Falling in the Black (Vigilante Squad)

Anger shot through Drifter. This guy was a prick. Now he called just to fuck with him and Pat. But Luke wasn't really going to tell his friend much, just what needed to be done. He was just thinking over why this guy had done all he had, it made no sense really. If he wanted to kill him and Pat he could have done so several times. So why didn't he? Maybe he was just getting a kick out of this. Luke didn't know, but there had to be a motive, a higher one then 'because i wanted to' at least. He put the phone in his pocket then watched the display of this friend of Matt's. He was odd.....projected an aura of some sort. It made Lukas trust him. Besides, what teenager would fight his way into a hospital just to kill someone that was already dying.

"Pretty sure he went down the hall to an office or something. Just try not to break his wrist when you get down there." Luke said as he stepped past Idol, giving him a look that said many things, the underlining one being 'if you hurt him I'll kill you'. Of course he probably couldn't, but that wasn't important. He grabbed his laptop case and went back out into the lobby, plugging Matt's phone into the computer once he set it up.

The fact of the matter was, the guy had to make a connection somewhere, even if he used some sort of proxy or encryption. Luke had seen it all before, so finding the guy wouldn't be hard unless he was packing some next level Lucius shit. So, he would sort through it all, trace and re-trace through any proxies, and break through any encryption's to find out where that call came from. Modern technology was such a joy, thirty years ago not even the FBI could do what Luke was doing, and now it was available to the public. Eventually he would get a GPS signal, or at least a phone number if it was a land line or pay phone, but either way he would get a location from his search.

Spoiler:

   There were a few problems at the moment. One of them being that Idol had just continually broke the law by assaulting officers. It wouldn't be long before anti-metahuman response officers arrived. Idol vanished in a moment, seeming to look for the doctor. Of course In a few moments of deliberation Idol would be seen again, sliding against the floor a little bit. There was a very strong, loud and authoritative voice. A female voice at that, and one that was rather stereotyped.

 "Now I KNOW you ain't gonna say THAT again. You want somethin' you ASK for it boy. And as far as I'm concerned there ain't many people who want that young man in there to get better more than I do. So don't chu think fo one minute that I won't knock yo butt up and down the street if you think you're gonna do anything to risk his recovery." The voices source was revealed as a rather impressive African woman. Her strut was enough to tell you that this was the sassy black nurse that absolutely every hospital needed. So sassy that she said fuck the law and threw metahumans across the hall. "Now get yo sorry butt outta here before I get REAL mad." She said as she walked past him, her white scrubs almost glowing as the light bounced off of them. Finally she arrived at Matt's room and sighed before looking at Lukas and Patrick.

  "Alright. Now you boys listen, and you listen well." She said, her tone still on the aggressive side of things. "I don't know what happened, but someone just called here asking all sorts of creepy questions about you and our Matty from a pharmaceuticals company on the other side of the city; and I swear if I find out either of you were part of this I will rain wrath upon you, the likes that will make God weep in embarrassment." She said, and to be entirely honest the scary alpha bitch quite possibly was able to do it. She turned to leave the room as the anti-metahuman response units arrive, likely looking for Idol.

  Just then the large woman froze as she heard a blip. The EEG picked up a very abnormal amount of activity. Almost like he was about to wake up...

Idol wasn't quite expecting to be drug back into the room and yet here he was, a loud authorize voice shouting at him while doing that. Normally he would have fought back but there was something about the authoritative tone in her voice that made him hesitate if only for a moment. "Very well. However, if he dies I know who I'll be looking for." He noted with annoyance, rubbing his shoulder before taking off. It appeared that he would be dealing with some opposition but running away seemed like it would have been an easier choice, which is what they did in the end.

Pat however was now both confused and distressed, it there was the fact his friend was dying and that strange metahuman sort of forcefully making their way in here. Then there came this rather intimidating woman shouting woman saying something about pharmaceuticals, which confused him even further. "Pharmaceuticals company? What do you think one of those would want with us?" Pat questioned in a soft whisper, looking to Luke to see if they knew what she was talking about. He could have asked something else, but then again that was when something caught his ears. It was a blip, though it didn’t mean too much to him beyond the fact that it could have been something important.

Was he going to wake up, now that was something that he wondered, but then again it may have not exactly been the case. Regardless he found himself falling back into worry or something else along those lines. Pat turned towards the woman as if silently wondering what that meant.

