Athwart History (Closed)

[Obuzeti]

"There is nothing you can say," Elias murmurs, voice quiet, "That will turn me upon you. Nothing that will disgust or repulse me. You are a strong woman, Marie, and strength does not arise from peace. You must first know misery. Whatever face you show me, Marie, I know that pain wrought it. You bathe in it. And there is no crime you can commit that justifies how long you're lurked down here, unable to forgive yourself for survival."

His hand gently alights over hers again - no squeezing, no pressure. Just touch.

"You did not choose to go forward without them," Elias says, and though his words are soft they come down like a judge passing a verdict: and that verdict is innocence. "You have put a price on no life but your own. I tell you now what I will struggle with all of my days: you must forgive the dead for dying, and the living for survival."

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

He's still there. He continues to talk, low and quiet-trying to draw her out into the open, out of what little is holding her together-further to the end of that cracking, precarious branch. Touches her again. It burns, and she doesn't understand how he can't somehow sense just how awful she really was.

She nearly retracts her hand, but she's still frozen in place, death grip on each wheel as if they were on a steep incline, still watching him as if he were dangerous.

"Came here to fight. Maintain...framework." For heroes. For him. Something outside of that damned Tower and the son of a bitch snake in charge of it. But that wasn't the full reason, and here he was calling her on it instead of leaving her to her hate and disgust and bare minimum existence in this hole, this prison. Her living death, since she had had the gall not to bleed out or drown.

He had said he didn't want her to be just a gun in his hand, but that was all she deserved to be. Functional for this purpose and this purpose only.

All she can stand.

"Why." It's terse but weakly so, miles from any sort of recognizable plea-but for Marie, the weakness to it was notable. It was taking everything she had to manage that much. "Why are you doing this."

Angry with the dead?

With Sam?

She could never be angry with Sam. Especially not now.

She draws and expels air but her chest barely moves, just as contracted, frozen as the rest of her.

"Didn't just survive." The words are thick. There's something rising beneath that cracking shield. She can feel it in her chest as she tries to steel herself against it, strains the bottom of the barrel willpower that had kept it at bay. No, no, she can't do this, she can't-she rips her eyes away, a frantic glance around the room but the rage doesn't come, no enemies present themselves to be ravaged-too late, it's too late- "Failed."

The pieces of that cracked and battered shield finally shatter-Protagonist -shatters- and in her place was a broken, crippled creature eight long years in the making, crumpling inward as her hands come to her head, and thread through and pull chopped, uneven curls from the bun they'd been captured in, a convulsion deep in her chest and a choked sob she bites back on, can't control.

"Didn't go to fight, to martyr myself with heroes-". The words are a rush, some desperate, pent up secret held for eight solid, silent years, eating away at what was left of her soul and burning what had been left of her heart, compressed and ignored while she did everything possible to forget a human being even existed beneath the vigilante.

She hadn't told Lana even in the face of the Atlantean woman's accusations, her hurt and furious ire at her seeming lack of grief, what she hadn't told -anyone- because she'd come down here to fucking die.

"I went there to get my team. I went to get -Sam-."

 

[Obuzeti]

Elias looks at Marie for a long moment, then decides to hell with it all and leans in to simply wrap his arms around both Marie and the wheelchair, since it's inconveniently in the way. "If your grandest sin is love for another," he says, faintly fond, "Then I am proud to have you as one of mine."

He takes a breath and exhales. "I understand what you mean," he says, "You came to save Sam, and no one else. You feel like you failed us in that, like you don't deserve to call yourself a hero. But understand that even in your darkest hour, your first thought was to save another. Not spit in Rahab's eye, not run for your own life. To save someone else. You think I can condemn that?"

Elias shrugs, the movement soft. "We were all just trying to save each other, at the end. You became a hero in the first place because you couldn't just stand by. I refuse to castigate you for deciding, at the end of all things, that nothing was not enough for you. Neither should it be now."

