated his blood wasn't exactly run of the mill. At first glance it was normal, maybe a bit acidic, but deep down it hid weakened energy and a dormant metagene.

Just like when he had his powers, his body was riddled with his energy. All his converter had to do was reach out to the blood the woman was about to drink, and change it up a bit. If there just so happened to not be enough energy cells in that particular drink, it would send it's back up charge into the blood as an electromagnetic blast and then convert that instead.

Either way, the end result was the same. The energy cells in the blood would be changed to none other then beta radiation, which was basically a high energy, high speed electron that caused radioactive decay.

External exposure was not all that bad, but internal exposure, which was about to happen as she was essentially sucking the radiation up as it was being created, was bad. Essentially what would happen is, slowly but surely, the woman's organs would begin to be damaged. Beta was particularly dangerous because of it's cellular penetration, meaning it could get all over her body to places like the liver and even brain. In moments, she would start to feel radiation sickness, and perhaps even pains inside her body.

Lucius would teleport across the room as soon as it was all done, handkerchief in hand, wiping the blood from his neck as he looked at the woman with that all too familiar smirk of his. He had warned her, did he not?

"Didn't taste as you expected it to, did it?" Lucius mused. The poisoning would be a lot faster and a lot worse then normal, as it was inside her body, willingly ingested. The situation wasn't good for Chelle. She would likely feel lethargic, and as time went on, she would feel pain set in. It was good her regeneration was at work, as it allowed her damaged cells to heal, so she wouldn't die....... But that didn't mean she wouldn't feel sick until the last of the beta particles left her body, which could take days.

"You've been dosed with a little beta radiation, if you couldn't tell. Now, a woman of your power may not die, but i doubt it feels good..... And, if your regeneration is the common type, you may be dealing with cancer in the near future. Unless of course i pull the particles from your body with the same thing i used to put them there." Lucius said, walking forward. He was still bleeding pretty badly, so he opened his desk after looping around the opposite side of the room and grabbed a bottle of super glue. Simple for a man that had just forced radiation into someone, but he couldn't deny it's merit. He applied it to the wounds to seal them as he spoke.

"That's gonna leave a scar................. Anyway, remember this the next time you decide to touch me." Lucius said as he set the glue down, then took his seat once again. He drank the rest of his drink as if it wasn't a double shot, then looked back to the likely hurting woman.

"Now you're in a predicament, aren't you? You still want your information, and now you probably want me to remove the radiation from your body." Lucius said, holding up his gauntlet clad hand as his nearly translucent grey eyes scanned the woman's face. He acted as if he was in control, and perhaps he was. This was his house, and this whole time he hadn't shown a glint of fear or even a slight lack of confidence. He was sure of himself to the core.

"But now we return to the fact that i need something of equal value. So do tell me, Rochelle, what does that all mean to you? What can it buy?" Lucius finished. He didn't know what he wanted, and in fact probably didn't want anything, but when you win you might as well take something from it. As was previously stated, it was mostly about pride. Not even the world's richest demon could touch him without getting a strong dose of Arrogant Post Event Speech.

Since this was all just one arrogant laughter party, Lucius found himself laughing as much as Chelle had, maybe more. He honestly thought it was funny. This was a very interesting experience, from the fact she liked feeling pain to the sways in the woman's emotions. For once in a long time Lucius didn't know what to think, or what the best course of action was. Hurting someone that hadn't been hurt in so long was no good, he could attest to that himself. The pain in his neck was more of a numbing then anything, gave him something to show he was still as killable as anyone. Such an important man, such an influential man, but one that could be taken out with a simple bullet. He understood, he just didn't know why he hadn't realized that in the first place.

"Chelle Chelle Chelle, of course i don't think that. This meeting is all about what you want, after all." Lucius said between fits of laughter. He poured himself a drink, his hysterics fading into a wide smile as he took a sip.

"If you or the other Gods ever need to be taken down a peg, then I'm right here." Lucius said. If she was a God, then he was better then a God. That was of course how he thought of it though. He wasn't going to kill the woman, he didn't care about that. His pride was satisfied for the time being.

"She's alive, probably more so then she has ever been. So our business is concluded. If i ever have a teleportation seminar, do stop by. This was quite an evening." Lucius said. He then chugged the rest of his drink, slammed it down, and walked out of the office. She could leave if she wanted to, she could trash his office, Lucius didn't care.

Lucius stopped, laughing at what was essentially a semi-insult. It was no secret Lucius was a bit of an ass, even when he was being formal. But to have it put so lightly, into one single word, it brought a smile to his face. If only all the evil in the world could be summed up like all his just was. An interesting thing to say to someone you had just drank the blood of, which was also poisoned.

Chelle then went on to say he couldn't just leave her. Well, he actually could, but he hadn't been so certain on it in the first place. He turned, arms held out from his sides, a gesture that indicated a sort of 'here i am, then' expression.

"You don't really know someone until you've seen both their fake and real sides, but we seem to be traveling from the opposite direction....." Lucius said, lowing his arms before leaning slightly on his book case covered wall. He then moved his attention to answering the female's question on Tyuki.

"But yes, she was. It took a few stories and metaphors for her to stop trying to kill me, but we got past that." Lucius said. He wasn't going into great detail about the meeting, because it honestly concerned matters that were quite the fiery topic at the moment and were very important to Rise. He was keeping to the fact he wasn't going to give Chelle anything of much substance on that subject beyond that Tyuki was indeed alive.

"But if I am indeed what you call me, why would you even want my company?" Lucius said. It was a question he pretty much knew the answer to, but they were humoring each other, right?