Due to a certain lack of communication on my part, the exact outcome of the whole phone tracing thing is unclear. However i have chosen to go the Drifter found a location route. Could have been faked, could have been utterly useless, but it was something, and his only lead currently. By the time he got back from his computer thing, Luke found a stereotypical black woman throwing the meta around like a rag doll, after which she said something about some pharmaceutical company. Drifter first thought of Travis Masters....but realized that didn't quite match up, with the whole being on the other side of town thing.

"I don't know...... i don't know anything about who did this to him, but i think i have a lead we should che....Whats that!" Luke said, being cut off by a beep from the machines presumably keeping Matt alive. He didn't know anything about that sort of thing, it could either mean he was dying or waking up. Either way, his heart was racing in anticipation.

"You're back!" Alex said with a slight smile when he heard the door open behind him. Alex stood, turning to Matthew as he stepped through the door. Matt just sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. With that all of his unfinished business was sorted through. No need to come back as a spirit when it could easily be prevented.

"You look pretty happy, considering I'm dying." He said casually as he walked past, Alex's expression turning suddenly shocked as he stammered to try and correct himself. Matt just waved him off though. "Relax...I'm just joking with ya. Might be my last chance to. Right?" He asked with a scoff before looking at the little ritual that Alex had prepared. Alex coughed sheepishly before turning back to the ritual at hand. He finished the last portion of it and then looked to Matt as he placed the mirror shard in the center.

"Just...look into the mirror and it'll work. But uh..hey." Alex said as he tagged Matt's shoulder, stopping him from simply walking over. "Look I just...I'm sorry. For the powers for the...making things weird and uhh...just everything. I know your life would have probably been better off if you just let that thing eat me."

"I'm not mad because of the Sin thing. I'm not mad because you think you love me. I'm mad because you left me. You claimed to love me, but then at the first sight of things turning south you turned tail and vanished faster than the speed of sound-I-I-It's not like tha-It might not be what you intended, but that's what you did. Look, Alex. I love you man. You're like a brother to me, and honestly you're the closest person I have to me next to... well basically anyone. I needed you...and you were gone. You got scared. Now I might not be in love with you the same way you are with me...but I love you man. And you don't just leave the people you love. he said for a moment before sighing. If course he slightly anticipated something like what happened as Alex pretty much tried to take full advantage of the situation. The last time he was going to see him, so he obviously tried to kiss him. Matt reached up and gripped Alex by the ear and scoffed, chuckling a little while Alex smiled with some guilt, as if he were saying "I had to try". Similar to a kid with his hands in the cookie jar.

"Not even in your dreams." Matt said as he pulled on the ear, peeling Alex to the side as he walked towards the mirror and waving in the air. A harsh flash of light sent Alexander back to his own mind and propelled Matthew exactly where he needed to be...
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"It's an EEG, it's gonna let us monitor his brain activity." Adalane said as she put the little sticky pads onto the designated areas of Matthew's skull. The monitor had already began to pick up an increasing amount of activity, and eventually led them to the conclusion that something was happening. He was waking up! That was a brief moment of respite, especially as doctors continued to work and Adalane seemed to smile, making a comment under her breath about him being a stubborn one.

A hand fired out and gripped onto Luke's forearm, yanking on it with slightly impressive force. His face was battered and his eyes were bloodshot, the look on his face was that of struggle as he tried to cough.

"Ni....Nihi....Don't. It's...Masters. STOP. You'll die." He managed to mutter out before his eyes rolled back and he fell backwards and groaned. Adalane pushed his head back a little before watching the EEG and the EKG. The EKG was going steady, and indication that he'd life. The EEG however was starting to act differently.

"He's fine. We've got him. You two boys need to go. He'll just continue to stress the more you're here. Come back tomorrow boys." Adalane suggested, and rather then argue with her it was probably safer to just take the suggestion and go. So apparently Master's Pharmesudicals was behind this...and Matt asked them not to go because they'd die...

That's what they said, anyway.

Luckily the woman would explain what was happening, something that to an extent helped calm him down to an extent. The fact they had brain activity meant that the whole brain dead thing may have not held as much credit as it did a few minutes ago. Maybe his friend wasn't going to die, which more than anything was a relief to him considering the prior panic that had taken hold of. Now that they could get a little closer to their friend, Pat buried his hands into his pockets as he felt his phone vibrate softly. A message though the question was who it was from. His mind came up with an idea but he didn't really worry about speaking it out loud while looking down at his friend. The sudden motion was enough to cause his heart rate to spike for a second as they seemed to latch onto Luke's arm.

