Changed Men(Red And A now Silus)

Shadow walked briefly along the street, passing people who he felt were threatening until they were gone. He didn't dare use the flames freely in case someone like the man before came along, how he just attacked him for no reason. That's what Dark kept telling him, that you can't trust anyone but was the voice trust worthy. The thing in his head called himself Dark and kept calling him Human. So that was his name right now, Human. Other then that, Shadow took interest in all the things he saw, how things had felt and smelled, All were different and alien to him. How humans walked with small box like objects to their ears. Shadow enjoyed everything he saw and didn't know nor care were he walked, that was until of course he felt a force and then felt the air... Shadow landed on the cement road as he heard a car stop, people gasping and footsteps yet he felt little pain which was weird because he felt like pain should have happened yet he could not feel pain. Interesting. Not your thinking, your thinking is confusing me but it seems your body didn't.. Very interesting. I have to play a little. Darks voice didn't sound reassuring this time and as Shadow looked up to where he heard footsteps, he shook in fear. They were him, all of them were the man that had hurt him, he was everywhere.

"Get away." Shadow said as he backed away in a crawl, holding his head out the hellfire rose from the ground and was sent flying at them all. Why they wasn't fighting back, nor way his flames were not being destroyed by the barrier he did not care. His only care was to keep the man away and in so he sent his flames everywhere. At the large box that hit him, at all the 'heroes' That had attacked him. All the screams that he caused were somehow smoothing. Like he was meant to be making them scream. His thoughts were cut off from an explosion caused by the car he had lit on fire, sending a heatwave in his direction that was warm and settling.

Arr, the smell of death in the morning.

Things had changed. Were they for the better? Lucius liked to think so, but in truth he didn't know. For days, he sat awake, thinking. He could never get to sleep, not with all the thoughts racing through his head. Would he continue his mission? Would he reform his systems? His following? The man had been through so much, and he still felt the hate inside him, the anger, the grief. He didn't like himself, but he accepted what he was. He was a bad man, always would be; that's what he had told his darker half. He couldn't be changed, so what would he do? Would he do what he said before, would he use his evil to change the world? Was what he wanted really evil, in the end? Did the ends justify the means? So many questions, looming over him as he laid in bed. The world was a terrible place, broken. Would he fight fire with fire, evil with evil, or would he just give it all up? He couldn't be a hero, not in the modern sense, it wasn't him, and not only that, it was meaningless. Things had to be changed on a huge level, the entire world needed a reform, and the only way he could achieve it would be to resort to what many called evil. Would he be damned for it? Probably, but it had to be done. If he wasn't going to sacrifice himself for the greater good, who would?

It had been only a small while since the episode at Sears tower, and Lucius found himself in Chicago. This was the city it went down in, the city where he almost died several times. But in all of those situations, he was given help. Was it fate? Was he truly, as his fiance had told him, destined for greater things? He didn't know, but what he did know was, something wanted him alive. So why was he back here? In this city? Well, the truth was he didn't know. He needed some time, he needed to think with that magnificent mind of his.  He hadn't been out in what seemed like forever, but there he was, sitting at a bar alone. It was difficult to get drunk for him, and he ended up having to go to multiple places just to get a buzz, they were cutting him off before he even felt the alcohol in his veins. He hadn't been one to do this, to try and get inebriated, but Jesus, after all that, who the hell wouldn't want to black out?

He wanted this to be a calm and quiet day, but for a man like Lucius, it seemed that was impossible. Trouble always found him. An explosion sounded outside the building, and screams could be heard. Now this is why meta humans needed to be organized, alone they were sloppy and killed with no point, but they never listened, not until they got what was coming to them. Lucius just sat there, drinking his scotch and watching tv. He probably wouldn't have went outside if the news hadn't come on at that moment. It brought up a live feed of the outside of the bar he was at, but that wasn't the surprising part. A familiar face could be seen, shadow, or so he called himself, was lighting people up. Now why in the hell was he doing that? He didn't really seem like the type, but then again, his personality seemed like it changed at the drop of a hat.

Lucius sighed and sat up, calmly walking to the door and stepping out. The people in the bar looked worried and didn't dare go outside, and looked at Lucius like he was crazy when he did. So there he was,Shadow, again. Lucius approached Shadow, walking through some flames without even showing a hint of pain on his face. Yeah his clothes did get a little burnt, but that didn't matter.

"What are you doing kid?" Lucius asked before taking the last drink of his scotch he had taken from the bar, throwing the glass on the ground afterward.

