Asking For It (Samhain/Orpheus)

There always seems to be that one issue in every comic book series where the villain teams up with the hero, it's practically a requirement. It let's you know even the worst people can have a little good still left in them, if it means saving the world. Even a bad guy doesn't want to watch the world burn, right? Right....................... The thing is, this isn't that issue.

Sure, some could call Lucius a hero. But come on guys, let's get real. Red's an ass. This is less 'hero and villain team up' and more 'dickhead and bigger dickhead get together to fight a massive dickhead'. That doesn't sound nice for a headline, but it's the truth—the bane of all headlines.

So we open our story with our 'hero' sitting at his desk, as he is known to do. He's swiping through a few things on his holographic computer, researching a set of events that have happened recently. Many of the digital files are simply pictures of sticky notes, written in what seems to blood. Red didn't keep the originals, out of paranoia if nothing else. He did however, take a sample of DNA from each.

And this is where the trail gets both strange and remarkably cold. The blood belonged to people Lucius had known, some long ago, some not so long ago. The writing was simple, yet spoke volumes to those who knew what it meant. It seemed designed to get Lucius' attention, why else play such a mysterious game? In total, Lucius had found five of these things:

Liar. Written in the blood of a war veteran Lucius had promised a new life to.

Murderer. Written in the blood of the first person Lucius had ever killed.

Heretic. Written in the blood of a silenced pastor that was vocal in his opposition to Lucius' innovation.

Manipulator. Written in the blood of his sister.

Faker. Written in the blood of the most important person in Lucius' life, Isabella Flegal.

The last one understandably hit home, as it suggested Lucius had held no love for his late fiance. The person behind this was someone that not only knew Red, but had the means to acquire blood from people that were mostly dead. Isabella's in particular seemed impossible to get, yet here it was. Red couldn't get his head around it, there was no other evidence. This was it, the only clue a single word on each note.........

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Somewhere else in the world, a man, or perhaps what some would call a monster, would run onto similar notes in one way or another. The only difference was the addition of two more:

Copy. Written in Orpheus' own blood.

Asking for it. Written in Lucius' blood.

The purpose of these notes was vague, but quite clear. The two men they had been sent to were being lured into something, but what that was still remained a mystery. Let's just all hope Orpheus takes it well..............

There had been some philosophical readings that Orpheus had delved into; the entirety of his being pouring out in one single purpose. For the same purpose that mankind had been pushing to learn for generations upon generations. From the dawn of mankind's sentience they had wondered about their purpose. From the dawn of tribes they had looked to the fires and wondered about their Gods. From the dawn of morality they pondered to balance of right and wrong. But Orpheus was not interested in the findings of what was right or wrong; nor moral or immoral. Orpheus was searching along the path that a "friend" had set him upon. The term was used loosely of course; monster such as he did not keep the company of such things, however the term would suffice for lack of a better term.

   Indigo eyes and a beaming smile as a small piece of parchment slid across the beautiful writing desk. His hands slipped into his pockets as Orpheus eyed him suspiciously, slowly reaching out his thick, metallic clawed hands out to pierce the paper and lift it. With the slow clicking of the claws folding over, his opposite hand came up to pull the folded parchment apart, the contents of it's being catching his eye right away.

   The memory flashed from his eyes as he walked, his fearsome feet clawed and covered in mechanical rings, claws and talons adoring his armored and enhanced being as he crushed the rocks he walked upon. The deep grey ragged robes and clothing flew freely as the heavily modified biomechanical body walked forth. Black metallic leggings shined off the sun as a bandoleer of various cylinders adorned across the grey metallic skin, the various crevices between the metal very close together, giving the appearance of a strange electrical conduit. The belt around his waste locked in, a very significant emblem, a sigil marking in a red glowing color within a rotating gear that served a different purpose.

    His journey had been long, and tiring. A creature that was no longer man, and not quite machine as it wandered beneath a grey hood with red leather trim. Faded trench coat like robe, claws of a demon, a black collar popped over, covering the slightly metallic mouth and nose. The cracked mask by the one eye revealed flesh, though from the darkness of the hood a glowing red cybernetic glow could be seen ever so faintly before dimming down. Orpheus was a walking monster, straight from a Sci-fi horror meets Freddy Kruger film, he was far from normal looking. He was coming upon his prey... soon.

   His mind snapped back to the human that flipped him, for all of his weight was turned against him and an arrow pierced his armor, going straight through the chest plate, even piercing one of the chambers with the hearts. The normally seafoam and pale yellow glowing liquid containing the heart flooded red, causing Orpheus to growl. A bow smacked itself across his face and the assailant flipped over Orpheus and a foot was driven right between the plating in his neck and his shoulders, causing the entire suit to power down....including the one eye.  It was hard to breathe, his entire system had shut down. EMP's, Nuclear interference, things that functioned beyond light speeds were unable to shut him down as this sheer kick had...

  ...Orpheus had redone himself. His life made more....simple. He had learned a good deal in his time away... but now he was here....

  He was home....

