Prodigy: Mind Games Pt. 2

His hit had connected, spontaneously freezing the vial containing the blood and shattering it across the ground. He couldn't let this guy get away with anything, not after watching what he had done with the ship, it just did not feel right. Power flowed through his entire being, almost palpably cold to him as it rippled like a wave from his core to the very ends of his fingertips, waiting for the floodgate to be opened. Only one thought separated him and destroying the metahuman, unleashing a wave of raw elemental fury, all it took was a thought. What had stopped him was the celestial light radiating from Silus, rippling outwards and seeming to unravel the fabric of reality itself. His mind was reeling from the very sight of it, how Silus could do something so.....fantastical to be blunt. Something had been said about his friend being fae, he could not lie, he had said Red could have the blood.

Still, there was something within him that did not want the man to have the blood. With it, he would likely be able to do more damage, that's what those science types did with blood and stuff afterall. Regardless, as much as he disliked this guy, he respected and cared for his friend more, so that was enough of a reason to attempt to calm himself. He would have calmed down, but of course the villain so did love to monologue. In typical villain fashion, he would insult him, though everything seemed to go silent after a certain point. What was he going to say? Ryan had an idea and knowing the guy, it would have no been wrong, but assuming always did cause a lot of trouble, so all he did was glare at the villain, allowing him to draw the blood.

"Yeah stop talking. No one listens to you." Silus said right after he muted Lucius from making any form of verbal noise. Silus looked at him and shook his head. "I made a promise, as a member of the Fae I must hold to it. Take your blood and go, or this is about to get very, VERY bad for you." Silus warned him casually as he wiped his eyes and looked back at the ship, many of the people shocked or surprised as to what happened. Many of them asked what had happened and what had gone on. Their minds were unclear after having been warped out f the veil and placed back into life. The only obviously notable ones were Zafira and Lord Blubberbottom over there who were not making with great haste to Lucius, Silus and Ryan.

  "You have three minutes to get out of here before I ruin you." Silus said to Red Tide before turning from him with a rather stoic glare back to Ryan with a little smile and then turning to Zafira. "Atiyah will go with you, but if anything goes wrong I-" "You have my word. This is what's best for her." Zafira said, though she wasn't sure if the little one would accept it or not. Silus looked to Red and waited for him to leave

It seemed this kid had more tricks up his sleeve then Lucius had thought, he had muted his little speech causing no one to hear it but himself and presumably Silus. It seemed the kid wanted to shield his weak minded "friends" from insults, oh the hilarity. Lucius stopped once he heard what the boy was saying, then turned to him to respond.

"Don't presume to command me, child. I was leaving anyway. If you were going to ruin me you would have back at your little safe house. You knew what i was about at the time, so my question is, why didn't you? You and your friends have the power to do so, you know I'm a bad person, so why don't you rid the world of me? Is it because some odd form of heroic morality? Or do you have other uses for me in the future? You have made an enemy today, dragging me along like some kind of pet blackmailing me into using my powers for nothing. Please do tell me what you think you achieved today, then i will leave. And go ahead, ignore me, i guarantee you this won't be the last you see of me." Lucius said, asking a flurry of questions. Of course the kid would probably just use his glorified ear plugs, but it would only amuse Lucius even more. Lucius stood before the members of prodigy awaiting whatever answer he would get, and at this point he was just trying to inflame their tempers, to break that smug hero attitude each held even if what they had done was the least heroic thing ever.

Ryan did not like Red Tide, that much he could know, and that much he would likely know for the rest of his life. Absent minded, Ryan felt pver the amulet that hung around his neck, feeling the cold aura that radiated from the gem in question, and then remembering that he was not used to the whole feeling cold thing. Regardless, he let the trinket fall back to its resting place and looked to Silus, who seemed to be saying something but he was not sure what that something was. He could hear nothing Red Tide was saying, though that might have been better for the villain. Silus had shot him a smile, so he did the only right thing and returned the gesture. So he would sort of stand there until he knew what to do.