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

Marie tries to push him away, but she’s shaking too much, there’s no strength in her without the anger that had carried her through so much bullshit. Instead her hand is just flat against his chest before balling that part of his shirt up in her fist so it’d stop shaking.

It doesn’t work.

“Projecting.” Her voice is strange without the gruff terseness, the impassiveness. Strained and laden with emotion, with struggle. “Not a hero. Was never a hero. Not like you. Not like Sam. No shining beacon of anything.” This isn't a self depreciating, dogging herself statement. It was the absolute and untarnished truth. She did not feel bad about it. She did not think there was any changing her. Her hatred and her rage, her violent impulses-she knows what she is. She knows. And whether he did or not doesn’t matter-his approval did not matter-because she was the only information operation aside from Cid. There was no where else go, and she can't change or hide from what she is.

She can almost draw strength in this. Scrape together the anger again.

“Didn’t take up the cloak to build, didn’t set out to heal Samson. I went out to punish the scum. I went out because this cesspit took everything from me, and my blood and my ugly demanded vengeance. Any good that came out of it, any semblance of heroism was a side casualty I have never once, ever, looked at and felt anything about.”

And her work with the Front? She had been there because of Sam. She had excused it at the time as necessary-if she was useful to the heroes, they wouldn’t interfere with her terrorizing, ruthless actions in Samson. But really, it had been Sam. It had probably always been Sam. She only ever willingly did 'good' at the bidding of a saint.

Her work now? She was too crippled to go out and fight anymore. Reduced to mortal flesh containing a thirsting wrath. She despises herself for it. She hates that she needs to lash out through others.

But she can’t stop. She doesn’t know why she doesn’t stop. Why she hadn’t just given up and drowned in that jet, why she hadn’t just blown her fucking brains out one of the thousands of nights she’d spent down here cataloging data for heroes that hadn’t seemed to be coming. Eight years. Eight years of nothing. But hadn't stopped. She had to hurt the scum somehow.

It doesn't matter if he knows it. Even that bit of ugliness was only scraping the surface.

“Went there to retrieve her or die trying. Failed both accounts. Failure.”

Her ravaged legs were as harsh a reminder as ever. But that wasn’t really it, was it? That’s not entirely why she’s so broken, what had been eating at her for so very long.

“But not before failing her period. Not before the Meld.” Melding, Invincibelle’s defining, most powerful ability. Samantha could tap into the mind of another and infiltrate their very psyche, explore the shape of any mind. Unlike her brother, she did so with a light, careful hand-and also unlike her brother, was able to do it from short distances rather than direct contact, her powers focused and enhanced through her grandmother’s cameo pendant. She could also broadcast her own thoughts and feelings, her own state of being into the mind of another. She could do subtly, make them believe their thoughts were their own. She could also do it brash and powerful, leave them dizzy. She never took it further than that. She was no sadist. Too gentle, too good.

She had done it to Marie on that first meeting-and had been forced to swear never to do so again. It made the heroine’s love all the more perplexing. What had she seen? What could she have possibly seen?

“At the end, at her death-everything, in my head, all of it-she was afraid, she was in pain, and all she could think to do was desperately try to tell me she loved me.”

"What good was I? What comfort, what anything? She had loved me, and I was too busy and too wrathful to notice or maybe even give a damn until it broke the pieces of my heart I didn't even know were there. She was afraid, and I said nothing. I did nothing to help her, and then I didn't even have the decency to fucking die."

She's shit, she's complete and utter shit, did nothing but take, take, take-she's taking right now! She's telling him things that don't matter, that made no sense to share-all she needs to be is Protagonist, all she can stand to be had been Protagonist, and he'd shattered her defenses, reduced her to, made her-

Human again.

Sam was dead. Sam was dead.

For the first time since she was a very little girl, Marie burst into tears.

"She was so afraid Elias, and I couldn't help her, I couldn't save her, I couldn't comfort her because all I have to offer, all I've ever had to offer is my rage."