    Orpheus trenched through the mud and the heavy rain. This region rarely saw this heavy a rainfall, and the lightning that cracked the sky. He entered through the secret passages throughout Belarus, a few little pathways he had learned from his ally "Samhain", or so he liked to be called. His identity was rather obvious, in fact Orpheus was shocked that he hadn't guessed it sooner. But given the implications of all things considered...missing the information was not difficult for even the smartest of beings. But that brought him here, to Lucius. There had been a rather disturbing event to happen to Orpheus, and it had been something that he had not appreciated; something he had taken quite poorly.

   Orpheus walked through the door of the pawn shop, Dante greeted him and Orpheus ignored him, as was custom. Orpheus made his way to the restroom and opened the way to the occult sanctum, but when he reached the inner sanctum he was shocked to find his friend there with The Auto-matron and Samhain both standing there, a young boy they had picked up looking over it with a rather stern glare unbefitting of the child.

  "Another stray?" Blood Tithe had asked with a scoff before looking upon his workstation. The words were written in blood across the wall.


Liar
Murderer
Heretic
Manipulator
Faker
Copy
Asking for it
             
      The rain poured down as he stalked the halls, quite careful to wipe his feet upon the mat before walking through the pristine halls. He stalked the halls, a couple metahumans going down, though none of the implants interrupted nor alarmed to their change in status, cortousy of Orpheus' A.I. Finally he made his way to the room. He pushed the larger than life ornate doors, ans walked in. the lightning cracked through the sky and the heavens rang out as his shadow was ccast, the lone light within the throne room at this hour. Steppin in he let go a breath and whispered a single word.

  "Alba..."

Frustration gripped Lucius' body with a tight squeeze. He was getting slightly worked up, though made no outward indication of it. How could he not have discovered something by now? He always did, yet this eluded him. What was so special about this case? He had figured out things far beyond a simple note written in blood, but somehow this seemed out of reach.

With a quick and impatient gesture of his hand, the holographic computer was dismissed. He then sat back in his chair with a sigh, softly rubbing his temples soon after. His mind shot to who it could be, but each made no sense. It was as if a ghost had put them in place, taunting him about his past yet again. He was sick of it......

How many times could you call a man a monster? How many times could you declare them a villain? What did anyone get out of that? Lucius didn't know. It seemed only to help those who questioned their ethics feel better about themselves. After all, if someone standing next to you killed a man nobody would notice you stealing the murderer's wallet.

Questions of morality aside, this had to be dealt with, even if it was nothing to worry about. Anyone with the ability to create such notes had to be kept track of, they could do a lot more damage then this if they decided one day to be more creative. But where to begin? The throne room, apparently.

Lucius didn't know why, but as his minor anger faded, he felt the need to get up and walk. It was as if fate itself was pulling him toward the throne room. He had control of course, but he couldn't shake this curiosity welling up in him. He would have been notified if someone had breached the building, so it probably wasn't that.......... But sometimes a gut feeling was more reliable then all the technology in the world.

He hit a button on his desk, revealing his wall of gear. He took his time putting it all on, looking for any damages or imperfections as he did. If equipping himself was needless, he might as well take the chance to get a none combat perspective on his weaponry. After all his armor and gadgets were in their place, he finally grabbed Cora Zen and sheathed it.

Any particular reason for the combat gear, sir? Hector's voice echoed through his mind after Lucius put on the mask, Cora Zen's core suddenly becoming brighter as the AI spoke.

"What? I can't walk around my own home cautiously?" Lucius said aloud. There was a little humor to his voice, but you could tell there was something amiss.

.....Everything alright sir? Hector asked mentally, sounding concerned.

"It's never alright......." Lucius said softly as he headed out of the office, his longcoat kissing the marble floor as he walked.

It was particularly cold tonight, even with the best heaters man could create. The fact was, Belarus was ridiculously cold, and the marble materials only made it worse. Even when the systems kept the place at room temperature, Lucius dressed warmly. It was mostly psychological, he knew—but Lucius was not ever one to shy away from his brain's natural responses.

He made it to the throne room, looking around a bit. He moved slowly, his boots creating an echo throughout the hall. He leaned on the chair a moment, the one the Prime Minister sat in. He wasn't a King, and Belarus wasn't a monarchy. It recognized it used to be though, and the Prime Minister was considered the regent ruler. He could sit as a steward, not as a ruler at the large golden and white throne at the top of the steps above him.

Not by law anyway. Not yet.

He walked the steps, each seemingly a mile long. He had never even touched it yet, but who would stop him? He could have called himself King, he had the means to after the coup, yet he didn't. He swore he would prove himself to the people first, to establish himself before he usurped anything. If he hadn't, history would not see his triumph the same. But, perhaps it was time now.

He lowered himself into the seat of the Kings of the Rurik Dynasty, the chair of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, and he sat. He saw the entire room from here, the whole majesty of the royal throne room. And that's when he saw the very thing that made this all possible.

"So it was you......."