"Zodiac." Silus said. Immediately Red Tide would likely begin to realize that he was indeed in a bad situation. "Back when you first met him, you left behind a delayed connection. Well, Zodiac left fragments of himself behind too... you let him right into your database... Lucius? Lucius Alba. How long has been in there? Worming his way through, unrecognized and gathering info?" Silus said as he looked down to his phone and then up at Red Tide. "I know where you hide, I know who you are, and I know for a fact I have more resources, I have more power and I have more than enough evidence to have you arrested and tried...and before you even think about coming back with one of your holier than thou comments I'd suggest you not say another word. You're right, it's not the last we've seen of you. You don't anger me because you're nothing to get angry about. You're like...bacteria at the dinner table. You're not even worth noting...But you WILL keep coming every time I want you to and you WILL keep twitching every time I pull your string. Because without someone like me you're just a lame, limp little puppet. You're only ever alive when I'm pulling your strings... So take your blood sample and dance along little puppet... I don't need you right now." Silus said before he pressed a couple buttons on his phone.

  "How's it feel? To know you really can't do anything? To be....powerless... then again...it's only...human, but you'd know right?" He asked with a smile. Silus could feel his "daddy" in the back of his head telling him not to press his luck. Silus knew that his near all-powerful father could and would protect him, but he had to be cautious. Pick his battles wisely...something he always did.

Lucius started chuckling midway through Silus' response, and by the end of it he was in complete hysterics. Did this little twit really think any of that information would help him? So he knew his last name, everyone probably knew that already. How many people have the name Lucius in the United States? And everything in his database was information on OTHER people, really the only advantage Guilty Spark gave Silus was dispersed moments ago. After calming himself down Lucius responded.

"You know far less then you think kid. Know that your threats and insults mean nothing to me." He said spinning on his heels, truly ready to leave. He teleported back to his car which was about 100 feet away, he hated walking. He then roared the engine as he screeched away, he would be happy to leave this horrible city. He didn't get exactly what he wanted today, but at least he was made aware of Guilty Spark.

Once he returned to his base of operations in New York he got to work scrubbing Hector down on a binary level, no traces of the mysterious Zodiac could have survived it. He also made the rather unnecessary precaution of replacing every single piece of gear he was currently using. In his earlier missions he was sloppy, and that came back to bite him in the ass today. He would never make that mistake again. As for Prodigy, well, they would see Lucius soon.

((Left the thread. Great double thread plot! ))

Despite the threat, which sounded pretty awesome from Silus, it seemed as if that weird masked guy did not even flinch upon hearing it. Which made Ryan wonder if he was as good as he was letting on, or was just stupid, current stupid person notwithstanding. Anyway, with a flash the villain was gone and here they stood now sort of.....well he wasn't sure what was supposed to happen now. They were hundreds of miles away from home, and that alone made him feel sort of strange Burying his hands into his pockets, Ryan could feel the cold pulse that radiated from the amulet, crawling across his skin like...well the comparison did not come readily, but it was strange. So...um...what now?”” he would ask once the awkwardness passed.

"I dunno...Xiao is a water dragon so she can breathe under water. So she'll be okay....and we're letting Atiya go to the school. They got everything they need. But I need to do something first." Silus said before he walked over and wrapped his arms around Atiya. He wished her well and promised her that if she ever needed him she only had to say three words and he'd be on his way as fast as he could. From playing pretend or needing help studying or if she were ever in trouble. He also saw Zafira and he big dude, they were all confused but in an moment Zafira locked eyes with Silus and she knew. She didn't approach him, she didn't ask. She was just knew what had happened. She was also grateful and Silus could tell. Next thing he knew Silus was watching Atiya walk off with Zafira, leaving him with Ryan as he looked down to the little ring in his hand.

   "It should have been me..." Silus said, his voice barely above a whimper. He leaned over and posted himself against Ryan with a sigh. He wasn't going to let himself cry. He closed his eyes, but he didn't cry. "We should get out of here..." He said as he looked to his phone which beeped. Guilty Spark had information for him. This wasn't the last they'd seen of Lucius. That was true, and he was glad for it. Silus was still playing the music...so the puppet still danced under the illusion that it was free and had some form of power.

Keep dancing little puppet. The delusion of power only makes you that much more amusing of a jester.
(End)