Though the words themselves were strained, it sounded like they were saying something before bringing up Masters or something along those lines. That then reminded him of someone that Luke had targeted not so long ago and perhaps they were sore that someone had tried to kill them. Pat chewed on his lower lip, considering the implications while looking to Luke with a worried expression. If that was the case then Luke would likely not be safe for too long, but then again that came with messing with the wealthy. As soon as they had risen from their sleep, Matt fell back into it once again with Pat left slightly confused. Apparently their presence was something that was stressing him and anything that would keep their friend from waking up was something that he wanted to avoid. The events of the whole day were enough to put stress on him, indicated by a soft stabbing pain within his skull.

"Y...yeah." He said softly, though there wasn't much he could say within this situation. His heart was racing to the extent that it ached slightly, so all he could think of doing was leaving for now. There was always tomorrow. Maybe Matt's condition would improve but something told him that would not simply satisfy Luke. In a sense it wouldn't work for him either. Masters...what could he have meant by that? Pat thought to himself, brows furrowing while likely they were making their way out of the building. It was once they were outside and away from prying ears that he could make his assumption more well known. "We're both probably thinking this right now, but a certain Pharmaceuticals company is looking really suspicious right now."

With eyes directed to the sky, he took note of the lack of stars within LA. Not that he hadn't grown used to it by the time he had spent a year within the city of angels. Still, it was different from what he was sued to growing up with the sky being a painted canvas of glowing points. A sigh slipped out as his gaze turned towards Luke. "Knowing you, well whatever you're planning I want in on it."

Luke had found himself close to Matt once again. Luckily the woman roughly explained what was happening and hooked Matt up to something. It seemed like he was waking up, Luke just didn't expect it to happen so suddenly, or violently. Matt grabbed Luke's arm and pulled him close, hard. Quite odd for someone straight out of a coma to do such a thing, but the subject of concern was not his surprising strength. He mutter some words Luke barely caught.....Masters did this? Luke's eyes widened at that.....this really was his fault. If he hadn't went off trying to be a hero, his friend wouldn't be lying here in front of him, half dead.

".....I'm so sorry." Luke said, his eyes beginning to water. He was told to leave, nicely this time, and he and Pat left. The walk was pretty soundless, but in their minds their were thinking everything over. Something had to be done. This was Luke's doing......and he wasn't going to leave it unfixed. No, he was going whether he would die or not.

"I don't know Pat...... I would hate myself even worse if i killed you both...... But I'm not one to stop anyone from doing what they wish. If you want in, follow me." Luke said. He then called a cab, which would bring him and likely Pat to a truck stop just outside town. From there, Luke would walk about a half mile out into seemingly nowhere, but thats when he started to pull brush from a secluded mount, revealing a black Honda Prelude. Nothing special really, but it was quite nice for the price.

"This car has all we need. I couldn't use this car regularly...only when i did the whole vigilante business. So i keep it stashed here." Drifter said. Once all the brush was cleared it revealed the whole car, oddly without a scratch. Luke then would open the trunk, revealing his gear and several firearms, explosives, and body armor pieces. He would slip his gauntlets on, then some kevlar, then his suit. After which he tossed Pat a sawed off shotgun, vest, and mask.

"If you're serious about this, you have to be prepared to use that." Luke said, knowing Pat he probably wouldn't want to, but then again he said he was in. After grabbing a few spare weapons Drifter would get in and drive away, likely along with Pat. It wouldn't take long to get there, roughly fifteen nerve racking minutes. The car would stop in front of the large company building, and Luke would pull out his laptop, along with a small piece of equipment to extend his range.

"Here's the deal, I'm sending out a network sniffer. With how large this building is, the security system has to be wireless. All i have to do is drop the sniffer in between the hardware and the observation room, a man in the middle attack as it's called. This sniffer will capture the audio and video, then live stream it on a little website i whipped up, which will also archive it for later use. If Masters tries what he did to me again, then we will get it on camera and expose him. I honestly think he is a meta, so stay on guard." Luke said as he hammered away at the keyboard, executing his attack and setting off the buildings alarm system, with the highest threat level. However the breach would seem to come from the other side of the large building to the security guards. This way, they could make their way straight up to Travis' office, Luke staying connected to the system with his phone to further help them along.

And with that, they would get out, ready to kick some billionaire ass.

