Fall from Grace [Samael, Knightfall, AAT]

Ashley Cresswell, the Immortal Martyr. Super-Thief, criminal, and super-villain stood with his goggles down, staring at the group he had fallen into. A motorcycle gang who had been supplying him with the superhuman drug Spark. In return for the supply, Ashley had promised them his assistance in a heist. They knew his terms. Ashley would recieve relief from his debt to the gang, and in return he would assist them in a quick little bank robbery. It was nothing Ashley hadn't done before. He had dealt with gangs before in his youth, and he knew that if he was careful; they could avoid killing anyone and make a clean getaway. He wasn't sure why they had chosen him specifically for the role, but he supposed it had to do with his power set and his debt. There were much better options for power, but none of them really owed the gang. Ash was basically their tank. He would take any damage for them, and they would recieve monetary gain as well as street cred. Saint James knocked some sense back into Ashley with a slap to the back of the head. "Pay attention. We'll be needing you momentarily." The Immortal was staring into space apparently, as he thought of the circumstances that brought him to this point.

The clank of a piece of metal falling to the floor brought Ashley back to reality as they nodded to him. The lock was broken, and the glowing piece of metal had fallen to the floor. He nodded and he moved to the door; kicking it open with a heavy thud from his rocket boots; which thankfully didn't activate and blast him into the wall opposite the bank. He put on a pair of noise cancelling headphones and began blaring rap music. Both to get him pumped up, and to ignore the alarms that were blaring through the building now. He ran inside, being very careful to shoot beside people; not into them. That's when Saint James spoke. "Alright, listen up dirtbags!" He yelled and fired a shot straight into the ceiling. "This is a robbery by the Golden Jesters! If you don't comply with our demands, we'll fucking shoot every single one of you. Now transfer all the money to this account number!" He yelled and then threw a bag to another member of the gang that Ashley didn't recognize. "Jorge, get everyones wallets. I ain't fucking around." Jorge as the man seemed to be called nodded and began grabbing any money that the patrons seemed to be carrying, and when someone didn't comply; he would simply knock them out with his foot and steal it anyway. Needless to say, not very many failed to comply.

Ashley didn't agree with what was going on, but he didn't think that it was a big enough deal to risk his life over. So he simply watched and waited in the back. A security guard decided to get a bit brave and pointed a gun at James, to which Ashley responded by getting in the mans face. Ashley was not an imposing figure, in fact; he was actually relatively lanky. But Ashley focused himself on the man. "You really don't want to do that." He said with a forlorned look, knowing that this man was an innocent in all of this. But he couldn't let him kill James. James had been good to Ashley. The man looked like he was about to wet himself, but was just about to pulled the trigger. Ashley sighed and pulled the older mans arm into the air allowing the shot to be fired into the roof before delivering a swift kick to the mans gut. His white hair protruded from his hat as he fell to the floor and scrambled away from the Meta-Human. Ashley simply went back to his job as lookout. The cops had arrived and prepped anti-meta preperations just in case some idiot hero had decided it would be a great idea to risk his life to stop a simple bank robbery.

Ashley nodded back to James who nodded at him and pulled the piece of paper off the desk, a notification on his phone telling him that the money had gone through. They had taken a cool million, split four ways; Ashley would get 200k deducting what he owed for the Spark and the rest of the crew would get 250k each. Their getaway driver peeled into the alleyway behind the bank and slammed away a couple of officers who had been waiting to take the crew out if they had come out the way the came. The police used the front for show, but the back was the real fight. Ashley, James, and Jorge all barrled out the back door; Jorge carrying the bag behind them as they ran. They jumped into the back of the armoured van that they had lifted for the heist. Ashley had added a couple modifications to it, to ensure that no one woould recognize it as the same van. Now however, Martyr had to wonder if painting it white with a massive green M on the side for Martyr was the best idea. Martyr shot through the window into the tires on one of the cop cars, the tire exploded. It was then that James revealed his true intentions. He pulled out a Spark pill and gave it to Jorge. "You did good, Jorge. We'll split your earnings." Ashley had to wonder what that meant when Jorge took the pill. He didn't know what was happening, but suddenly Jorge began to glow orange. "Jorge has the power to explode and come back from it... but when adding Spark to his volatile power."  Ashley's eyes widened as he realized their plan and he tried to stop Jorge from jumping out. But it was no use. All Martyr could do was strap himself into the van as best he could. "Hail to the king!" Yelled James as Jorge exploded on the bridge, taking it and 14 other residential houses along with him. The flash of light that came from Jorge's sacrifice was all the Martyr could remember. Followed by the feeling of the van lifting off the ground and then nothing.