Shadow tried to stand when the heat ended, the screams stopped. Why didn't he fight back? Shadow didn't know what to think as he placed a hand on his head. Then a voice came though, one that seemed oddly familiar yet distant unknown yet Shadow felt like he could trust it. Ohhh. Reddy Reddy. Today got interesting indeed. Dark would say to himself as he layed back in the mind of the human, wanting the events to play out themselves. Shadow in turn looked towards the man who was indeed someone else to him, someone that didn't have the look that he wanted to harm but when he threw the glass on the ground the man couldn't help but flinch.

"I'm.. Sorry. I didn't mean. I just wanted to get the man away from me." Shadow would say timidly as he tried to walk away but only fell in slight pain as he looked at his leg and saw a piece of shrapnel in his leg yet it was pushing itself out. This alone freaked out the broken man. "Please just keep away. The fires don't go away." Shadows appeal was now a mess of burnt clothes from the surrounding fire. It heats while claming still hurt like hell whenever he got close.

Glorious, the kid was even more fucked up then last time Lucius had seen him, and that was saying something. What was wrong, well, Lucius didn't know. However, it was pretty clear to anyone who had seen it before that Shadow was having a hallucination. Lucius didn't really feel like playing psychiatrist, but then again the kid had to be removed from the area, for his own good.

"Come to your senses, boy." Lucius said, walking closer to Shadow. He didn't know exactly what to do at the moment, but having a crazy and powerful being lighting people up wasn't good for anyone.

"Just calm down....alright? Why don't we get out of here? Lucius said, not knowing what else to say to the frightened male. He then stuck out his hand, as if offering to guide the boy somewhere. Lucius did have something to gain here, but for the most part, he just wanted to know what the hell was going on with him. And after seeing all that he had, he was slightly believing the whole demon thing.

Marcus watched as his leg closed when the piece of metal pushed itself out, the whole thing was weird. Then the man spoke some more, not afraid, like they had met each other before. He held his hand out and as Marcus stood up he held his hand out back to him with a sort of confused look, much like a child's look at new things. "Get out of here. Yea, away from hero." Marcus said as he went to go take the mans hand but at the moment before he could his hand lit alight in flames and he stepped back while looking at his hand, oh so slowly it charred but unlike the last time Red saw Shadow burn his hand, this time was much slower and Shadow just stared at it with curiosity until it dissipated and his hand began to regrow as shadows covered it.

Shadow looked to the man again and just looked to the ground. "Go somewhere else. Please sir can we just go somewhere else." The man seemed nice enough, not like the hero. No this man didn't just attack him.

Sir? Ok, it was official, Shadow was tripping. But what was wrong with him? It had only been a few weeks since Lucius had last seen him, and he was totally fine. He was showing signs of a very well developed mental illness, not something that happens overnight. Well, unless he got into a stash of drugs, that is. Lucius then saw a up close example of the boys regeneration, which was quite remarkable really. It was odd though, he seemed surprised by it, like he didn't have it before this, which he did.

Shadow then asked to leave, which Lucius was quite fine in obliging. He pulled his teleportation device from his coat, then touched shadow on the shoulder, being sure not to spook him. In an instant the two were in Lucius' home, specifically the lab. There were a few chairs there, so Lucius sort of lead the boy to one of them, hoping he would sit. Regardless of if he did or not though, Lucius pulled up his own chair and sat.

"What's going on with you Shadow? Did you get into some acid or something?" Lucius asked.

Shadow waited a small bit before feeling a hand on his shoulder and the next second, instead of seeing cerement he saw something different. The result brought out a yelp in Shadow as he freaked out on how they ha gotten their. "How did you do that?" Shadow would ask as he looked around before seeing the man lead him to chairs which Shadow decided to move to sit on one.

Next the man asked him a question about getting into acid which he tilted his head in confusion, the other factor was that he called him Shadow, like a name. Something Shadow hadn't had before, his name was Shadow. "Um. I don't know what a acid is... Who are you? You call me Shadow but.. Is that my name?" Shadow would say as he looked at the man. This day was confusing, first the hero appeared but didn't do anything then this.

Look at you Red. All it took was a broken mind to get the human in your Lab. Dark would mock whiten the mind of the human but made sure not to let Shadow know what he was thinking himself. Today hadn't gone as planned it seemed but those were always the best plans.

Ok, this was a situation Lucius didn't quite know how to remedy. He didn't know much about Shadow, but Lucius had diagnosed him with split personalities at some point. There was also the demon thing, he remembered in their first meeting he spoke to it, but at the time Lucius just thought the kid was playing with him. Could that really be? Lucius was willing to believe anything at this point, but it irritated him that he didn't understand it. Before what happened, he felt like he knew everything there was to know about the universe, but now, now that was all blown to hell.