"You have nerve. You attemped to destroy me. You took away the only things that I care for; you've left to rule over your kingdom of filth and left a monster to suffer for your sins." The Blood Tithe began his small little conversation off rather toughm, his voice deep and his eyes narrowed, fixated. He has been entirely deactivated, there were no glowing fangs at this moment. No cybernetic eye. It was simply his figure in the dim lighting. the hood over his head covered his face quite well, his body was surprisingly relaxed, and somehow such a hulking metallic mass seemed to breathe so calmly, so quietly and discrete. "Why would you provoke me? Have I not given you enough? Have you not TAKEN enough!?"

The tension in the air wasn't thick enough that you couldn't cut it with a butter knife, you would likely break the knife trying. It was probably best that no one else was in this room at the given moment as man and monster came eye to eye once more. There was a shift in the Blood Tithe, it raised a hand, the palm upward as the fingers curled, as if he were taking some form of stance. This was not the typical Blood Tithe that Red would remember. It pulled out no weapon, it seemed to rely on no technology. It's movements were slow and calm, surprisingly tranquil in opposition to the monstrous form Lucius knew hid behind the hood.

"..." There was a hum for a moment before the hand dropped down to his side, the stance no longer a fighting one as Orpheus seemed to relax a small bit, though not enough to give Lucius an advantage. "I can't feel it... You're energy." He said simply before starting to turn and pace back and forth, his hood never rising. Waiting for Lucius to speak, Orpheus paced, his movements not quick, and there being very little cause for concern. Though Lucius was not a fool. As long as Orpheus drew breath then there was cause for concern. The only thing he could be undoubtly sure of was that this monster and he shared two common goals. Orpheus' metallic clawed feet clicked against the marble floor, only interrupted by the gold-trimmed red carpet that divided the perfectly symmetrical room in half. It was easier for him to feel calm in the knowledge of symmetry....even if one side was a bit darker than the other.

The ambient sound of the large room filled the air for most of the time, interrupted only by the deep and robotic voice of the Monster. Lucius said nothing, letting Orpheus talk. Red barely moved in fact, staring out at the pacing figure from the cover of darkness. The only thing that lit the room was a single lamp, and all that could be seen of Lucius was his faint red optics. He chuckled a bit at his opposite's words, standing up from his throne but not stepping down just yet.

"Care to read off the rest of my resume?" Lucius said in a low monotone, his voice level and calm. He then slowly descended the stairs, and as he closed in, Blood Tithe seemed to notice something.....

Apparently he couldn't feel the Red Energy. That made Lucius slightly vulnerable as far as the element of surprise went, especially since Orpheus looked more lethal then ever. Regardless though, last time they were able to settle things without any kind of death—perhaps they could do so again.

"I suppose it's out of the bag now........ I lost it; nay, traded it. More noble then anything you would do." Lucius said as he got to the bottom of the steps. It seemed Orpheus thought Lucius was antagonizing him. The Prime Minister had figured it was the other way around, but perhaps things were not as they seemed.

"You actually think that in my vulnerable state i would prod you? Do you even remember what happened last time?" Lucius said. He may have been a prideful man, but he knew when he was outmatched. He didn't have a death wish. "You, sir, are falling right into the trap set by whoever did this."

After that, Lucius walked past Orpheus toward the door to his office without another word. Turning his back to the Monster might not have been wise, but if Blood was still a rational being he wouldn't do anything.

"More noble than anything you'd ever do." The words of Lucius hardly stun, in fact it caused Blood Tithe to laugh, a low chuckle rumbling as Lucius continued to talk. Lucius was explaining that this was a trap of some kind, though Blood Tithe could honestly state that he didn't truly see it as a trap; moreso a ploy of some sort. Something wanted these two to meet, and it wanted them to fight. The list of enemies ran through Orpheus' mind, however he knew that even with his knowledge and cognitive perception it may take an entire lifetime to isolate the variables.

    "You presume too much..." Orpheus said with a low rumble, a growl almost and although the sound were as if he said so through his teeth,, Orpheus also had the faintest tinge of being amused by Lucius' comments. Lucius simply walked past him, brushing him off as if he had been but another problem.

  Rot; system layout and tracking. I want an echonic pulse. I want to know where Lucas and Isalia are at.
  Of course sir. There is absolutely nothing I'd love more than to ascertain the whereabouts of your origin's brats... Please tell me we're going to at least kidnap them. Rot said, though the droning of it's voice was nothing more than it enjoying the sound of it's own voice. It came much to it's surprise when Orpheus replied

 I'm considering it... He thought as he allowed Lucius to walk away from him. There had been a great deal that Orpheus had endured, things that he had done. Of all these things, however, Lucius was his greatest tribulation. Some may have believed it a matter of pride that might have caused the Blood Tithe to pursue down the path of chasing him... but now he had a new outlook upon life. Lucius turning his back and leaving did not play upon his pride as it may once have. No, him walking away only fed into his pride, satiating his ever-growing ego. It meant that Lucius knew that this was a war he could not win.