Ashley awoke in a hospital bed beside James a couple days after the incident. He tried his best to move his arms, but found that he couldn't. His arms were handcuffed to the bed. "Where am I?" Ashley asked croakily, his skin hurt and his eyes were blurred with tears. It seemed he wasn't quite done healing, he looked over to see James... who seemed all but fine in comparison. In fact, he was watching television. "Mr. Cresswell?" Asked a voice from the other side of the room. That's when Martyr noticed that there was an officer in the room. "Yeah?" "You're under arrest for armed robbery, 43 counts of murder, and destruction of personal property. You have the right to remain silent."[/color] Ashley was so stunned, he barely heard his rights as they were being read to him. He was... a terrorist? This was not how it was supposed to go. Ashley wasn't exactly the hero, but it wasn't like he was the true villain. At least not according to him. But he... allowed James to use Jorge as a weapon. That blood was now on his hands. He... he didn't know what to do. He felt the blood on his fingers, he could almost... hear the screams the people probably never got to utter. Ashley Jonathon Cresswell... Monster?

Soon after this, Ashley was sentenced to 3 lifetime sentences in the maximum security metahuman prison, and James got off with only 20 years for ratting out Ashley... His father would be so proud...

AAT-08317 looked down to the badge in his gloved hands. Within it, a picture of him accompanied with a series of digits and logos denoting the Metahuman Maximum Security Prison. A barcode ran along the length of the card, along with points of information relevant to his assumed identity: Nicholas Hill. A-Level security access. Serial code: 2334-013924. The assassin placed the badge on a press on his black kevlar vest before he rested his head against the headrest of the transport vehicle. He stared directly at two other security guards, who kept their eyes glued to the floor.

The transport came to a stop, as the engine of the vehicle died and the red lock light on the doors turned green. The metal door opened, as two armed guards stood outside of the vehicle followed by the Head of Block, the commanding officer stepping into the vehicle as he looked over the three in the vehicle. He nodded his head once: "Officer Jones?"

"Here, sir!" Jones replied sharply.

"Officer Gho?"

"Sir!" Gho confirmed.

"Officer Hill?"

"Present, sir." AAT-08317 replied.

"Good, you are all here." The leader said, as he tilted his head to one side: "Let's run you all through security and get you briefed. Come on out, officers!"

All the officers stood at attention from the command, as they turned around and took possession of their respective bags. AAT-08317 lifted his, understanding its lightweightness before he approached the exit of the vehicle. He stepped out onto the gravel path past the two automatic-wielding guards, overlooking the impressive complex of the prison. Jones and Gho filed out after AAT-08317, as he turned his head toward the leader: "Follow us. Brief walk up to the security gate. Have your badge, identification and belongings ready to be checked. Deviants will be detained immediately, so nothing suspicious. Am I clear?"

"Yessir!" Jones and Gho claimed in unity, AAT-08317 following directly with a short: "Yessir."

"Move out!"

Within a matter of two minutes, the guards that walked along the gravel path eventually reached the metal doors locked tightly, two security cameras angling down on the guards on both sides of the door.

Nathaniel had been in pursuit of the armored vehicle having just made it's way out of the bank's vicinity, dodging and weaving on Nocturne between cars. That's when things took a turn for the worst. A pulsating orange man jumped out from the back of the truck and FUCKING EXPLODED. As you can imagine this highly pissed Knightfall off as he was now being whisked off to a top of the line maximum-security meta prison after his wipeout. Whoever was involved in that heist better have a good damn excuse for the damage they'd done to Nocturne or they'll just have to use the last few seconds of their miserable life as to how they could have avoided the steel toe of his boot fracturing their skull. And he had a sneaking suspicion as to who one of those people might've been. "God, life is good."

