Grasping Smoke

Xero frowned as he watched the female entertainers known as strippers. He had used an advance mathematical algorithm to find what would make the most attractive woman, and found the strippers that resembled “her” the most. It had cost him over two hundred grand to fly the women in from Italy, and he was thoroughly disappointed. After the many enthusiastic comments about this, particular profession from members of Xero Enterprises’ executive board, he had expected something more than scantily clad women dancing. This was, to use modern terms, a tease.

He didn’t know what he had expected really. He was bored out of his mind. After his recruitment by Abraxis Corp, he had informed the board that he would be taking a month long vacation. Six days in, and he had reprogrammed his computer, sent several lawsuits, flown to Bermuda, and flown back, irritated by a hotel employee. Now, he had to resort to watching these women embarrass themselves, and each one was getting a tenth of a million to do it. This was a pitiful world, and Xero reminded himself to abolish the act of stripping for payment when he redesigned Earth. But for now, it was very much a popular pastime for males with the attention span of a goldfish and the hormones of a pubescent child.

Xero was disappointed for another reason as well. He had been a member of the mysterious organization for a week now, and had yet to hear from them. He was losing faith in this company, and fast. They may have been impressed with his work in the Liverpool plague, but he was less than impressed with their business etiquette. He watched the women for a few more minutes, until his phone rang. He answered it in a rather aggressive manner, irritated by the interruption of his thoughts. His foul mood quickly dissipated as he received his first mission from Abraxis. When he hung up the phone, he quickly hurried out of the room, only to stop and address the “strippers” They left rather rapidly when he told them if they were to return to Italy and not tell anyone about this “business meeting”, he would raise their pay to one million dollars each.

Sam just got in from a day of relaxing, he was allowed to do that during the day, it was when it became night time when he had to become serious. He slammed his door shut and Amber came running out, immediately knowing that he was home, Sam bent down and petted Amber for a little while, rubbing it behinds its ears and asking it amusing, rhetorical questions about its day. He walked over to the fridge and Amber followed, Sam pulled out both cat food and milk from the fridge, placing them in two separate bowls and allowing Amber to begin her meal, one more rub on Amber and Sam turned to his wardrobe.

He yanked his doors open and pulled all of his outfits to the left but one, his night suit, his hero suit, his Smoke suit. He took the hangar off of the rack and held it in front of him, he began feeling around it, feeling different sewing areas from Sam's many battles in the suit, his newest fixes were the two slashes he had received down his back, two scars that were still returning back to normal. Sam quickly got undressed, down to only his boxer shorts, he then quickly stepped into his Smoke outfit, he hurried as if he had someone watching him through the window although he knew there wasn't. Smoke stood in front of his mirror and rubbed down his suit to get rid of any dust or dirt, his outfit was barely keeping together, he needed to get a new one soon, but from god knows where, he could hardly walk into a store and ask for a new super suit.

Xero stepped off of the jet, and on to British territory. It was the second time he had been here in a month, both times for business, though this one could also be considered pleasure. He was here to meet an acquaintance, and to kidnap him. He would not be alone of course. He was informed by CORE, one of the leaders of Abraxis, that he would be met at the kidnappees house by another member of Abraxis named Delicia. He had heard very little of her, and it concerned him. Xero never liked to work with people he did not know. However, he had little choice in the matter.

He had been given the name and address of his target, and it amused Xero. Now their roles were reversed; it was his turn to watch stealthily. His targets name was Sam Lock, alias “Smoke” apparently named so because of his ability to teleport with a cloud of smoke, and reappear with fifty metres of where he started from. It was a rather unique power, and for this Abraxis wanted samples of his DNA. Xero was glad he was on Abraxis’ side; he had no doubt it would be difficult to capture him, but with all of the members of Abraxis, and the resources at their disposal...he would definitely be kidnapped.

Xero rid his head of these thought; he had a mission to attend to. He approached Lock’s house carefully, and looked around for Delicia. She could not be found, and he could not reach CORE. He looked up at the old house, which appeared to be abandoned. The front door opened, and Lock exited, wearing the same dark suit as when they had first met. He left his house, going to somewhere that did not concern Xero. This was good.

Xero walked up to the house, deciding he would kidnap Lock himself. It was not his fault he could not contact Abraxis HQ, and he would be damned if the mission fell apart because of it. He went up to the door, wondering how hard it would be to break the lock. With the looks of the house, not very hard. It was actually easier than he had thought. All it required was hitting the door near the handle, and it jerked open. So far, so good.