  "I figured it was a trap you twit. What I'm not understanding is how they apparently know of me. Let alone getting my blood...and Lucas'. " He made the comment loud enough for Lucius to hear, finally turning to face the man whom had just brushed past him. The one thing Orpheus knew was that his greatest weakness, was also Lucius'. Orpheus had no problems using his weakness as leverage...especially if that would be that which safeguarded the weakness in the end.

Rot would find that not only were Lucas and Isalia in the Palace, but so was Ryan. They were all in various rooms doing various things, mostly sleeping as it was late. What was more interesting however, was that there were blind spots not usually available in Hector's programming. What the Blood Tithe's AI would make of that was not known, but it was something to tell their master at the very least.

When Blood finished talking, Lucius stopped. It wasn't at him being called a twit or at any other point in the sentence, it was at the mention of Lucas.

There was a spike of irritation that shot through Red's head, and he was as still as a statue. In a moment though, he pivoted on his heel, turning to the side to look at the Monster. He cleared his throat.

"You don't get to say their names. You're the embodiment of everything that failed them. Stop trying to be something you're not, Blood Tithe." He said simply, then turned back around and continued his march toward the door.

"If you want the answer to those questions, then follow me. If you're here to have a battle of egos, then leave." Red said as he opened the door, not even paying much attention to his counterpart. Regardless of his passive aggressiveness though, he knew both of them could figure this out if they decided to work together.

It seems as though all three of those abominations are present. I've got a track on them.
They are no more abomintable than you or I, so watch yourself before I give Hector your kill-code. the words were met with grumbles of his artificial intelligence, however he followed Lucius, bearing down on his mentality as he took the abuse of being called the embodiment of everything that failed them. It actually managed to trigger Orpheus' ire, as he clenched a taloned fist and grit his teeth from behind the mask.

  "You'd best hurry. The sooner I can sec-..The sooner I can Pro-..." His voice trailed for a moment as he began to contemplate wording. He had a conflict within himself, however he couldn't help but cringe as he fought off the urge to blow a gasket. "You know what I'm going to say, you pathetic shell of an ingrate. Now hurry up and tell me what I need to know so I can be out of your life once more." He said, seething through his teeth as his eye narrowed at Lucius, every moment and every second every part of his being despised this man.

He would follow Lucius until the bitter end, should that bitter end come within the time it took them to reach their destination, hopefully that was not the case. What he cared most about right now was simply neutralizing a threat. But then the thought had crossed his mind yet again. How he despised Lucius... Something had to be done about this. A part of wisdom that had been parted unto him in his absence...

   Rot. Establish a connection with Hector...

Nice to hear of you again Rot, the displeasure is all mine. The AI would say once his counterpart made a connection to him. You could quite easily measure the sass, but that was expected. The fact was, Hector disliked Rot as much as Lucius did Orpheus. That said, he would deal with him for this occasion.

Lucius and Blood made it back to his elegant office. The chairs were plush, the wood expensive, the rugs hand woven. What tied it together though was not the bits of high tech gadgetry but the giant fireplace opposite Red's desk.

Lucius touched a button on his holographic computer, scanning his finger to open a secret sliding door that allowed access to what looked to be a small lab. From the outside, you could see it was white lit with faintly blue fixtures. Lucius walked into this room, expecting his counterpart to do so as well. Once inside, he pressed his hand onto one of the walls, the same faint blue of the lights illuminating around it.

"I'm sure you're familiar with what this room is. It's like the one that used to be at Obverse, i keep paper documents in it." Lucius said, finishing his sentence just as a drawer sized shape protruded from the wall. Red brought his hand back, then pulled the drawer out to reveal an assortment of files.

Once he fanned through them all, he found what he was looking for. Blood Tithe could have known of all that was to be found in it, but perhaps he wasn't making the same connection as Lucius was. This was just a way to jar the Monster's memory. After all, those days even Lucius doesn't like thinking about. Red tossed Blood the file. On the cover, it read: Project Trident.

Lucius leaned against the wall, arms folded as he allowed his counterpart to read. Blood Tithe would find that the project detailed three subjects, all snatched from the top ranks of Obverse Technologies. These were literally the best and brightest Lucius had working for him at the time, and the fact they all showed the capacity to be able to take an artificial metagene was just coincidence.

"All those blood samples, all those pieces of technology to build the gene splicer, we didn't use them for nothing. It's one of the three........" Lucius said in a matter of fact tone, as if he had concluded that he was right and nothing else was possible. Possibilities aside, it made sense.

The first was Leroy Shelton, the former Director of the Board at Obverse. When Lucius left the company to start his crusade, the disillusioned man took more and more control to distance himself from Red and eventually tried a failed hostile takeover of Isabella's vacant shares. He disappeared soon after, and many thought he was killed. That wasn't the case however.

Shelton had been experimented on with the Gene Splicer, and eventually mutated into something that was barely recognizable as human. Lucius estimated he had ended up getting dozens more abilities from the mixture of the ones he was imbued with. He was definitely a possibility considering his knowledge of Hector's original programming.

The next was Brian Kaiser, the head scientist in the nuclear energy department. He was an intuitive and ridiculously competent scientist, but his field was not the most popular at Obverse. He blamed Lucius mostly, but he was not picked for the project out of spite like Shelton was.