Samael had made sure that his first debut in prison was a memorable one, which involved some kind of show of power. Being thrown in there after an apparent indictment for 8 counts of third degree murder was not something he expected to face anytime soon, yet here he was. That meant walking up to the largest guy in this metahuman prison and kicking his ass. Luckily for Samael, he picked someone that had been a little too reliant on superpowers, yet making them fold was something that made people talk. Despite his seemingly frail frame, he had reduced the guy to nothing more than a bleeding mess crying for mercy by the end.

Some had even come to call him a demon in some sense.

Apparantly he was a little too savage in a fight for anyone to properly describe, and that was what Samael was going for. He didn’t expect to spend the multiple life sentences in there, especially since he didn’t have the same expiration date as everyone else in there. The protection that he managed to garner in there was nice however. Metahumans had even formed a gang around him, The ravens as they called themselves and he let the name stick. Some of the supposed meta’s were even people he had fought against once or twice, though they were oddly humble in this scenario. Oddly enough he hadn’t been bothered by Razeth at any point, which likely meant the dumbass didn’t even know he was here.

Well that would change once he noted he was not at his apartment and went on a sort of mini rampage as he did. Now however he was eating what the prison generously called lunch, keeping up with the good behavior thing after that slip up with the whole beating a guy to near death. There were a few inmates around him, but he didn’t seem to speak too much, preferring to eat rather than waste energy on talk.

Ashley had been in the prison for a total of two weeks, mainly staying in his cell and working out. When he was forced to leave the cell, he would keep mainly to himself. He hadn’t seen Samael take on the much bigger man, though he did think he recognised one of the new prison guards. But that was probably just his mind playing tricks on him.

There was one thing that Ashley had not missed however. John Cresswell. The man who had forced his mother to do awful things with his mind control abilities. The moment he had heard about John being here, he found him in the yard that day.

The man in the orange jumpsuit was nothing that Ashley had expected. Over the past 21 years he had built him up in his mind as a monster, a big burly beast with raging red eyes and an extreme lust for blood. But when he saw him… Ashley almost couldn’t believe it was him. John had salt and pepper hair, an exceptionally skinny frame, and he was just reading a book. John almost seemed like he didn’t belong here. But there was one thing they most definitely had in common. Their eyes. Ashley would’ve recognized those eyes anywhere… He saw them in the mirror every morning, and while John’s were less sleep deprived; there was no mistaking it. This was the father of the monstrous Martyr.

He quickly ran up to the man that now stood before him, and sat down in front of him. ”Hi Dad.” Ashley said pulling the book away from him and tossing it across the yard. ”It’s me, Ashley.” For just a brief moment, John looked like he was angry. Then his eyes widened in recognition. ”Ashley?” That was when Ashley punched him. Directly in the jaw.

The doors opened slowly as the cameras kept angled at the group of guards making their way through the checkpoint. The two rifle holding guards flanked either side of the incredible frame, as the commander motioned toward AAT-08317: "You first, Hill."

AAT-08317 obliged as he stepped into a strange hallway. It seemed specifically designed to cancel out any abilities that could have been used to manipulate the environment: bright white, featureless walls that were decorated with a series of similarly designed devices and guards, all who wore white instead of black. AAT-08317 stopped instantly as a white guard motioned him to, before the guard spoke: "Bag on the floor. Slide it over slowly, then hands in the air please."

AAT-08317 complied, as he slowly set the bag down on the floor as slid it over, before he placed his hands in the air. A guard took the bag, opening it before he went through the many pairs of standard clothes packed inside of it. Nothing inside the bag was suspicious, but the guard drew a knife and cut through the wall of the bag, shaking it into a tray to find nothing. The white guard then tossed the bag into a disposal bin, before they motioned for the assassin to step forward.

AAT-08317 walked over, hands still in the air before they motioned him to stop, "Name and serial code?"

"Nicholas Hill. 2334-013924." AAT-08317 replied.

"We are going to search you now, Officer Hill."

The white guard reached out, placing his hands on the sides, arms and legs of the assassin as he felt for any object that could have been out of the ordinary, pressing down across the entire body of the assassin. Deeming AAT-08317 clear of any object, the guard invitied the assassin forward. AAT-08317 stopped in front of a device, as he was gestured quickly to enter. He knew what it was with a single glance: a multi-sensor body scanner. The Administration had developed a specific fabric for his bodysuit in order to trick the sensor, problem was: it only worked once.

His augmentations would be hid, but for just a moment.

