You're safe...? (Dire)

Maura felt good waking up, snuggled in her roll and refreshed. She unrolled herself until she was sitting on the edge of the bed. She yawned and stretched, rubbing her eyes until she saw him.

Battered.
Bloody.
Bruised.

"Malik...!" Her voice was a mere breath as she jumped up and went over to kneel beside the unconscious man. Her heart beat unsteadily against her ribs as her hands lingered awkwardly above the injuries to his chest. The fact that he was breathing was hardly any relief to her, "Que pasó...? Hey, wake up!"

She couldn't deny that her hands were trembling as she carefully laid them on either side of his face, thumb just barely grazing the darkness surrounding his eye. Her mind began racing with possibilities and guilt twisted sharply in her gut. This is why she hated having people stick around for too long. Horrible things always happened the moment she thought nothing bad would come of it. Maura felt fear welling up in her and tried not to let it drip from her eyes, but things were definitely more blurry than usual in her panic and her eyebrows knotted together tightly, "Malik, hey! Wh-what happened?"

He was awakened to a panicked Maura looking over him.
He really didn't know how to react, his instinct said talk to the hacker and maybe even analyze the death curse and red room videos.
Yet, he felt remorse for the person he was with.
He instead sat up with pure frustration.
"I'll be fine... Are YOU hurt? Did they do anything to you?"
He inspected her in a not at all sexual way (even though he passed her chest more times than probably needed).

As he waited for her to answer, he walked over to the window with a visible wince.
"We need to get get there as soon as possible."

"Me?" She said in disbelief as he stood up. She finally felt that relief once he was up and running again. Maura rubbed her face harshly and took in an uneven breath in order to try to get her emotions under control, "Im fine. But you definitely aren't. What the hell happened to you?"

Malik's wincing and words only rammed daggers of regret through her. She looked quietly to her bag as he mentioned a need to find this underground cloning shop. She hurried over and pulled out her suit and mask that had been neatly packaged into a little leather bag. As she held it she turned back to where Malik was keeping watch over the window. "I can be ready to go whenever. Do you... think it was these guys from New York that did this to you?"

Because honestly, she didn't know how she was going to handle the guilt if it was. She knew he had said he had enemies of his own, but with the way he was acting it made it seem like his injuries were somehow connected. Maybe he just wanted to leave as soon as possible. Whatever it was Mauara was willing to end it and get him out of the danger she'd put him in.

Dire stood silent for a brief moment due to his unknowing of his answer.
They weren't the guys in suits, but they all looked the same.
"They were ninjas... German ninjas... THERE'S NOT EVEN A FUNNY STEREOTYPE FOR THAT!!!"

He looked to see the hacker was offline.
"You didn't touch this did you? My search history would scar you for life..."
He let out a laugh, then winced.
"Ow..."

Maura winced when Malik winced, yet was glad to hear his odd sense of humor was still in tact. She was not glod, however, that he didn't know much about these European assassins. She shook her head as she head for the bathroom to change into her suit, "No, I haven't. And now I know I never should use a computer after you." She replied as she changed and grabbed the first aid kit from off the bathroom sink. She came back out in her skin-tight suit that was specially made for her powers, but with her mask in one hand and the kit in the other. She hadn't even looked into the mirror to see her awful bed-head.

She sat on the bed and motioned for him to come and sit next to her, "There's no way you're going out like that, so at least let me disinfect your wounds." She sternly said, with a very deeply buried underlying tone of begging. It was just as much for her sake as it was for his that she at least did this much, "In the meanwhile you should tell me what you can remember about these German Ninjas and I'll... Let you know more about what I know."

Maura knew she probably shouldn't try to hide anything regarding the information she had gotten on the cloning operation. Hopefully Malik would be more cautious if he knew what they were dealing with. But somehow, she doubted he would be.

Dire almost waved Maura off, but he remembered that he was no where near his apartment so he couldn't heal on his own. So he just allowed Maura to inspect his wounds.

