Looking For Heroes for Hire (Trey plus one)

DETROIT

A job in that part of Urban America. Money just to show up. Tough looking driver and a fresh faced looking secretary to entertain their questions. A black sedan that brings them to the office building, the lone shiny building in a tough dilapidated neighborhood. It was so early in the morning the cubicles were still empty, the important looking person having a meeting with his heroes for hire in a conference room as he looked out the window.

Diana was first to arrive, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Been a long time since she'd been on a job such as these. She didn't take them anymore, but the customer was insistent that this would be different. She was dressed in her "dark" outfit, black leather, black tank top, black boots, black pants- and a black domino mask.

"Deus." She recognized that gel hardened hair that tapered to a point. Diana pulls herself a chair and sits down, her sword on the table.

"Blood Sword! You've left the mercenary business I hear." He turned around in his big executive chair, a with a big grin on his face, as well as a cross scar.

"Kicked out is more like it." Diana leaned back. The conference room chairs were always comfy.

"Really? you had the potential to be really good... Someone your age. Like how we did Jackson." He said, a bit patronizing.

Diana refused to answer any further about the situation, giving the eccentric employer silence.

Another tall, well dressed English gentleman lifted the lid off the tray on the push cart. "Had breakfast yet, miss Blood Sword?" Beneath were neat rows of hashbrowns, pancakes and assorted breakfast sandwiches from the local burger joint. Condiments were available in bottle form.

"Well, you know what I like Freddie." Diana thanks the butler and looks over the choices.

"I try, miss Sword." Diana grabs a couple of the wrapped sandwiches- still warm- and a hashbrown, and a large, piping hot coffee.

"You're not going in alone. This is bigger than you've dealt with before. And the target knows you. That's why we're waiting for a couple of others."

"No big deal." Diana said, mixing her coffee with cream and sugar.

A mercenary job. Well, that was new. Manifold almost never acted during the day, but he received an invitation while in Detroit. He's alter ego came here to meet some big-shot car makers, and he though he could make time to investigate the offer between two meetings. The whole thing had an uneasy feeling about it. Manifold felt silly, riding the elevator in his costume, a full body black suit that covered even his head. Glowing lines went down the garb, like a stylized grid.

Manifold went where he was sent by the secretary, and entered the conference room. He sat, leaned on his side, and said in his most mocking voice:

"Well, that's a novel way to get a hero. 1-800-I-NEED-HELP was out of order?"

"Boss~ here's the hero." The doll faced, catwalk strutting barbie secretary (where do these rich guys get those?) ushered Manifold into the office, gave him a slight smile and wished him good luck.

"Good, good! Welcome. I'm Deus. I own this building. Hard to find real up and coming heroes you see. You ate yet? Help yourself to whatever you like."
The large, athletic looking CEO was trying hard to come off as being likable and relatable.

Frederick the Butler again lifts the lid off the food tray for Manifold, showing him the selection of foods. "Donuts are also on their way in five minutes."

"So. You're a hero huh? What do you do? I'm sending you into a real dangerous situation, and I wanna know you'll survive walking through the front door! no sir, that'd be bad for everyone's business." Deus asked, leaning back into his chair.

Diana meanwhile, kept to herself and her sandwich. The sword on her table would show her to be a fellow hero Manifold would be working with.

Manifold smiled under his mask. Life was so dull in his normal life, he couldn't pass the opportunity of some theatrics. He rose from his seat and stretched.

"Well, you could say I am a master ventriloquist."

The lines on his costume turned blue, and five identical copies of Manifold appeared besides him. Two of them rose their masks enough to free their mouth. One of those two served himself a  glass of water while the other grabbed a handful of crackers. They then all sat down in different seats, one drinking, one eating.

"You see? I can eat, drink, and talk at the same time!"

Two Manifolds put their hands between their heads, quite satisfied with their parlor trick. Then his tone became firm and calm. Manifold seemed to have a great control over his voice and demeanor.

"You don't have to try to impress me. You can't. I meet richer and more powerful men than you in my non-heroic work. I can't break stones with my fists, but I can fight, and I can think. That's all a hero needs. You can call me Manifold." He turned his head toward the woman besides him, and his voice returned to a joking tone. "You know chérie, swords kill people, and good girls don't kill people. Will you tell me you've been a bad girl?"

"Amazing. Amazing! Metahuman powers are always so unpredictable. Guess I can send you after all. Wouldn't be a hero if you didn't know what you were doing?" Deus applauds, sounding like a complete greenhorn around metahuman powers. Of course, he was just laying it on real thick.