Reaching out to assume the posture shown on the board, arms of the device swivelled around the assassin, as they scanned his body carefully. Eventually the arms stopped, and a light flashed green. AAT-08317 turned to his left, as he stepped out of the device, before he as stopped by another guard: "Glove off."

AAT-08317 squeezed his hand to form a fist for but a moment, applying a layer of gel inside of it that formed the prints of 'Nicholas Hill'. Taking his glove off, he reached down and pressed it against the biometric device which quickly took a scan of his prints, before lighting green as well. Retracting his hand back inside his glove, the assassin stepped forward as he removed his badge from his clip, a guard snatching it from his possession as they scrutinised the features between the man on the card and the assassin.

Both he and the picture, portrayed a scowl.

The guard then scanned the card, before handing it back to the assassin. They also presented a bag to AAT-08317, as he reached out and accepted it. He looked to the guard, who said: "You will be reporting to your barracks for a while. Officer Torres will take you there. Welcome to the job, new blood."

AAT-08317 nodded his head, and headed out of the chamber with an armed officer.

Nathaniel stepped out into the windy courtyard, they hadn't allowed him to keep his helmet when he entered the facility as well as his jacket and other assorted gadgetry. He felt almost naked standing there in his jumpsuit anyone being able to take note of who he was, he despised exposed weakness. Shaking his head clear of thought he looked off toward the weights and went to make his way there but stopped himself when out of the corner of his eye he saw the man that got him here. "Ashley Cresswell." He breathed, a look of anger crossing his face. Then he watched as Ashley threw an odd book away from the man he'd been conversing with. Nathaniel made a mental note to pick that up later. Suddenly his train of thought was interrupted with the abrupt threat of a rather large male with a snake tattoo down his shaven head sounding from behind his person. "Hey, new guy, get out of my way or elssse." Now this was obviously a stupid tactic of getting him to retaliate. This guy could easily walk around him but apparently he had to be the human train and stay on track. Turning around Knightfall's expression was one of cold calculation as he sized up his aggressor and worked out the best way to take him down without effort. But where was the fun in that? "Well "SnakeFace" you've presented me with the perfect punching bag for all my frustrations at the moment." As SnakeFace stood there dumbfounded by Nathaniel's retort he tried to make sense of the fact he'd just been threatened. "Hey little punk did you jus-" But he was swiftly interrupted with a punch to the nose breaking it, and SnakeFace fought back with a hard left hook towards his face. Anticipating this Knightfall raised his left arm and let his wrist take the force of the impact effectively shielding his face and letting him counter with a popular leg sweep technique from Thailand, hooking his right leg behind SnakeFace's left and pushing his left arm back forcefully sweeping SnakeFace off his feet and down to the ground where Knightfall proceeded to crouch over him and deal blow after blow to his face alternating hands between punches. He then finally swung a hard kick with his right leg slamming into the side of SnakeFace's head connecting with his temple and knocking him out cold. Breathing heavily his hands stained with the other man's blood he stood back up on his feet and shaking with rage looked around him at the fellow inmates witnessing both his and Ashley's acts of violence. Slowing down the adrenaline within his system so as to calm him down he made his way over to the book Ashley'd thrown and pocketed it.

What followed lunch was the only time they were really let out into the rad, which felt odd considering that they would let convicted murderers walk around like this. Granted, Samael was not used to the concept of being incarcerated quite yet. Walking about the yard in usual fashion, which was the orange garb they were given and his tank top revealing just enough to show that he was rather strong for his build. A few looked to the black eyed male, but not many actually let their looks linger. Apparently beating up the biggest guy did something good, and he did not regret it yet. Having scary eyes did not hurt things at all. He caught sight of a fight, short that broke out from his peripheral.

He swore he saw a few guards moving in towards both of the people having started it while Samael took a seat next to Ashley. He had struck the guy he was seemingly talking to, though Samael did nothing to stop that. ”So does everyone just decide to assault one another randomly?” Samael quipped, ignoring the man Ashley had punched.

Ashley glared at the man on the ground. He was about to stand when Samael sat next to him. ”Oh, hey Sammy. Dad and I were just catching up. Hope you don’t mind.” He said before someone punched Ashley square in the jaw. It would seem that the violence was beginning to cause a small riot. Ashley retaliated with a swift kick in the balls, followed up by sand in the face and a crack over the head. He hadn’t been trained to fight, but he had seen some stuff on TV that gave him a pretty good idea of what to imitate. He spat out a piece of broken tooth as someone came up behind him and tased him.