He saw her skin tight suit and couldn't help but admire her physique.
Now to a guy, anything with hips and a chest stuffed into spandex was hot.
Yet he saw this more as elegance.
"You look nice..."
He said as he sat down.

He would wince a few times as she picked at his bruises and cuts, but nothing to hinder her work.
"Well... I went out to take a walk after trying to find files on this place. Then these ninjas attacked. I mean like. Real ninjas. And they came with a lady who looked like the chick from Tarzan. That lady took my blood. Like. A lot of it... So I don't know what this has to do with us. What about you?
What do you know?"

"Thanks." Maura muttered in reply to his commendation. She focused on tending to his various injuries and listening closely to him. After using some rubbing alchohol mercilessly she made sure to use the natural salve she had and bandaged the open wounds properly. She had bruise cream as well to help with the rainbow of nasty splotches on his skin.

The moment Malik mentioned his blood being drawn Maura internalized her freaking out, because his missing blood could lead to some serious problems. Well, for himself at least, "Aside from the cloning process and the rapid rate at which they are able to replicate and culture cells, I know that the people I acquired the information from were planning to weaponize the science. Taking the best of the best from the ranks and making more of them. Weeding out the inferior and all that. Basically they could have an army of perfect soldiers." She finished patching Malik up and let her tone fall into unemotional deadpan as she went into business, as it always did.

"Test subjects started from cows, then went to apes, then humans, then metahuman. The only unsuccessful cloning was with the Metahuman subjects. The information I am in possession of stated plans, theories, really, about how to make the cloning of the complicated Meta-gene happen." Maura hadn't been too concerned at the time she'd 'acquired' the information about this rather twisted scheme. In all honesty, it hadn't involved her directly, so she didn't care. "But it ended there. Now, my theory is that one of their theories ended up working, and they somehow figured out that I have that information. Such valuable intel probably shouldn't be spread around so frivolously. That would explain the stalkers trying to kill me..."

She looked right at Malik at this point. Maura was ready to quit with this endless confession of knowledge and get down to what she saw as the real clincher, "But that just makes things more complicated with these Ninjas and Ms. Jane. If they were with these clones, why didn't they kill me when they had the chance? I doubt that you made it here yourself, after all. Regardless, though, if by some chance they are related to this meta-cloning project, and they now have your blood...."

Maura was willing to let Malik fill in the rest himself after that, not knowing if him being cloned was even a possibility after hearing how he acquired his powers.

Dire considered the idea of only being able to clone the metahuman gene.
"Hm... I wonder if that makes metas more vulnerable to infections directed to that part of the body..."
He suprised even himself with the sudden intellectual comment, so he followed it up with "Or maybe I just bonked my head real hard..."

He then wondered about Maura.
"Would you rather get a head start away from this place and I guarantee that the place is burnt to the ground?"

Maura didn't quite think Malik's comment so coincidental, "I don't think a concussion could make you that clever. You might be onto something there," She teased half heartedly while considering his comment. If this cloning company was actually still failing to clone metahumans, maybe they had found a weakness in the gene, like Malik had said. It was an unsettling thought, for sure.

But, usually Maura could care less. She just tried to stay out of the limelight and leave her clients and victims to their own devices. She was merely a middleman to help make things happen. Normally she wouldn't even consider stopping such an operation, but that was when she hadn't been hunted down.

She had been careful, for sure, to hide her tracks during the particular mission to get the cloning information. Maura could only assume that meant one of her few contacts had ratted her out to put her in this much danger. So she basically had no choice but to make sure things were taken care of properly. Her worry lessened considerably and her anger spiked as she thought about how careless she had been and all the work she would need to go through to clean out her contacts in the near future.

"Let's go check it out. I want to see this place burnt down with my own eyes." She said quite darkly with a frown. Maybe someone would squeal on who gave her info away if they had the right... Incentive, "Did you manage to get a location when you were online?"

Dire grinned.
"Well, I wasn't a punching bag for nothin was I?"
He stood and slid into a new outfit faster than any fireman could.
It literally took Maura's head turning and he was already slipping his aviator glasses on and zipping his leather jacket.
"Alright... Let's go burn down a secret agency."