"Not really tryin' to impress you. I just want to be sure you can handle the job. See, miss Sword here has a good resume for the job. Do you have any questions about it?"

And then Manifold had to talk to Diana.

"Ooooh. You got balls, kid. You. Got. Balls." Was all Deus could say to Manifold after he laid down the hammer.

Diana stopped sipping her coffee when Manifold talked to him. Calmly she sets it aside. She calmly holds the sword by the sheathe.

"That's a common misconception actually. It's not swords that kill people. Swords are inanimate objects-" She began to explain.

The air in the office was thick with silent tension, but for those moments nothing seemed to happen, save for a few flashes of light.

"-People kill people." Diana sheathes the sword again, and when she does, the cracker and the glass she cut - drawn the blade, cut twice, and sheathed in less than the blink of an eye- neatly in two catch up, and fall apart in Manifold's clones's hands.

Panzer didn’t like Detroit all that much. The air here smelled really bad, and the people were significantly less friendly than the people from his hometown. And he was from New York, so that was quite the statement. Still, he was about to take a very good paying job, so it was worth getting called names he wouldn’t say to his grandmother.

He wore his standard black hoodie, and black jeans with dark grey boots.His hoodie was unzipped revealing a white thermal shirt. His mask, tied around his head, was his only indicator that he wasn’t just a regular person.

The tall dark skinned man, trailed behind the attractive blonde secretary who was leading him to the meeting place, having a hard time keeping his eyes up as he did so. He had gotten off the plane, not even two hours ago, and thought the jet lag still lingered on him, the nice sedan ride from the tough looking driver named Joe, had relieved the feeling.

Passing through the poor slum like area, Panzer frowned a bit at the sights of kids in need, and men passing off drugs. He heaved a sigh, as the driver pulled into the parking lot of the lone shiny building. Getting out himself, he gave Joe a fist bump and wished him good luck with his kids. Then, him and the secretary walked into the building, and walked passed the cubicles, which Jerome stared at always thinking those weren’t real.

As the secretary gestured to the room, and stood to the side of the door, Jerome stopped putting an arm above the area next to the woman, and giving her a sly grin, as he leaned a bit on the suspended arm.

“Hey if you’re not doing anything later, do you think we could-” he paused mid-request as the woman flashed her left hand at him revealing a marriage ring. “Sorry,” Panzer said covering his embarrassment, with a grin as he turned and moved into the conference room.

He kept his head down, as he sat down between one of the Manifolds, and Diana. He shook his head, staring at the table, not at all noticing any of the other occupants. The silent atmosphere betrayed just how many people were in the room.

As the new arrivant sat down, Manifold backed up, and five of his copies vanished, leaving only one behind. His costume's lines returned to purple, and the hero let out a sigh of relief before talking.

"I...will take that as a yes on the bad girl thing." Manifold was somewhat afraid of the woman, but his voice didn't reveal it. He turned to the other man in a mask. "Hey there, I'm Manifold. Look out for cutlery-girl here. You will end up Bar-Mitzvahed if you bad-mouth her sword."

He took the two pieces of glass in his hands. "I sure hope this will come out of her paycheck." then placed them on the table. Manifold look at Deus with interest.

"So are we all here? Should we go around the table, presenting ourselves, showing our powers out, like on the first day of school? Or should we go straight to the details of the job? We could also talk money first, or anything else really, as long as it doesn't involve slashing objects going my way."

He winked at Diana, hoping his debonair attitude wouldn't rub her the wrong way.

Deus welcomes Panzer and gives him the same kind of welcome, offers him some donuts, coffee, hashbrowns and McMuffins. Then he asks what he can do, and even asks him how he is, before offered a seat finally beside the all-black swordsman lady.

"You know Mister Manifold, that would make things alot easier. Well then. Right to business." He affirmed his joking opinion as legitimately helpful.

He walked over to one of the up until now opaque windows. He presses a button and he instantly gets a view of the Detroit downtown. As if that wasn't enough, he taps the screen and zooms in on a specific building.

"You see this apartment, about 30 floors high in that neighborhood? It has a  laboratory that produces meta-drugs. It also houses an army of thugs and gangs, all hungry to get a piece of superpower in a syringe. Worst of all there's civilians living in the building, who can't go anywhere else. Yes sir, for a quarter of a million dollars each, I want you three to put a stop to whoever's in charge. For the good of the city."

He zooms out and looks at his trio of heroes. "What do you say?"

Diana leaned back in her seat, feet on the table. "Let's get the show on the road."