Well it appeared that they were going through with this, though all he could feel for the moment was a sort of hesitance. Going after someone as rich as Travis Masters was not something that he had originally planned to do at the start but then again this was more revenge. Nothing would stop him from getting that revenge, as pointless as it would likely be in the end. Thinking over what they would do, personally he had no idea but then again maybe Luke had something in mind as far as going about all of this. The fact that they didn't tell him not to was confirmation enough that maybe they had an idea they knew what they were doing. Where Luke lead him to was a vehicle, rather nice considering what her expected but then again assumptions were always likely to lead someone astray.

The half mile walk there was slightly tiring but then again that was more because of the fact that Pat had absolutely no stamina in retrospect. Part of him wondered what Travis Masters could do if they were a metahuman, likely something rather scary. Nervousness was mounting really, causing a dull ache within his chest that more than anything made thinking about this difficult. Luckily his friend knew what they were doing because he did not have a single clue what they would do, beyond of course likely killing someone tonight. A few things were thrown his way, Pat fumbling with the equipment for a few seconds before managing to catch everything. The shotgun was something that caught him off guard but then again he was expecting some manner of weapon in this. Already his mind began to think of the worst, as it usually did.

This weapon would have to be used and he needed to be prepared for the implications of using it. Next came slipping on the vest, something that took a little guesswork but soon enough things came together followed by the mask itself. Like all mask it felt uncomfortable, but then again it was a necessary thing to keep his identity a secret. From there on as a nerve wracking fifteen minutes while his mind continued to run over and over what could possibly happen while his heart thrummed within his chest. Once they stopped out before the building, Pat turned to take a good look at it. As expected it was a rather impressive looking building, with a rather ornate sculpture of something in the yard before it. He had ridden past the building a few times and a part of him wondered what it was, but now he knew exactly what it was.

Luke was doing their tech thing. What that something was Pat could not even begin to understand, but something told him that it was nothing good for Travis Masters at all. If they were behind this, well then they would be getting what they deserved. However he could not quite stop this uneasy feeling within his chest, something that made it feel as if he would vomit. As Luke explained what he was doing, only half of Pat's attention was upon that while the other half was on something else entirely. As soon as the plan would go into motion, he could hear the alarm itself setting off. That was when he began to better understand the plan being put into motion. Staying on guard however was something that he needed to do, if Travis truly was a metahuman.

Opening the door, he stepped out into the cold night air with a mind that was racing faster than he would have liked it to. Despite how sick he felt right now, Pat would go through with this either way. Fingers were clenched tightly around the weapons handle, knuckles turning pale from the pressure alone that he was placing upon it. From there all they needed to do was make their move, something told him it was now or never. "Sounds easy enough." Pat noted with a slightly shaky voice, looking down to his weapon. As light as it should have felt, something about the shotgun felt heavy. Regardless, something within him said that this needed to be done and so it would be done. So then they could actually get to the infiltration of the building, considering that likely the security would be dealing with whatever it was they thought was going on elsewhere.

Upon stepping through the entrance they would find that the building itself had a certain almost unnatural sterile atmosphere about it. Just looking around gave him an uneasy feeling. Apparently they needed to go up a floor to actually reach Travis' office, meaning that they would need to find a flight of stairs to do just that. Luckily finding a sign that directed them towards that was easy enough and soon enough they were be ascending the flight until they were on the second floor of the building. Much like the first, save for the presence of a few offices with a sign directing them. Hazel eyes darted about in the fluorescently lit hallway as they fell upon the wooden doors that stood between them and their target. Despite his hesitance, there was no room for that and so they would need to make their move now. Taking the self given lead, he approached the door and with a kick it would fly open.

Apparently it wasn't closed very well. With the gun pointed his eyes scanned the room to fall upon a person within it, settled behind the desk with a pair of spectacles on. They weren't....exactly who they were looking for really. This can't be. He thought to himself as the sick feeling began to increase.

"Is this...some kind of robbery?" Christopher Masters questions seemingly surprised by the sudden gun pointed in his direction.

It only took a few seconds for them to run into trouble, though it was minimal. One of the security guards seemed to hang back, likely to save his skin, that or to hog the doughnuts he was cramming down his throat. Either way, he hit the floor after Luke shot a taser dart into his neck. Yeah it was activating his pain receptors and likely hurt like all hell, but he wouldn't die or anything. After that, all it took was a trip up the stairs and they arrived at Travis' office, Pat taking the lead and kicking the door down, surprisingly. They didn't find Travis, no, they found someone Luke was familiar with. Christopher Masters. Thing about it was though, Luke knew Alpha wasn't here. This had been the plan all along.