He stole a motorcycle that was similar to Maura's back in the states.
The difference was the person driving.
Malik drove at least 20 mph more than Maura would have on such a winding backroad.
After nearly wrecking them 7 times, they finally made it to the building.
It looked like it was ripped out out of New York, and slammed into the middle of the woods.
"Well this was sort of aniclimactic... I was expecting a gunfight..."
He said just before going completely rigid.
His spine tingled.
His eye twitched.
Something was playing with his insides.
He panicked.
He wanted to yell, yet his body continued to do Michael Jackson dance moves.
He commanded his body to push Maura to the bushes...
And it complied...
In a way.
Whatever was controlling him made his lips connect with Maura's in such a sensual way it snapped him out of the manipulation.
Yet, he didn't stop till he took her to the bushes.
He gasped "Sorry..." In between breaths.

The rumbling was heard by Malik long before it was seen. A large vehicle rumbled through.
"Do we jump on or wait?" He asked.

Dire laughed as Maura rushed to the truck.
This was truly the most fun he'd had on a job in a while.
AND HE WASNT EVEN GETTING PAID!!!
He pressed deploy on his watch so his supersuit would appear on him.
"I don't think this is the way to hitch hike."
He said as he hopped onto the back of the...
He didn't know.
It looked like an oddly modified military truck.

As the two hung off the back, the truck pulled into a widely open garage.
The garage seemed as if it were meant to hold hundreds of these things.
And there were in fact, that many.
Before dropping off the truck, Dire opened the back to see a little blonde girl around the age of 12 tied up.
Her eyes went wide with terror.
Then he saw her eyes.
Bright red.
Like his.
It struck him for a moment. Until he heard the driver get out of the truck.
He grabbed Maura by the waist and teleported them up to an inactive vent.
Luckily it was solid.

Upon seeing the child, his whole demeanor seemed to change.
A sudden urgency swept over him.
No... Not urgency.
Heroism.
Or a dream come true.
He mumbled: "I always wanted a kid..."
Before addressing Maura, "We gotta save her."

Maura was pretty ashamed that she was still flushed over the random smooch attack and tried her best to cover it up as she was squished in close quarters vent she now shared with Malik. Her initial shock had worn off to irritation and that was pretty hard to hide when the cause of it was right with her. But she forced it down and zeroed in on the matters at hand.  She would interrogate Malik thourghouly about the event later.

She nodded sharply. She had also seen the girl with the eerie red eyes, scared out of her wits and bound in the back of the truck. On top of everything else, the thought of the young girl, a child, in such a situation and place just about tipped the lid. 

"Obviously. There's no way we could leave her here. Who knows what they have planned for her..." Experiments, cloning, making an army of little girls to be trained into military personell. The possibilities were limitless. Especially if the child was a Meta.

 Maura just had to comment, though, "Not that you wouldn't make a great parent, but... There's no way I'd let you raise her yourself." A murder freak like Malik raising a child? She could only think of her first impressions of the young man from the day before and dreaded the thought of him turning any kid into someone as twisted as him. Well, the oddness and his personality weren't bad. Just the murdering part bothered her, Maybe it shouldn't have because she wasn't one to make comments. People had died by her hand as well. So instead of sharing all of her thoughts on the matter, Maura simply stated;  "Maybe you should share custody."


"But we have to get her first, probably figure out why they want her, and then -" She did her best to wriggle away from Malik and flip onto her back, pressing her hands against the vent's ceiling. Her tone grew serious as her thoughts darkened, "And then we wipe this place off of the map."


Nope, definitely not one to talk about murder. She might not like killing people and avoided it whenever possible, but that didn't mean she couldn't be pushed a little too far. With everything that had happened thus far Maura was at the edge. The girl focused her power and quietly slipped the upper half of her body through the ceiling, finding a hallway on the other side that must belong to the level above the garage full of military trucks. No one was around to see her.