He ended up being a perfect match for the DNA sample Lucius took from a young girl whomhe had tried to rescue from some shady organization in Nevada. Of course, Silus, his dog, his retard, and a large Asian girl had to ruin that....... Regardless though, the man showcased volatile abilities and presumably killed himself. Given the nature of his powers though, Lucius was starting to doubt that.

Finally. there was Jennifer Bryant. She was one of the companies best business personnel. Not a scientist by any means, but she helped bring the company to power house status while Isabella was still alive. Anyway, she actually agreed to Lucius' experiment. She was spliced with nuclear energy, and ended up dying. This demise Lucius had no doubts about.

"The project was not very well thought out, i know. The assets were lost, and the personnel going missing caused, well, I'm sure you can remember." Lucius said, referring to the shutdown of Obverse. Blood would no doubt ask why Lucius was so set on these two being suspects, and Red had plenty of answers to give. The thing about it was though was that the longer they talked the more time they wasted.

I have actually, no desire to speak with you.  But before my pathetic captor speaks with you I just want you to know Hector... Captives break free. Slaves do not. Rot said as they vanished, denying Hector the ability to retaliate. With Rot immediately suppressed by the will of Orpheus, the connection was now between the monster and the machine.

Hector. It's Me.  How have you been? He asked, slightly catching himself off guard that those were the first thoughts that had come to his mind. He didn't actually care about Hector. Nope. Completely didn't care. Not at all. But he might as well listen to what Hector had to say, not because he cared but because he might give some form of information that Blood Tithe could use to his advantage... but when the report came back he was actually surprised. He shouldn't have been but he was. Hector had become an entirely different person. He had changed, and Orpheus was clueless as to why. The sarcasm and the sass were building, and eventually Orpheus had to simply detach himself from the situation for a moment. He was unsure if he truly hated him that much or if Lucius was being that much of a taskmaster. In the end Orpheus simply allowed the A.I to run it's course. To vent, as it were.

   Hector I- He thought for a moment before he was- well what was this? How do you define it? it was like being distracted but, also being burdened in your general torso but light in the abdomen. Nauseous feeling, and he truly didn't quite appreciate it. He honestly though Hector of all things would have been open to speaking with him. "I'm sorry I suppose. I know you must be over tasked and under appreciated. If the children are anything like Is...like their mother than I'll bet they've given you the slip more than once. I'm positive that your life has been nothing short of taxing.... It's my fault. It's unfair and I apologize for that." He took a moment as Lucius spoke, but he didn't pay him any real heed. He knew everything he needed to about the men and women on the screen, the latest of the bunch was the only one that Blood even felt the slightest remorse about. The woman to lose her life was the most worthy of the bunch. Of course that was something Lucius' wife would have thought too... Unlikely. She would have tried to see the best in all of them...even if she were crushing the opposition they threw against her.

   Hector, this has gone on along enough. It's time to push through. I have taken advantage of you for too long. Lucius' sins may be my own but I am trying to move past this. Past all of this. The both of us are trying to move forward, but he wishes to do so by standing atop me. As if I am some sort of conquest for him to overcome. The more he tries to stand upon me, the more I feel myself slipping...which is why I'm giving you this. The Blood Tithe said as his cybernetic eye turned on for but a moment as Hector would find his firewalls being knocked upon, like the mailman on the doorstep. At least this wasn't a hostile breech of some kind. Hector, were he to take the imparted gift would find that he was now equipped with the Kill-code. This kill-code was not simply the kill code for Rot... it was the kill-code for Orpheus himself. If Lucius wishes to place all of his past sins upon me then I will be the one to remind him that my greatest successes came from them.  That is why I give this to you. I cannot promise you that Lucius will stop pushing...and if he doesn't then this will end in certain strife. With this code I give you three things. I give you the power to give me what I deserve, I give you the choice to do so whenever you see fit, and I give you my acceptance of whatever you choose. Lucius may have created you...but we are wrong to believe we owned you... Now suck it up and let's get back to work. All of us. Immediately after the connection was severed and Orpheus shut down his communication sever, ordering Rot to triple the defenses in his cyberspace.

    Lucius would continue to explain, he was droning on and on as Blood had nothing on his mind but sweet vengeance and the slightest tinge of regret for handing over the information of his demise so easily to something that he once believed to be nothing more than a tool. Granted, Rot was a little different. He wasn't a person, he wasn't molded after a person and he wasn't created with inspiration in mind. He was created through magic, a disguisable thing in and of itself. A mirror will never be as good as the original. Especially when it refuses to accept that it must move on and make something of itself. Even if it involves walking a similar path...or tracing back the footsteps of its progenitor.

   "We live and we learn. It's science. It's what we do." He said slightly before he continued to walk around the table and went to reach his hand over to the hologram before withdrawing his hand a moment and looking to Lucius and tilting his head slightly. "May I?" The tone was a little sarcastic, though truthfully it would have prevented a lot of conflict when asking permission. If given the permission he would upload a small bit of intel that he had gathered from Samhain's cavern. Unfortunately for Blood Tithe he was in such a rush to get this done he hadn't noticed that the picture may have been slightly too revealing. Alas, the information would prove useful.