 

[Obuzeti]

Elias is silent. This is the heart of Marie's pain, the screaming center behind the walls which define her - personal failure, the only person she'd ever allowed in. He sighs and gathers her up. For once, it's not a thing to be talked about, or soothed. Instead, he merely holds Marie as she finally, finally cries, the pain of decades leaking through. He lifts his arm and slides it around her back properly instead of around the chair, and leans over to secure her in his grasp - probably the first full hug she's had in -

How long? It doesn't matter.

"In the end, all we want is what's better for the people we love. Even you," Elias says, soft. "And even if you can't say it, you didn't give up on her. If she Melded with you, then she knew what was in your heart."

He doesn't know, really. Didn't have time to get to know Sam, who ran her own team with the assurance and easy personality he'd had to work so hard to build up. But anyone can guess at the motives of the dead for as long as they like.

For now, Marie is hurting.

"There was once more to you," he says, soothing and gentle. "And there will be once again. This too will pass. This too will pass."

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

The Next Day

Marie wakes up.

She’s a little bleary eyed but actually rested, for once. That dull headache and the usual sting to the edges of her eyes absent.

Jasper was curled up beside her, actually laying down for once-curled in with her head turned upside down, warm against her side. She’s not sure how she’d slept through that. It probably didn’t say good things about her alertness.

She sits up, careful not to disturb the cat-and catches sight of Elias. She has no idea what time it is. She honestly doesn’t care-she’s gone eight years without sleeping any sort of sane schedule. This one she had needed.

“You’re still here.” She runs a hand through her hair and glances back down the cat. The choppy, hacked off curls are just short of her shoulders, ragged and uneven. She could probably stand to shorten them all to a uniform length. It can’t be a very good look, not that it matters.

She feels...different. It’s heavy and uncomfortable around her shoulders, yet vaguely familiar-like an ill fitting winter jacket that had gone unused for years. Odd, forgotten things in the pockets. Like the stray thought about her hair.

Or this cat curled up next to her.

Marie hesitates a long moment-and then actually touches the animal, a single stroke down her side. The cat murrs agreeably and stretches out her back feet, claws extended-before she twisted around and sat prettily as ever, her tail curling around her legs and those green eyes staring up at her.

“...I guess she’s not really mangy.”

The fur was sleek and clean, an inky black color that caught the sheen of the monitors and blended into the dark reaches of her lair the rare times she wasn’t in view. In all honesty, she was unobtrusive-she was aware of it around, but it didn’t bother her with much. She absently reached for the black strap hanging from the rafter-but her chair was missing.

She vaguely recalls being carried to the cot. She’s not about to try talking about how she'd bawled her eyes out into his shirt-that shit had never happened. Still though, he was still here. She’s not sure why that mattered, either. She twists to look for it, finds it pushed just behind her at the head of the cot, an easy enough task to maneuver it around. Uses the strap to haul herself into the uncomfortable chair, then she undid the brakes on each wheel and gave a sharp push backwards-gritting her teeth as her legs dragged off the cot and onto the steel foot rests, repressing a curse at the sharp agony of it.

Jasper meows.

Yeah, the shit hurts.

"What time is it?"

 

[Obuzeti]

Elias stirs next to her, bones popping as he resumes mobility from his vigil. "Yes," he confirms without elaboration, stretching to a symphony of creaks. "It's eight P.M. You slept for six and a half hours."

He turns and glances Marie over, as she swings herself into the wheelchair. Internally satisfied by something that he saw, he stood and ambled over to the side, where a breakfast platter of more of that fresh fruit and juice had been compiled, and then he sets it on the workshop table beside them and steals an apple for himself. He opens his mouth, but not to bite it - pauses - and recalculates his sentence. It's an odd appearance for a man that always charges right into whatever he's got to say.

"Good to have you back," is what Elias decides to say, and then takes a bite of the apple. The crunch is crisp and clean. "Jasper, remember? We can't just call it the animal. That's crude."

He's not precisely pleased with himself, but there is a certain peace about him that wasn't there before; a restfulness that comes after satisfaction. He considers bringing up the results of the computer scan, which had concluded during the night, and decides to let it wait until Marie asks about it. Aside from that, he just kind of hovers nearby as per usual.