She slipped back into the vent and looked to Malik, "They must all be having breakfast. The coast up there is clear, but..." She didn't know how to say she had an anterior motive in coming here. She needed intel on how she had been caught with the cloning information. Perhaps she could kill two birds with one stone, "We might need to split up. I can go look for information on her, you grab the girl. We rendezvous on this floor. Sound good or no?" She asked while pointing at the veiling to show what she meant by 'this floor'. It was no lie. She could look for Her own stuff in the same place, most likely. "But if you do go to get her, please don't murder too many people in front of her." 

Dire laughed, "Trust me, I KNOW I would be a horrible parent. That's like... A given. Just alw-"
The words shared custody stopped him.
"W-With who?"

He shook that off and focused on business.
"I-Yeah... Let's do this..."
He hoisted Maura up to the floor that he had no clue how to get to.
When she was gone, he placed some plastic explosive on the roof of the vent and cracked his knuckles.

He saw the the man dragging the red eyed girl through the garage.
He could hear her sobs throughout the entire garage, even through the tape that was covering her mouth.
He slithered through the cars and snuck through a few rooms until they went into the testing room.
Dire then backtracked into the armory.

Testing Room
"Ah, my perfect specimen has finally arrived! Annalise, is it?"
Annalise was pulled into a room filled with people from all nationalities and gender in these...
Pods...
Some were convulsing strangely... Some were staring directly at her.
"Your eyes resemble the ones of my last victim as well... Interesting..."
Annalise deduced that the man she saw with the same burning red eyes as her was the man the woman spoke of.
Just then, a woman dressed exactly like the man was [except with royal blue eyes and wearing blue and white] emerged.
"I am quite excited to draw specemins from you..."
She grabbed Annalise by her curly blonde hair.
Just before she could get the needle to Annalise's neck, the large titantron-esque screen came to life with the same man from the garage.
"Wait!!! Before you do anything, I gotta say something! You know how you got me to dance? Here's some grief back..."

Minutes Before
Dire slid into the armory, looking for anyth-
Never mind he found two uzis...
He then grabbed one of the laptops and synced his phone to it.
He found out where Maura was and made sure she was alone.
He hacked to a screen near her and told her, "Hey, do whatever you're doing quick. I'm distracting everyone, but I won't survive long... Also, the rules about murdering people? I'm about to break it."

Current Time
The song bad romance blares at top volume throughout the entire building, then Dire bursts through the door right on the "oh" part of the song.
He rained bullets on all of them until only his clone, Annalise, and the woman were left.
"Take care of him." Jane said to the Dire clone.
"With pleasure..." She said as she teleported behind him.
She spun him around and punched him, knocking his phone to where the song changed to Children of the Korn.
"Okay... This song is a bit too much for young audiences..."
They fought through the whole song until Dire saw a hole in his clone's moves.
Thus creating a hole where her heart was.

He stepped up to Jane and killed her.
Easy as that...
"Lamest. Boss fight. Ever."
He then untied a horrified Annalise.
"Hey, it's okay. I'm one of the good guys... What's your name?"
"Annalise..." She said still composing herself.
"Annalise... I like that name. We're gonna get out of here, but we've gotta go find a friend."
He touched her lightly on the shoulder and poofed them to the floor they were to meet Maura.

When Maura would find them, Annalise would have one of Dire's katanas.
They would both be drawing in the air with the fire and giggling madly.

As soon as Maura was in the upper level she put her mask on. It was almost a relief to have the black and gray material hiding her features. She could now let her eyebrows draw in together and the frown that had been fighting against her lips curve downwards. Now she could be Void. She stalked quietly down the hallway and phased through the closest door. There wasn't much in there. A couple of clones who looked exactly alike looking through files on computers. Glad Dire wasn't around to see her, Void silently placed her hands on the ground and with a great amount of effort made the entire floor under their chairs intangible. Neither of the men expected to start sinking through the floor, and by the time they realized what was happening, it was far too late. Void let them sink quickly to their chests before releasing her power. There was no sound from the clones when their hearts and lungs fused into the concrete, killing them instantly. Quick. Painless. Extremely lethal. Super guilt-inducing.