He walked inside the house, looking around. It was very barren, with only the necessities of life. Xero flipped a light switch near the door. He saw a cat in the kitchen, apparently expecting someone other than him. Well of course, it wasn't his house. The cat hissed at him, and he reminded himself to stay away from it. For now at least, as he was supposed to kidnap it as well.
CORE didn't want it to die from neglect, and he wasn't allowed to harm it. He went off to find a place to wait.

The only piece of furniture in the house was a bed, an old rusty thing that looked like it could fall apart at any second. Xero sighed and sat on the bed, as he didn’t have any other options. The cat came in and started rubbing against his legs. Xero briefly wondered if cats could be bipolar, and pulled out his phone. While he waited he might as well get some work done.

Smoke was tuckered out, his day had been more busy than usual, muggings were stopped, bank robberies were ended and murders were stopped before they could even occur. The sun began to rise and Smoke knew that was when his time was up, it was much harder to stay hidden from the public in the light, the darkness was his friend.

He returned home and looked at his door handle, it had been busted slightly, something was wrong. He did not break it when he left so someone else must have broken it whilst he was away, "Why would someone break into my house?... Have they not seen the state it is in? I hardly have anything worth stealing." he thought, he wanted to catch the burglars by surprise, assuming that they are still in there.

Smoke vanished into black smoke just outside his house and reappeared on the inside, he quickly looked around to see if anyone was still present and he noticed someone sitting on his bed with Smoke's cat, Amber walking around his feet. Smoke looked up to the man seated on his bed, a small part of him hoped that he would not end up breaking his bed, after looking at his face he immediately recognized him "Look who it is, is there another disease that needs stopping?" he said jokingly, after Amber realized Smoke was back in the house, she immediately walked over to him.

Xero looked up at Lock, and put on his most somber expression. "Last time we were together, we saved all of humanity. Now we must save a different species, though it is definitely not a lesser one. An ancient alien civilization has gone extinct, and I represent a certain group trying to revive them. However, to do so we need meta-human DNA, and everyone else we have gone to with this request have turned us down. We need your help. You may be the last hope of an entire species,"

It wasn't an exact lie. He was the first one they had asked about this, and it was possible, though extremely unlikely that he was their last hope.

Xero's phone began to vibrate. That annoyed him; few people had this particular number, and they all knew he was not to be reached right now. He looked down at the number. It was that of Abraxis, CORE to be exact. Xero sighed; now  the robot had service.

He answered the phone, and CORE explained to him that he had been listening to the conversation through Xero's communication device, and that he would explain it to Sam Lock in more detail. Xero sighed and handed the phone to Smoke. "It's another member of Abraxis, and they would like to speak with you,"

(OOC- I AM HERE)
The phone rumbled as he spoke; CORE's voice came out of it as if he was it. "Hello there Mister Lock. We have been looking, and we saw you. The revival of the species that I assume Mister Xero so kindly mentioned needs a catalyst. Something to build off of. We looked among humanity, and saw cotton and wool, and we looked among metahumans and saw both silk and stone, and I do not plan on weaving a shirt of stone. You are the first, but hopefully not the last of our silk. We sought you out because you have every quality we could want, so we beseech you, aid us. In return, we can provide anything you can ask, within reason. Money, medicine, transport, safety. We don't have to be bound by laws either, if that's what you're into. Regardless, as the first, we would like to ask you formally. Will you please be the trailblazer for us?" He paused for a reply.

Sam listened to the man speak on the other end of the phone, it appears he knew his name and god knows what else. This man seconded what Xero had been saying, they were trying to revive an alien race? Sam thought it was weird but he had witnessed a lot of weird things lately, he did not think they would succeed in what they were doing however, but Sam looked around his house, he had nothing, he barely even had a bed, and this corporation was willing to give him whatever he wanted to just help them out a little bit? He found it hard to say no to, but the ball was in his court now and he wanted to get the most he could out of it.

Sam walked over to his dresser and sat on it with a million ideas flowing through his head, "Ok... I have five terms. Number 1, when I come with you, you take my cat too, I can't leave her here alone. Number 2. This super suit I am wearing right now is not in the best shape, I would like an upgrade. Number 3, I wanted to be dropped off somewhere sunnier than England, lets say..... California. Number 4, when you are done with me I want to $20,000 to help me get started in my new country. And number 5, give me some street clothes and a backpack so at least I will have something to my name. Deal?" Sam thought he could be asking for too much, but these guys were willing to do illegal things for him if they had to, they would most certainly say yes.