"Yes, that is your name, remember? You told me to call you that." Lucius said. It seemed talking to Shadow like this would be fruitless, so he was about to do something he never thought he would.

"Hey Dark, are you in there? Why don't you come out and talk to an old friend?" Lucius said, still skeptical about all this. If there was really a demonic being in Shadow though, this day would most definitely prove to be more interesting then Lucius had thought.

So Shadow was his name and they had met before, but why he didn't remember.. That was a question that needed to be answered. And in so Marcus was about to ask until Red had asked for Dark to come out. "Wait Dark an.." Shadow didn't finish. Red would have seen a shadow like fist rise from the mist that usually circled Shadow and slammed it into the humans head sending him flying into the wall with a loud crack and out for the count he was but only a small while. The boys durability seemed something anew then his old human fragility.

As Shadow slumped against the ground, a shadow rose from him that looked like the human who now 'slept' on the ground. Dark bowed with an evil smile before looking to Red. "Haha. And here i thought you science people didn't believe in demons. I must say Reddy boy. This is an improvement. You haven't asked him to be your test pig yet. Or are you just trying to sweeten the deal?" Dark would say in a demonic voice that trumped the one Shadow gave off with his mask. He had asked for the dog and now he was unleashed. Oh tonight is going to be fun.

Lucius clicked his jaw, not saying anything for a moment and not showing any emotion. It was all in front of him this whole time, another world, one completely separate from science and all he knew. Was he just to ignorant to see it before? Possibly, but he had left no stone unturned, why was it all choosing to show itself now? Regardless, that would have to be contemplated later. At the moment he had a demon in front of him.

"Interesting, very interesting." Lucius said with a smirk, leaning in his chair nonchalantly. He didn't make a move, because honestly he didn't feel very threatened. Not only had he dealt with bigger beings then this, his home was a fortress. If this thing was intent on fighting, well, then this certainly would be a 'fun' night.

"So are you going to attack me or something? Or would you rather have a civilized conversation? I do have a lot of questions for you." Lucius said, still not moving a muscle.

"Ohh Questions. My only weakness." Dark would mock as he moved about the room, never straying to far from the humans body. "To be perfectly honest I would have loved to kill you ages ago along with every other being in that godforsaken city but I lost the draw. I played mind roulette and me and the human both lost. Find history in Australia for masked murderer about four to five years ago. Those were the days."

Dark reminisced on old memory's before turning to the human again. "I can't fight you. I can barely use the darkness. He controls it all, I'm just along for the ride until he lose his grip. But I'll be nice.. I'll answer one question. Then I'll give some free info that you should keep an hold of. Then the broken human over their will awake. So hurry up."

One question was all he would get out of the being it seemed, so he had to choose carefully. There was no need really to ask what it was, or where it comes from; these questions had pretty obvious answers when you were talking about a demon, yet they were the go to things people asked when confronted with such things. What would he ask? What would give him the most possible information? He could ask a million questions, but there was only one that really mattered at the moment.

"What's wrong with the boy?" Lucius would ask after considering his options. He could have asked a question that would serve him more personally, but this, this he felt mattered more. But would the demon even answer? Demons tended to lie, and it might not want Lucius to know how to fix Shadow. Perhaps he wouldn't even get an answer.

Dark didn't expect such a question, the question that showed.. care for the kid. Dark Laughed at Red before looking to the kid then back to Red. A grin on his face. "You have changed. Well to answer your question, everything is wrong with the kid but the reason why he's like this. Is because I broke him, I got inside his head and diced it, crushed it and then I sewed it back all together but.. theirs another factor. A third player." Dark would say as he heard the human groan, a sign of awakening. "Also you may think of me as the demon but let me detail this to you. Every time you look at that thing." Dark pointed towards Shadow. "Every time you talk to it. Your talking to a demon, if he was human then all this power inside him would have allowed me to take over, but now he controls hellfire. A tool of the Revanants." Dark would say with disgust as he floated back to the body and dissipated.

Shadow held his head as he got back up and climbed to a seat where he sat and looked to the man. "What happened? My head hurts." He would say as he groaned a little more and looked to the wall he was slumped against, a small dent in it. "Oh, what the hell?" Shadow would ask himself as he felt the wall. I made that?