Through the guilt, though, Void had some macabre thoughts as well. There were probably legs dangling from the ceiling on the level below her along with the office chairs that they had been sitting in. It would probably be a sight to make Malik laugh. Re-focusing, Void found a flash drive and began downloading several files onto it after quickly realizing that a record of the girl she had seen was already open on the computer screen along with her picture, name, and a lot of other info. Lucky.

The quick download speed helped the process along quite nicely, and she was done in a matter of moments and tucked the drive into her knee-pad pocket.  She was about to start searching for info on how she'd been found out when Malik's face popped onto the screen.

She sighed at his comments, "Copy that, chief. I'm almost done." She said, choosing not to comment on his rule breaking habit. After he was gone that Lady Gaga song started blaring through all the speakers, and Void knew she was running out of time. She couldn't sit there and surf the web, so instead she bolted out, or actually through, the door and looked around for someone to interrogate.

It seemed she had come out just in time, because a man from a couple doors down the hallway burst out into the corridor at the same time, seeming to be in a panic because of the sudden poppy-lyrics. He looked just like the clones that had been after her in New York, just older and wearing a completely white suit. The original perhaps? The two made eye contact and Void smiled wickedly behind her mask. The man made a face fit for a horror movie victim. Just as the horror movie song came on, too.

"Mi-Michael!? No.... You're not Void!"

Void growled as she spoke, her smile vanishing in an instant, "How do you know Michael Debeaux?" Without the common decency to give an answer, the man turned tail and began running. Void was having none of that. She pulled the same stunt that she had before, but only letting the man's ankles go into the ground. He screamed in agony and the black suited woman quickly ran up to sit on his back. She hooked her elbows under his armpits and locked her fingers behind his neck, pulling up with her body and pressing down with her hands to cause even more pain than he was already in. "How do you know my father? How did you find me? Tell me, NOW!" She hissed into his ear, ignoring the ache in her chest as she tortured the man into giving her what she wanted.

"G-go to hell with that cowardly bastard father of yours! You and Eclipse!" He spat through his cries and the tears rolling down his face. Void saw red at the blasphemy against her parent and hardly spared a second thought as she made the floor intangible and shoved the man's head through the it, fusing his brains and skull into the cold inorganic matter.

Void stood and stumbled back away from the dead man now stuck to the floor by his face and ankles permanently. She was shaking violently with terror and rage but hardly noticed. "R-right... Malik."

Void turned and briskly walked back in the direction she'd come from, making a turn at the nearest corner and seeing quite the serene sight of Malik and the girl he'd successfully rescued playing with his giant flaming knives. It was surreal when juxtaposed with what had just transpired around the bend. She took a breath to try to regain her composure and walked towards the two.

The girl took off her mask and returned to being just Maura again, smiling like she hadn't just done something so terrible it felt like Malik's katana were searing through her guts. It was probably obvious to Malik that it was a fake smile since she didn't smile much in the first place, but for her own sake she had to fake it until she was able to make it. The shaking, however, hadn't stopped even after she began speaking.

"Well, looks like you two are having fun." She applauded herself for not stuttering. She looked between the girl and Malik, wondering briefly if this was a father-daughter scene, "But we should get out of here. Did you find a way to get rid of this place for good? Cause' I didn't."

She blinked and looked to the blonde girl and recalled her name from the file she'd seen, "Annalise, yeah? Sorry, Sweetheart, I forgot to say hello. Thanks for watching this guy for me."

Annalise smiled. "It's okay, he's kind of funny."
Dire grinned "Funny lookin'..."

He retrieved his katana from Annalise before she caught her hair on fire, and addressed Maura.
"Well that depends on how far into the ground you want this place... I have some in that vent we were in. That vent has access to the furnaces which will hopefully ignite the furnaces and blow this place to hell. OORR... It'll MAYBE blow up this floor. Kind of a high risk, high reward type of situation."