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

Unlike the disgust and rage inducing five hour nap, this information doesn’t inspire much of anything. She can’t decide if that’s a good or a bad thing-she doesn’t want to lose focus, but in all honesty-a lot of her processes could perhaps be automated, if she was willing to relinquish direct and absolute control over them. “That’s the longest I’ve slept in seven years.”

She’d come home from the hospital more dead than alive. There’d been more sleep then-mostly because she’d been too weak for such a brutal schedule, in too much pain to always work through it.

"Good to have you back,"

She’s a hell of a lot less certain, but it’d probably make being in her vicinity easier for him. Wasn’t saying much, though. She listens to him make noise about his cat. She’s dead certain the cat doesn’t give a damn what she calls it, it’s a freaking cat-but she’d call it what he named it, at least in front of him.

She casts Jasper a glance. The cat half closed her eyes, then widened them again. She doesn’t know why the hell it does that at her all the time.

She moves to see what the laptop has for them. She’s still who she is, after all.

He’s set up a platter of fruit. He really does just want to mother everyone, doesn’t he? Well, that wasn’t something she needed. “The protein shakes have everything the physical body needs.” She says sardonically. “I’m not starving down here. That’d be too inconvenient.”

Despite this, Marie actually picks up a grape. Without looking at it she pops it into her mouth while she reads the scrolling data, tagging certain lines as she briefly notes them-they’d funnel down into a report she could better utilize after. Her draconian schedule was shot, but that barely registers as a problem.

The piece of fruit has more flavor than anything she’s ingested since she’d retreated down here was something to chew rather than drink-she has no idea how her system would handle it. It tastes sour.

Hn.

"There's nothing here. Just manufacturer's data." She's vaguely annoyed by this-but she does manage to pull an IP Address. She highlights the series of numbers, then rolls away from the table and to her computer console. Jasper jumps up onto it from the back, taking her usual position of vigilance out of reach and out of the way. Marie taps the number into the keyboard, having memorized it instantly.

The various data streaming monitors again flicker to show pieces of a larger display-a map with two current pinned locations-one for the former base of Fyre Myst where she had picked up the digital signature that had given up the empty relay station in the first place-the other pin.

She taps a key and more pins began to pop up, thin lines connecting them-it's a cluttered smorgasbord. Marie seems to see something in it to study, however. Her brain works, pulling up another confusing chaos of a map on a side monitor.

There's a pinging noise, the tablet lights up-Marie doesn't even glance to it. "Jenna must have just left the Tower." Cid had his own defensive tech blocking signals in that place-the tracking bug in Jenna's wrist watch disappeared off the map only inside of it and in her own lair. The alert was it coming back online.

Some part of her relaxes minutely. She had not been bluffing-if Cid really DID try to hold the girl a second time, she would go get her. "Probably heading out on patrol." That tended to be her pattern around this time of night, in South Bend.

Certainly dedicated.

 

[Obuzeti]

Elias shakes his head. "Protein shakes are really shitty on fiber," he says, "Which has probably been messing up your digestion for ages. There's also a fair amount of amino acids you're not getting, unless you're mixing in linseed oil or soy, which I honestly kind of doubt."

He offers up a wry smile. "I, uh, picked up a bachelor's in nutrition over the last decade. Didn't have much else to do, decided I may as well learn to professionally cook. Thought it'd be useful."

To Elias's surprise he had already picked up on a good deal of the basics: metahumans have radically different needs from ordinary humans, and he'd been feeding most of the League on the regular. Jenna alone existed on somewhere north of eight times a normal human's caloric intake, with a higher-than-normal need for thyamine, which aided the ATP conversion process for producing usable energy. He's not enough of a chemist or biologist to guess exactly what's happening, but her body produces and consumes energy at a greatly advanced rate, that much is clear.

He can't make heads or tails of the board, either, so he just shrugs. "They've got a relay race going, seems like. Big circle of computers all pointing arrows at each other. Has to be something in the middle keeping it all spinning but I wouldn't be able to tell you what or where."