Panzer picked his head up at the man’s offering of food. He shook his head quickly, looking down at his phone, and ignoring the man’s inquiry regarding his powers. He continued to look down through the opening details. He was indeed listening completely, but the game he was playing, made it look as though he weren’t. Finally, he began to pay full attention, when the man mentioned their pay. His phone nearly fell out of his hand.

“Did you just say a quarter million? Holy shit… I’ve never even seen that much money at once.” He wasn’t entirely sure what he’d do with all that money, but many ideas were forming in his mind, most of which involved a video games, and not having to deal with bills for months. A big grin came over his face.

“Damn. Aight, let’s get moving,” he said grinning as he moved to stand up tall, and begin his exit of the room, before pausing and looking around. “Wait….weren’t there more people in here or…?” A confused look came over his face as he scanned the room for a moment, before he shrugged and continued toward the exit.

He never even bothered to give his name.

Manifold was amused by Panzer's enthusiasm about the money. He stood up, following the lead of the two mercenaries. The job seemed simple enough, but it involved too much moving parts for Peter to be perfectly at ease with the plan. Or lack thereof. He spoke to Deus, while slowly walking toward the hallway:

"I don't need the money. I don't want the money. Send my share to a nonprofit based in Detroit. Anyone will do." He stoped at the door and put his hand on the door frame, admiring the quality of the wood. "And Deus," he said, solemnly, without looking at the man. "If you are unclean in this, I will be back for you."

He then proceeded behind the other masked man, and tried to get his attention. "Hey buddy, didn't catch you name there. Maybe we should trade a few words before fighting alongside each other?" He waved his hand at the secretary, while he continued talking. "You know, I wouldn't mind befriending you since the samurai girl already hates me."

He then raised his voice, to be sure she could hear him. "I don't know why thought, I like her. And her sword. In fact, I love all swords."

"Nope. Just us three." Diana reassures Panzer, speaking in a tone that somehow suggested it was two too many for the job. She stuffs her rubbish into the coffee cup and chucks it into the rubbish bin.

Deus let out a chuckle at Manifold's accusation. He keeps totally calm and straight faced through it all.  "Suuuure. Sheila is gonna brief you on the way. I just wanted to know that you're onboard. Good luck now, y'hear? Bye!"

Deus closes the conference door behind the trio, with Sheila the blonde secretary awaited them. She was occupied with tapping her tablet/clipboard. She turns it off with a snappy gesture.

"This way gentlemen, lady." She leads them to the express elevator to the garage. The black sedan that took them here was also going to take them to the apartment.

GARAGE

"He's definitely getting us to clean up his mess. Well, it doesn't matter- alot of people still live at that apartment, they shouldn't be involved in all this." Diana would offer her two cents on the issue before they got into the car.

Sheila sat beside the trio with her handy tablet in hand. The driver starts the car and begins heading into downtown Detroit. "Are we ready to begin then? Once we drop you off outside the apartment, you'll be on your own. The man in charge of things is Deacon Darkheart, an ideological extremist who has formed a cult following. Once he is... removed from the premises, all operations will cease." She gives the trio her tablet to see the picture of the man they were after, an aging man with a graying beard and wild hair. He wore a blazer and had a bare chest beneath, with a large cross burned across his chest.

Panzer took note of the woman’s tone and rolled his eyes, before making his way to the exit. He hated working in groups, even back when he was a student, he despised the idea of needing to rely on others. Life was so much simpler when you only had your own limitations to worry about.

As he walked, he played games on his phone. It was one of those time wasting games that was meant to be more of a chore, than fun, but at least it kept him occupied.

He rolled his eyes yet again at the new guy’s offer of a conversation. He sighed aloud, before replying in a bored voice, “You didn’t get my name, cause I didn’t give it, dawg. You want some words to trade? Here’s eleven of ‘em. Don’t get in my way, cause if you do, you’re dead.” Panzer was in no way shape or form implying that he would kill the man, but he was aware of how dangerous he could be to the people around him when using his powers. He never even bothered to look at the man as they spoke, before he got into the car, and took his seat.

Unfortunately for Panzer, life seemed determined to keep him from being happy. Just then, his phone died without warning. “Aw fuck,” he muttered with a sigh, as the blonde secretary continued on with her description of the man in charge. Panzer’s eyes darted to the man, before he looked to his “team” and actually appraised them. He then folded his arms, and leaned his head back, closing his eyes and giving off a pretense of trying to fall asleep. Eventually, some minor snoring, would be heard throughout the car, obviously coming from where Panzer was sitting.