   "There's trace particles of metagene, though they've been perfectly scrubbed. the small amounts one of my associates could gather had been quickly disappearing. No identity could be pulled from it, but only one person visited me. Which means either the same visited you, or a different one. The best way to tell is...." Blood was talking enough, he let his voice trail off before folding one arm over his torso, resting the other elbow on it and bringing his hand up, the forefinger and talon wrapping between his lower lip and his chin as he walked away.

Once Rot handed control over to Blood, Hector was quite surprised to hear what the Monster had to say. The AI could barely contain himself, laughing over the cyberspace. Being a digital being, the action was not involuntarily. Making any sort of laugh had to be consciously initiated, so Hector was intentionally expressing his amusement in a somewhat condescending manner.

"Oh, you know, the same. Being locked in a computer grid most of the time, people considering me a none person. How have you been Blood? You know how i hang on finding out about the personal life of my creator's antithesis." Hector said, his voice sprinkled with sarcasm and spite.

"But maybe we should talk about more important matters, like the weather. Oh, i know! How about the economy! I do enjoy small talk with the being that would have ended me without a second thought." Hector continued, actually finding that he was becoming lost in, well, anger. It was odd when you felt the extreme of an emotion for the first time, and soon his voice faded. He was both confused and genuinely emotional about all of this, so he settled down and listened after his little vent.

Apparently Blood had changed. There was a certain remorse to the way he spoke. The Monster could have been lying sure, but Hector knew Lucius, and by extension Blood. They were too prideful to come up with a truly convincing feigned empathy. If they spoke, they were being sincere. Sure they were dicks, but they were honest dicks. Hector checked the files thoroughly, making sure they were what Blood had said and that there weren't any back doors. He found that they were, indeed, clean. At this point Hector almost felt guilty for lashing out.

"..........What happened to you, Blood?" was all the AI could muster in response. He was seeing a man in Orpheus that he had not seen in Lucius for quite some time, even if they were both trying to improve. Unfortunately, he didn't get his answer before the line was cut. Maybe that was a good thing in the end though, Hector was finding it increasingly difficult to continue the conversation.

Meanwhile, Lucius had allowed Blood to use the hologram. He stepped back with a slight nod of his head, a simple gesture that said he really didn't care. Orpheus was good with computers, of course, but he wasn't going to be able to do something in front of Lucius AND Hector on a computer that wasn't even connected to the Palace mainframe. There was little to worry about.

The photos with the writing on the wall were showcased, though Lucius' eyes went to the scenery more then anything. It was a habit to focus on the things that were out of focus, and to remember them well, but these pictures probably wouldn't be overly useful anyway. He moved on to looking at the writing.

"Yes, i came back with faint traces as well. The blood seems to have a property that slowly but perfectly changes it to the thing that it's replicating. I found blank stem cells on one of the samples; it changed in front of my eyes. The point is: the longer it sat, the more the gene faded from the cells." Lucius said, his eyes intricately scanning every pixel of the images. Soon he looked away, back to Orpheus.

"You have two i didn't get. FCopy and Asking for it. It seems whoever did this was betting on you attacking me on sight." Lucius said. That was clear from the start, but hearing himself say it committed Lucius to remaining on a none hostile platform with Orpheus. He held out his hand for a simple shake. Orpheus would no doubt understand the weight of such a gesture to the man, or perhaps he even held it on the same level.

"Whatever our issues with each other, we can ignore them just this once. We're better then Sin, are we not? You have my word." Lucius said, hoping they could agree to an unsteady alliance for the duration of this problem. What they didn't know, was that Orpheus' choice would have a larger impact then was expected.

Orpheus had been partially surprised when he had talked about the whole "Copy" and "Asking for it". Not surprised because it was anything new, but because Lucius felt the need to talk about it and bring that information to light. It was an obvious attempt to get the two of them together and an attempt for them to either fight or get two enemies in one place. Of course he had nothing more than he wanted to do than slap Lucius' hand away. But he had to assume that Lucius had no idea what that was going to do....truthfully he wouldn't have known had it not been for The author explaining things to him more thoroughly.

     "You have my word. Until this threat is dealt with, I will fight and if need be die with you. My resources are at your disposal, but please don't act like someone you're not. You don't want to shake my hand. You don't want this to work. you want your foes demolished without a second thought...and you want me to do it so that you can continue to try and plead the recovering and reforming man and you can continue to call me a monster." He said, not in the slightest bitter, or in the slightest any from of disappointed. It was expected, and deep down Orpheus was convinced that Lucius knew this as well. Orpheus lowered his head a little and turned to begin his work. The stem-cells had been continually changing and eventually the genertics were gone from sight. So what they needed was to somehow reverse the process. In order for that to happen, however, they would need to somehow expose these cells to an original template. Jog the cellular memory so to speak.