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

“Only needed maintenance, not necessarily good health.” Marie responds, eyes narrowing a moment as she looks at both of the radically chaotic maps. She sees something here, and it’s something she can use-she thinks. It’d take her a minute, though.

“Maybe not.” She responds, and they were unnecessary words to say-but she says them. It might not be the worst thing, noise. “But I can, eventually. This was a better lead than I thought.” A nod-and then pause.

“...thank you.” That was what a normal person would say, right? He had gone and retrieved it immediately. Something to be said for that. She reflects back on the fact he’d taken college classes in nutrition of all things, not quite sure what to make of that. She turns her eyes on him a moment. Hobbies.

Well, even she used to go home in the morning and watch a western every once in a while. At least his hobby had some sort of use. “Good to have dual purpose.”

It's easier now, for some reason. The talking. She's never been much for it, but at least it wasn't grating on her nerves as bad, causing intense, impatient irritation.

 

[Obuzeti]

"To maintain something is merely to prevent further disrepair," Elias replies, giving Marie the side eye and a faint, challenging smile. "That's just sloppy workmanship."

He shrugs, though, and lets the challenge go. "Well, feeding people was the first thing I figured out how to do at the start of everything. It made people happy, and it was so immediate. They ate good food, and were happy. Problem and solution. It's always had a certain magic for me because of that; my first proof that I could do more than, y'know, punch things."

Elias makes a limp, flapping gesture at that last, which is poor description indeed of what he spent his earliest days doing to criminals in his way.

" . . . Anyways. I'm your long arm of the law, these days. You see something out of whack, phone me up and I'll go beat it into pieces or abduct it for you. I'm just as grateful for a decent direction to go in, honestly. Too used to being dumb muscle, y'know, the poster boy."

He flexes and does one of the famous poster poses: chin up, chest wide, one boot raised and planted on rubble, fist up high. It's a little more difficult without something to put his boot on though and he wobbles a little bit.

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

"To maintain something is merely to prevent further disrepair."

Marie dryly considers this as she flicks through windows and endlessly scrolling data streams, prioritizing. He wasn't wrong. She's been bare minimum existing while fighting this shadow war for...a long time. She dismisses the thought. It really didn't matter, even now.

He's still there and talking, and Marie lets him because it was the least she could fucking do. The idea of him deserving more than a purpose idly floats by-not for the first time, and now with the added considerations of what he had said about -her- after Lana's visit.

Guns in hands...

Yes, he can come here and talk at her. She's not any good for it, but if he was welcome to her lair he might as well be welcome to talk to the things in it. Besides-he translates wanting to make people happy into a simple problem solution format, and that Marie understands, if not the previous motives for it. She may not a people person, but she IS a problem solver. One with a limited tool set, but still.

He attempts to pull one of those ridiculous P.R. poses, and Marie just shakes her head. She's always hated everything of that, but better that than the lot of them being chased down or something. Being a public enemy could be inconvienent-she knows this first hand. Mostly, he was being...silly. Something. She can't decide what to think about him doing so when she and Jasper were his only audience.

Might just be inherent to him. Maybe stress relief. Her company can't be easy on him, even if she is easing into personhood again.

Hn.

"Wasn't waiting on your strength." Not even his being poster boy for the League. It was convienent, sure-but not why. "The cause isn't always compelling enough. Conflicting egos, petty and vast differences...for it to mesh and act together, for team cohesion-needs lubrication. Needs you."

This was true. Jenna was bright and committed, but Marie had been sure she would either disappear into that impotent Tower or be crushed beneath Cid's heel, would quit and go home as soon as she read that the kid had been inducted. Lana would have never resurfaced at anyone else's summoning, certainly not hers-and the rest of what was left, well...

It just had to be Elias. All she knows how to do, all she WANTS to do is tear down, not build anything up. That was what the heroes were for, and that was what Elias would lead them in.

Marie doesn't do compliments or flattery well, but it sounded like there was one in the uncharacteristic string of words.