"Not exactly, Christopher." Luke said before lifting his hand, firing out a stream of taser darts. These darts would of course activate all the males pain receptors if he was hit, but it was likely better to take the darts then evade. Just as Drifter did this, he tossed out two sticks of plastic explosive with his other hand on either side of Chris' desk, then armed a detonator, ready to smoke him out.

The time between them breaking on and Luke making their move was a short one, but then again it was just enough really. Despite the fact that the darts had made their contact, things from there went rather...blank. The next thing Pat knew there was a loud bang as the gun itself had gone off and a sickeningly dark color splattered across the wall. Behind the mask was more an expression of shock than anything else, as he took notice of the fact that he had fired off into them. A dark color soaked into their shirt as their body itself fell noisily into the desk before thumping against the floor. The problem with this whole scenario was the fact that he didn't really remember willfully pulling the trigger, just that the next thing he knew there was now a dead body.

For a moment he felt as if he would vomit, and in a sense that was the case. The shotgun itself clattered to the ground, falling from fingers that had grown numb. His eyes focused upon the slowly growing pool of blood across the floor, and how dark it was.

Ok, well, that was not exactly a memorable death, but then again it was unexpected, both IC and OOC. Drifter slowly turned to Pat, a look of multiple emotions on his face. Firstly....what the fuck? Pat was supposed to be the moral compass, a broken one yes but one none the less. And this guy was supposed to give them information. Now they had nothing, absolutely nothing. They wouldn't find out Travis' powers, if he was involved in Matt getting blown up, or any other secrets he had.

"WHAT THE FLYING FUCK DID YOU DO? I didn't come here to kill Christopher Masters, i came here for infomation. Now thats all screwed the fuck up!" Luke said, running up and kicking the desk over onto the now slumped over body. Then, he started pacing.

"I...i..." He stuttered for a moment, more than anything shocked by what had happened. He didn't remember pulling any triggers, just that by the time he was aware of what was happening things had already transpired. "I....I don't know what happened." His voice was strained, as if he were on the verge of crying. It shouldn't have happened like this but then again that was what happened. Now someone was dead, and he was the one that had killed them. The implications within itself was a haunting one, not quite an easy thing to just get over. Still, standing around would get them nowhere when likely they would get arrested due to the whole shooting someone thing. It was either run or prison, and he did not like the prospect of prison as much as it was likely deserved. A nervous sweat had begun to break out, meaning that now they had no lead and nowhere to go beyond the fact that it had to be out of here.

"We need to get out of here...now." He was vaguely aware of the pain within his arm, something that stung but then again it came with firing off a gun he had no idea how to really fire. Pat noted kneeling down and lifting the gun up, before looking to Luke who likely understood that they really needed to do that more than anything. The problem being that they could not just simply walk out the way that they had come. If the staff was worth anything they would be on their way back by now to investigate the shooting, meaning that they would need to find some other way out or continue the killing spree. The fact his mind even conceived something like that alone was harrowing enough as it was.

With eyes turned towards the only door leading into the room, he let out a haggard sigh. It was now or never really, and now was the only real decision that he could rightfully make. There was time to think over what he had done, but now was the time to do so. Likely Luke would be following and so he made the run. There had to be another exit, at least that was what he had seen while walking through the second floor. A secondary staircase, and so that was where he ended up running. The door was unlocked, making getting through even easier as the lights appeared to turn on as soon as the door opening. For a moment his mind leapt to someone being in there but no one appeared so he continued. If he wanted to get yelled at, there was time for that later when they weren't in potential shit.

The stairs from there would lead to a lot in the back of the building, meaning they would just need to run around and then the driving away portion. Already his legs were burning, but that was just a physical pain that he would have to get over.

Luke was pissed.....that much could be seen. He didn't know what was going on with his friend, but then again considering what happened to him when he went after Masters.....he could believe something odd happened. That didn't calm the fire in his stomach though. He was angry about everything, at everything, mostly himself for dragging Matt and now Pat into this. They we're both now killers, and deserved jail, but.....that didn't mean he was going to just s tee and there.

So when Pat took off running, Drifter followed. He likely could have staged a better escape then just "run for an exit" but it seemed to work, mostly because all the building security we're behind them. He could hear the shock in their voice, and the urgency for pursuit as he bolted down the halls, catching up to Pat quite quickly. But eventually, the tension would fade and they would be back in his car, screeching away before either of them even fully got in.

They would drive' Luke not saying anything and with a smear on his face. He looked like if you poked him he would go off, and that was likely true. But he would spare his friend the bitch session and just suppress his sizable temper like he always used to.