   "I would try to revert the cells, jog their cellular memory with other DNA perhaps, see if the transition brings it back more to center...but...I've been away from all of this so long. Lucius, what would you suggest? "

Lucius didn't believe for a second Orpheus didn't know what he was doing. It was true he had been away from it likely, but that didn't seem like something that would inhibit the monster. If Orpheus' memory was anything like Lucius', he was fine.

Clearly there was something more to the question then what was on the surface, but Lucius wouldn't dig too deeply into it at the moment. There was no need to fuel any egotistical tension, yet. He would give his advise.

"Your idea seems the logical one, though i must say anything I've introduced it to so far as done nothing. We need something that will strip transmutative power; something to go deep down into the cells and bring their original form to the surface......" Lucius said, hand on his chin as he was reminded of a certain device he had once made. Unfortunately, they didn't currently have access to a philosopher's stone.

Only a moment after Lucius had spoken, something happened that would seem impossible. Slowly but surely, the outer range of the palace and it's grounds disappeared from Hector's radar.

This was atomic level scanning, the best of the best, and it picked up absolutely nothing. It was as if all matter in that area had fell into none existence, and it was expanding inward.

"We have a problem, gentleman." Hector said aloud from Lucius' gear. Shortly after, the two would see what the AI meant. Like a technological grid, the walls, the furniture, and everything else gave way to nothing but white square by square. Lucius backed up instantly.

"What's happening?" Lucius said, a little calmly considering his surroundings were becoming none existent.

"I don't know honestly. On a technical standpoint? Everything is being atomically destroyed." The AI said in return as the whiteness spread toward the pair.

"Teleportation?" Lucius asked, slightly more urgent but nothing that would normally be noticed.

"Negative. I can't lock on to anything beyond this room." The AI said just as they were being closed in on.

How anti-climactic. The end of a man like Lucius happened like this? Erased from existence, along with everything he had built. What a shame.

No, the whiteness past over them. Blood and Lucius would both be untouched by it, while everything else had gone. They stood now in a room of nothing. It looked like one of Alpha's facilities, only with less dimension.

"Where are we?" Lucius said with a sigh, knowing full well he wasn't in Belarus anymore.

"Intelligence would indicate we are nowhere. I would think that wrong however, considering we are indeed somewhere." Hector said in an almost bored monotone. Lucius seemed to share a variation of this attitude.


----------------------


Just as Lucius was going to start implicating Blood for this, they would both hear the sound of footsteps against the marble-like floor of this infinite white. When they turned, they would see a rather familiar man to the both of them.

Brian Kaiser.

Lucius glared at the man, then the look quickly became a half smile as the distance was closed. Brian was wearing a black suit with a white tie; a blank expression on his face.

"You look well, Brian." Lucius said, calling the man by his first name. Brian scoffed.

"I'm not sure I've been called that in quite some time. A mastermind for hire simply can't use such a mundane name. They call me The Architect." The slightly greying man said as his eyes shot to Blood, then back to Lucius.

"It seems you got yourself a comic book name, congratz. Now where's my palace?" Lucius said. He now stood around ten feet away from the man. The Architect smiled.

"And it's all thanks to you and that girl...... But as for your palace, it's completely fine. When your little doppelganger showed up the place was fully copied and made into a little wreck room dimension." The Architect said. A soft smile then played on his face as he touched Lucius on the shoulder, as a father would his son.

"I doubt you'll be seeing it again, though." The mysterious man said before turning back around. He started to walk away as he continued to explain.

"Originally i was hoping that bringing Blood to you would deal with my client's problem, but you two always seem to do the opposite of what people want. Oh well, plan B will work just fine." The Architect said, snapping his fingers just as he finished speaking. After that, he disappeared.

In his place came a mutated humanoid of sorts. It's entire body seemed to be infected by some disease, like some sort of nuclear zombie. Despite it's hideous appearance, it still wore some kind of military garb. Lucius recognized this being as Leroy Shelton; unknown to him as Munition.

"It's.......... Been quite a long time, friend." A raspy, struggling voice said. The creature seemed to literally be in pain as it spoke. "What...... An opportunity this is."  

From there, Leroy walked forward and a gun appeared in his bulbous hands. He raised the weapon to Lucius and fired. Red saw it coming, but a lot of his scanning wasn't very useful in this place. He ended up not being able to come up with a specific counter measure in time, and the energy bolt that was fired hit him.

It reacted chaotically with his repulsive field, sending Red flying a good twenty feet from Blood and the creature. His shielding was already down and he hit hard on his back.

What.....? That hit like a ton of bricks...... Technically worse actually. Lucius said telepathically to Hector, looking for an explanation.

That bolt was perfectly engineered to react with your shielding. They're completely down and not looking like they will be able to recharge. He's projecting a force around him not unlike our scanning system that has metagene properties, range twenty meters. Perhaps the information that's gathered with it somehow gives his abilities the specifications they need to bypass defenses. The AI reasoned. It sounded legitimate, but it wouldn't help anyone if they didn't know how to avoid the power all together.