CORE thought over the conditions, and checked a list next to him. "Done," He said, "also, we'll ask before touching some... more sensitive materials, like brain fluids. Maybe some other things. We'll See. Hand the phone back to Xero please." CORE paused for a moment, waiting to hear his subordinate's voice. When he heard the phone change hands, he spoke again. "Feel free to knock him out. Carefully. Not in a hostile manner. Maybe let him know first? Then prepare for your return. The plane will be where you left it."

Xero hung up the phone. He looked at Lock, and wondered how to best "knock him out". He decided to go with a direct approach. "I need to make you temporarily lose consciousness. Just look at this ball for a few minutes. You won't feel a thing," he said, as he created a ball of Armonolin. He gently placed it on the bed, and walked behind Lock. "Just keep staring at it, and you can't look away. It needs exactly two minutes of contact with your eyes,".

When Lock was gazing intently at the orb, Xero covered his hand in Armonolin. Hoping the kid didn't have too hard of a head, he quickly punched him in the back of his skull. Lock crumpled, and Xero felt a momentary twinge of regret. Not for hitting the kid, but for doing so with his left hand; he had put a small scratch on the wedding ring he wore. No matter, he could always replace it.

He threw the kid over his shoulder in a fireman's carry; he appeared to be a few pounds heavier than Xero. Xero grabbed the cat on the way out, as he couldn't leave it to starve. He walked out the front door, and placed him into the Aston Martin he had brought from the airport. He had bought the car a year ago, and had used it three times. When not in use it stayed parked outside of the airport, where he owned three adjacent parking spots in a parking garage.
(OOC, like how many times I said parked?)

He drove to the airport to find the jet had been refueled and was ready for takeoff. He passed through customs easily, as Abraxis had informed the British officials one of their members would be returning with an invalid, and Lock was in a wheelchair at the time. He grinned when he stepped on the plane; it was a stupid story, yet it had worked. He sat down as the plane lifted off, and fantasized about the data they would obtain from Lock.

Smoke regained consciousness on the plane, he was in a seat and still had the same clothing on thank god, the last thing he wanted was to have had someone change him without him even knowing about it. He looked around his fuzzy surroundings to see Xero sitting on the other side of the plane, the plane was fairly wide and there was only two or three seats, leaving plenty of room for the staff and patrons to maneuver around and do as they will. Smoke rubbed his eyes and looked to his left, noticing that they were in the air, he must have been out for an hour or so, it would have taken them awhile to get him on board and he was surprised that no one questioned them bringing an unconscious man onto a plane.

An air hostess walked over to him and placed a beer on his table, it was cold but had been out of the fridge for a short while, Smoke could tell because of the drips of condensation dripping down the side of the bottle, it was a shame that Smoke was straight edge, he did not drink, smoke (ironically) or do drugs of any kind. Out of respect, he waited for the air hostess to walk away before pushing the bottle as far away from him as possible, he was not going to be tempted by the beverage. Smoke looked over to Xero who was fiddling with his phone, "You claim to know a lot about me, but clearly your plane staff do not know my drinking habits" Smoke was amused that for a company that claimed to know everything about him, it appeared they were still shady on his personal preferences.

Xero smiled to himself at that comment. It appeared that the robot was not as perfect as he seemed. This was both amusing and troublesome. If the robot wasn't perfect, then how would Xero be able to perfect humanity? Xero tried to shake himself of the thought; CORE was only as perfect as his creators. Still, it was something to consider. Xero did not like the thought of wasting his time, and if his goal on Earth was pointless...but no matter, he assured himself that it was not.

He got up from his seat to pour himself a drink. Just because Lock refused to enjoy the god-like substance of alcohol didn't meant Xero had to deprive himself of it. He sighed; he supposed he would ultimately have to get rid of all of alcohol as well. But not for a while at least. So for the time being...

Xero turned to Lock. It had been simple enough to get him here, although he knew if Lock had wanted to he could have put up a little fight. It would have been futile in the end, merely a minor annoyance. But still, Xero was glad for the cooperation. Xero looked curiously at the younger man. Metahumans, especially the heroic ones, had always amused him. He wanted to ask him why he chose to do the so called "moral" thing. With his powers he could have easily amassed a small fortune. But that was a question for another time; the pilot announced that they would be landing soon.

After they landed, he brought Lock to the Abraxis headquarters in Los Angeles. It occurred to him that one of Lock's requests were pointless. Nevertheless they were here. Xero's job was done. Now he could just sit back and let CORE take over.