Ashley awoke an hour later in solitary. The room was dark and cold, the only comfort was his pillow; which was harder than granite and colder too. Not knowing what else to do; he began to do push ups in the tiny space.

AAT-08317 paced through the hall carefully with Officer Torres, noting the number of cameras he was passing through the facility. They passed other patrolling officers, either escorting or not, prisoners. AAT-08317 kept his head directly pointed in front of him, before he was called to attention by Torres who reached for a radio unit: "Come again, Foxtrot?"

There was a pause as the two officers were brought to a halt, as Torres then spoke again: "Another fight? I am transporting—no, a new blood..."

AAT-08317 watched Torres carefully, as the officer nodded his head: "Got it. We will be there in a moment. Have the sleeping gas ready. Torres out."

Torres turned on a heel, as he faced AAT-08317 and spoke: "I guess you are starting early. Fights happen frequently here, get pretty ugly between the Meta's. We are here to stop them, with the least injuries incurred, of course. We'll use sleepers, but a few are immune: the ones with green armbands on their suits. We taze them, not actual electricity, but very strong muscle seizers."

"Understood." AAT-08317 replied, as Torres removed a taser from his utility belt and handed it to the assassin. As the two passed a few other officers, Torres gestured toward the gasmasks mounted on their belts as one removed one and passed it to Torres.

"Thanks, Mike." Torres replied, before he handed the mask to AAT-08317. "You've done your combat sims, right?"

"I have." The assassin replied, as he pulled a gasmask over his face.

"You'll do fine then." Torres replied doing the same as he patted AAT-08317 on the shoulder before the two passed into the courtyard. The 'guards' passed on to seperate two different fights. AAT-08317's eyes glanced over one fighting with a snake tattoo, not recognising the man before he concentrated on one fighting another. He knew this one. And this one knew him.

A threat to his operation. Ashley Cresswell.

AAT-08317 activated his taser as he stepped behind his old acquaintance, before he jabbed the taser in Ashley's back and sent him going into an unconscious fit. The assassin watched as the other fighter watched in anger, before they approached him. AAT-08317 reacted by dodging a hit, before seizing the arm of the man and forced him into pain compliance. The other officers surrounded Nathaniel and 'SnakeFace,' as Torres wrestled Ashley off the ground and guided him out of the courtyard.

Nathaniel raised his hands slowly into the air in the universal peace gesture, a look of false innocence on his face as he quickly hid his bloodied hands behind his back. "I found him like this I swear. I wouldn't hurt a fly!" An officer took a step towards him with taser in hand. "Drop the act Knightfall." He was then tased by several of the officers at once. And he fell to the ground unconscious beside SnakeFace. Knightfall was now trapped in his own mind as a series of violent blue flashing images blurred through his head. This time was worse than back in Tokyo as his head felt like it was being smashed in. He saw what looked like a younger version of himself dead on the ground as rain fell upon him, he saw a creature looming over him in a place devoid of anything, and he watched as his body exploded in a bright blue light. Then he heard that scream that he now recognized as one of the many people at that train station the night he killed his sister. But now he saw something else as he started to regain consciousness. A slightly familiar elderly man in a long trench-coat and a fedora smiling at him from far away in a pitch black expanse. Knightfall woke up sweating in a cell in solitary with a guard observing him through the door's slit.

”Don’t mind me then.” Samael said with a shrug, turning his gaze from Ashley to sad father as someone else took this as a sign for a riot and proceeded to slam a fist in the immortals face. Fists began to fly in all directions, and Samael found himself the target of a few of them. Moving out of the way was easy enough, considering that they were nothing more than angry flails that could never reach their mark. A fight was breaking out and he did not plan to get himself thrown into whatever solitary confinement that one got thrown into. As the guards came upon him, Sammy did the smart thing and took the position, with hands behind his head of course.