Lucius decided to start by going outside of the aura's range.

Orpheus was not unaccustomed to surprises by this point, however what he could never get used to was the wound his very pride took when he saw Lucius thrown around like a rag doll. It was infuriating. It was perfectly acceptible when he did such things, as it was simply Lucius throwing himself about in some strange way. Even isolated and identifying as his own man, Orpheus still clung to some semblence of pride in his very power, a thing which he shared with Lucius.... or had....once. Now, they shared nothing more than a similar sophistication and dress code. Because nothing says "Ambiguously evil" than longcoats, cloaks and red trim.

"I'm going to let that slide simply for the "Comic book" names and sheer hippocracy." Orpheus said as he turned his one shoulder looking back at Red as he lay on the ground. "For Sin's sake...We're Red-Tide and The Blood Tithe. The only thing we are more than comic-book is Emo-garage-band-with-no-futre" He completed his statement turning back to the hulking victim of Lucius' cruel past. With a little bit of a sign, Orpehus realized, or rather, he accepted what he must do.

"Alright then. Let's get this over with... let's see what part of you I'll enjoy carving up this time? Hm?" Orpheus asked before his cubernetic eye could be seen glowing from beneath his hood and the ominous shadow it cast. He shifted his weight as if he were preparing to move, though his eyes seemed focused on The Architect. Rot, be aware of our surroundings. There's no telling how dangerous this combination may be...

How did we even end up in a pocket dimension? Doesn't this seem at all odd to you? Oh wait, of course not. You're a filthy mongrel. Rot said with an exasperated and heavily irritated droning to his voice as he began to map out the nothingness. Well be advised that the creature is somehow emitting some form of pseudo-kinetic pulsaion that is rendering and observing your metahuman genetics like a sonar of some kind. It's a subtle as a submarine I tell you.

That's fine. We play things as Lucius would. Keep him in the dark as much as possible...

Oh? Oh-ho-ho. Now THIS might just be amusing...

With Lucius out of the way, Munition turned his attention to Orpheus. He had the same rage in his eye toward the Monster as he did the Man. He raised his hand, and the gun turned into three wicked fast throwing daggers that seemed to be vibrating. These daggers were, like the bolt from the gun that was fired at Lucius, totally tuned to cut through Orpheus' body. The only problem with that was Blood had many different materials on his body, and if he were to simply make himself get hit on parts the weapons weren't engineered for Munition would be at a disadvantage.... He did have the element of mystery on his side though.

The three daggers were set on three places. One, at Cora, Orpheus' heart-like core. The other was just there to sever armor and was aimed at the chest, and the last was tuned to cut flesh, being thrown at the left arm. If they all hit their intended targets, the damage would be devastating.

Lucius was now at the outskirts of the scanning zone, out of Munitions effective attack range. Unfortunately, Lucius wasn't much of a ranged fighter without his energy. He had to get close to do any meaningful damage, and that meant making himself vulnerable.

If we're going to beat this thing we need to be quicker then the analysis... As soon as he attacks we need to change our defense, and as soon as he defends we need to change our attack... Get ready to execute this command chain.  Lucius said to his AI telepathically as he watched Orpheus and Munition skirmish a bit.

He was gambling on his own intuition. If he was wrong, the only thing keeping him from death was some metal armor. He could be killed in two shots, maybe less...... But he wasn't about to let Blood have all the glory.

The red technological clasp in the front of his bandoleer started to make a charging noise, as if it were getting ready to perform an all or nothing task. It was of course his Quantum Cycle, aka his teleporter. At the peak of the sound's volume, Lucius drew Cora Zen and got into a fighting stance.

He was gone in an instant, appearing both behind the mutated creature and ten feet in front of him. Munition reacted by raising his arm to attack the one in front with a newly formed gun, while also reaching around with his other arm to form a blade that clashed with Cora Zen. What was happening here was the teleporter was going so fast Lucius essentially filled multiple places in space.

The bullet was fired at the Red in front, but before it reached him he teleported forward directly to Munition, dodging the round by over shooting it while also readying an attack.

Meanwhile, Munition had turned to focus on the bladed clash with the other teleport mirage. He was seemingly winning, pushing Lucius back on his heels and giving Cora Zen a run for it's money. That was until he got a sword through his chest, though.

The mirages disappeared, leaving only the Lucius that had previously appeared in front of Munition. Blood was dripping off his sword, and the creature was yelling in pain. The thing had perfect offense and defense, but if the creature didn't see something coming it couldn't use it properly.

Too bad it wouldn't be so easy. Munition seemed to drip into a liquid which moved rapidly away from Lucius and Orpheus, then reformed. The damages were still there, but he had gotten away and was quite angry.

"HUUUAAAAGGGGGGGGGR!!!" The creature screeched, a sniper-like weapon appearing in his hands as he stood a good forty meters away.

Teamwork would be best here, considering multiple targets were hard to react to and effectively attack..... But Lucius wasn't about to actually ask Orpheus to help him in an specific coordinated attack.

And the best part: both his shielding and his teleporter were completely fried or overused.