Ok, it seemed this was out of Lucius' realms of fixing, at least for now. The demon would babble on about various things, all being noted by Lucius. What this information would get him, he didn't know, and in all honesty he didn't know what to do with a crazy demon possessed kid. He couldn't throw Shadow out, and he sure as hell couldn't keep him here, the boy didn't even know his name. He needed to be fixed somehow, but Lucius wasn't a priest, heck, he didn't believe any of this was possible a few weeks ago. He needed help, that's what he needed. That was something he usually hated to admit, but it was obvious here.

Lucius had formed an odd relationship with Shadow, and he couldn't just sit by and watch this, it was....quite heart wrenching. Shadow was just a kid, and he didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to have his body and mind used as a toy, so Lucius would help him, to the best of his ability. After he left Lucius at the hospital Silus gave his contact info to Hector, which was taken, if a bit reluctantly, by the AI. Lucius didn't know if he would ever use it, not until now. Silus was the best person to handle this. After all, if he saved Lucius, he could save this boy. Lucius sat up from his chair, taking a deep breath and cracking his neck. He said nothing to shadow, he just walked over to a holographic computer screen nearby and started calling. Once someone picked up, which would likely be Silus, Lucius would speak.

".....Hi, it's Lucius. I have a situation that i feel you should have a look at. And....after what happened, we really need to talk." Lucius said, calmly and with a slight bit of concern in his voice. He would then hang up without another word, there was no need to continue the conversation over air waves. Whether Silus would come or not, Lucius didn't know. But he hoped for Shadows sake he would.

The phone rang and rang, but Silus would eventually answer it. Silus learned a long time ago that when someone called him...they were generally in trouble. That being said, unless he saw "Matt", "Victor" or "Gadreel" on the phone he didn't bother saying hello. Primarily because the second he pushed the answer key they were freaking out about something or other. Well that and Victor was right next to him at swim practice, enjoying the lack of conditioning they had to do because they were in the top three fastest students. Silus reached over and pressed the answer key and brought the phone up to his ear. Being that this was a non-registered number in his phone he assumed that he'd answer politely. "Hello!?" Silus asked with his usual chipper tone, though he tried to not let it known that he was otherwise distracted at the moment by the rest of the swim team. Not sure how effective that'd be because of the whistles singing in the air and the coach yelling at the other kids for being too slow.

  So Lucius was calling him? That was actually entirely expected for some reason. Thought it explains why earlier this morning he drew a picture of Red Tide with a phone to his ear with a bunch of horrifically hellish looking creatures in teh dark and looming background. He also drew a picture of Matt training a polar bear at the circus, though that didn't seem very likely. "Uh yeah...yeah sure just...just say where." But just after that the phone line clicked and went dead. "H-hey wait! Where!?" Silus quickly shouted, Victor looking at him with an arched eyebrow and a little smirk of amusement playing his features. Silus hung up the phone and twisted it before punching in a code to his self-made app and started to trace back the signal. Though apparently Hector got an upgrade, because it was advanced enough to crack and center it. Silus mumbled under his breath about Hector being good at his trade before resorting to good old fashioned thinking about where Lucius would be.

  Okay. So when I painted that image there was a different guy there. So...let's say that If I were Lucius and I had someone there with weird demon stuff...where would I be? He sounded kinda worried...shaken? concerned? Do tough guys like him get those things? So either this guy was tryin' to hurt him or was someone he didn't want to see die. Well Lucius kinda doesn't seem the guy to call for help from strangers 'cuz he's got dat pride... Okay so. If I were ten years older and ambiguosly evil where would I be? His mind began rapid firing ideas around, eventually he decided that if he were Red he'd feel safest in his lab. Then he just had to find where his lab would be. If I had a lab...I'd put it in a place closest to where I was molded into the person I am today. A reminder of my failure, forever. A reminder I'm not worth loving, that I'm not worth saving. So where would that be for him? His eyes widened before he closed his eyes and cleared his throat before looking to Victor and smiling before waving and walking off to the locker room. Removing the goggles from his forehead he swiftly removed the swim cap and threw a towel over him before putting on a shirt, throwing his jeans over his shoulder with his towel. He then would grab his hoodie and void walk away while he was still in his lonesome.

  His target would be Red in New York City, the place that molded him. Now it was time for the artist to meet the scene of the sculpted piece. It might not take long for him to search all of NYCs underground, or all up Zell...but he'd be there soon enough, appearing from nowhere as he looked about at all the high tech lab equipment, and then to the screens and then finally looking for Lucius. Silus would set his pants down on the nearest available surface and finish drying off his legs quickly before putting his jeans on over his swimming suit and then drying out his hair completely, acting as if nothing was awkward or unusual about this at all. Then he took the towel to the floor and dried up his footprints.