From there he was shepherded to his cell, the bars closed behind him and the cambion decided to sit himself on the scant bed offered to him, thinking of just how he would get out of here.
--
Meanwhile deep in the heart of the metahuman prison different forces stirred. Ashley Cresswell was working away at an attempt to build bulk, and someone else saw potential within the metahuman. A man in a simple sweater and gray slacks, medium brown hair well kept walked down the hallway. Guards, placid in their duty just walked this man walked past them without a single complaint. Guns were not at the ready, and all this man did was whistle as he approached the door, well barred from the meta-human now powerless. This single guard was the one to notice that he wasn’t supposed to be there.

“Hey, who the hell are you?!” He demanded, raising the high tech rifle up. One shot would have killed even a durable metahuman if it hit the right spot but he looked unaffected. In fact he smirked a bit, what looked to be grains of sand flowing through the air.

”Nice gun.” In seconds this odd sand devoured the gun, converting it into nothing more than the same thing that devoured it. The man looked surprised by the sudden display, reaching for a side arm seconds too late. A long, thick syringe jabbed into his chest, letting an oddly colored fluid flow into him and reducing the man to an unconscious mess, followed by the odd particles consuming him as well. It was as if officer Rodriguez never existed and soon not even any records would remain.”Wasn’t expecting someone to be resistant to this.” He muttered with a frown, looking at the door that was now guarded.

He rapped his knuckles against the door, waiting for some manner of verbal response before opening the slide that allowed one to peer in. ”Mister Cresswell. I’ll make this brief, for both of our sakes. I’ve come to offer you a unique opportunity.” He reached into his pocket, and slid what looked to be a self sustaining electric clock, clattering noisily to the ground. ”When this clock strike 7:30 PM I want you to call out to your guards and say Magnolia. They will know what to do from there.”

Like that footsteps could be heard of them leaving.

Ashley heard the whistling from down the hall as it approached his cell. There was a brief moment where the guard yelled at someone outside of his cell; before an electric clock fell into his cell. Ashley was supposed to watch the clock, then at 7:30 yell out the word “Magnolia.” Ay strange request to say the least, though Ashley supposed it’d be better than disobeying and receiving the punishment for it. Behave, and perhaps they’ll give you probation. That means obeying any request no matter how ridiculous. Though, yelling magnolia would seem to be insanely stupid.

7:30 rolled around, and right on the dot. Ashley thought of how stupid it was; then yelled at the top of his lungs. “Magnolia!” The guards opened the door nearly immediately and nodded. He was led from his cell to another cell, handcuffed. He passed hardened supervillains, some of which he recognised; others… not so much. Something told him they were here because they weren’t good people. Just like Ashley, now. He supposed. He was led through sets of doors, after sets of doors; until he arrived in the small timer wing. Where he was shoved into a room with a familiar black eyed roommate. “Oh, hey Sammy!”

The door quickly closed, but through a slot in the iron door came a syringe filled with a strange glowing liquid inside. He stared at it. ”Take this at Yard Time.” Ashley looked at it, then to Sammy. ”What the actual fuck…”

AAT-08317 watched as the yard was cleared of metahumans, before he turned his head to look at the one he held in pain compliance. The assassin twisted his arm more, allowing the prisoner to sound his pain before he gestured another officer over to have the metahuman's hands zip-tied. The officer complied, and took the prisoner from AAT-08317's possession as they shoved them down a corridor. The assassin flexed his fingers, looking toward a group of officers who stood by, as they looked back at him.

"Nice job, for a new blood at least." One of the officers remarked, "Military trained?"

"Yes." AAT-08317 simply replied, as he started back for the hallway he was brought out of.

"Special forces—" The officer paused, as AAT-08317 turned a corner and left, before he muttered to himself: "Dick..."

AAT-08317 slowly made his way down the hallway, holstering the taser he had in his hands as he headed for the barracks he was meant to report to. As Torres had left him, he was on his own.

The guard peering into his cell shut the slit quickly and Knightfall could hear him fumbling with the keys to open his cell. Knightfall struggling to get up off the floor to face the guard watching it open only to reveal a familiar hulking build casting a long shadow into his cell. "Break times over assswipe" Nathaniel's eyes widened as two guards stepped into the cell and stood him up against the back wall restricting his movement. Then SnakeFace stepped into the room cracking his knuckles and neck. "Nobody makesss a mockery of Naga!" Naga's arms stretched towards Knightfall and slowly wrapped around his neck coiling and tightening around it. Knightfall struggled to free himself of Naga's grasp to no avail as it started getting harder to breathe.