"The others...your family...they will follow your example." A curt nod. Even Vivienne, eventually. That or be peer pressured to, likes of Jenna and Lana around. "And I'll keep pushing here, expose the scum to your scrutiny."

Vengeance. She had promised vengeance. A predatory glance at the map. There's a pattern there, an answer-and she'd find it. She couldn't go out and punish the scum personally-but Elias was right. He'd go and do what she couldn't.

 

[Obuzeti]

"Here," Elias hums. "Well. Actually, I'd wanted to mention something. I looked up these server banks you're using. Thought it'd be nice to have a backup, so I got a set installed in the old Com-Center downstairs at the Coulee, y'know the one we used to stick maps and everything up in? I wanted to be thorough, so there's most everything you've physically got here, though obviously none of the software or data."

He glances around and shrugs. "I cleared out the conference room adjacent, threw a bed in, standing closet. So on, so forth. Pretty plain. The only real advantage the whole setup has is that it uses the Coulee's locks, so either you were lucky enough to get a key while Machina was around or you're me. So."

He places one of those keys next to the keyboard Marie's working on.

"You know, just in case you ever decide a backup might be useful," Elias says, without looking over. He's smiling, though. "Or you want to visit. Could have a double purpose, even."

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

“I don’t do social calls.” Marie says, but she at least doesn’t sound intrinsically offended at the suggestion. Just a shake of her head. “...can’t imagine anything getting down here we don’t let in, but a secondary set up not the worst of ideas.”

She gestures to the banks. “These aren’t still built to manufacturer specs, not all of them. I’ve torn them apart and reworked things here and there to better handle my systems.”

“...though, if something DID get down here and took those out, eliminated me- that would be something of a setback.” She considers matter of factly, ever focused on the mission.

“What would you do then, go to Cid?” They were the only games in town. Marie’s eyes narrow, briefly consider the amount of work a backup location would involve-and the vigilante decides it was simply too large an oversight to leave things as is.

She picks up the key with a resigned exhalation. “I’ll work out time for it. A secondary set up is not the worst of ideas.” She doesn’t like the idea of leaving her pit, entirely-or the time involved in such a project, but it was what it was. She can get it set up and streamline systems so that if she’s removed, the war effort could continue without being completely blind.

“Never been out there." She didn't socialize. She always returned straight back to Samson. "I’ll let you know.”

 

[Obuzeti]

Elias offers a shrug. "There's three of these keys left. That's one, I have another, and Sarah has one . . . somewhere. I keep that door locked as a matter of habit. Won't be a lot of people heading down there."

He sits and thinks for a long moment, mouth pinching and lips going white. "No, not really," he replies. "Not in the way you're thinking. I'd contact Sarah and arrange for a meet. Cid would show up instead to argue and snipe, or some honor squad of his kids. Either way, I'd have the excuse I need to kill him."

Elias sighs and sits back. "It'd be - messy. Far from the top of my good ideas list. But he's got all the resources left, won't use them, and won't accept anyone else using them. There's no fucking way he doesn't know what's been going on, not that surveillance freak - especially since Vivienne says she tried to work out a shelter deal with him. So he's in the way, like always. And this time it would be bad enough that I have to get him out of my way."

Elias shrugs, running figures in his head with a grimace. "Figure we'd lose half the Tower, easy, plus Sarah. Probably have to deal with the governments all over the place. But at least with their attention focused we could publicize the casualties list. I'd put Lana in charge of it, head to jail, and then start killing every villain they put behind bars with me. We'd all be in ADX, anyways. What are they going to do, not jail them?"

"I'd pretty much go villain, leave the soft work to Lana, Jenna, Sarah. They've been killing us for almost a decade. I'd have to work hard to catch up, but it's not like I have to be careful, or worry about being stopped."

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

This information makes Marie consider the key a little more closely. One of three.

Hn.

And then he moves on to the other topic-and Marie pauses everything that she’s doing on the tablet to listen.

It’s a solid contingency plan, but to hear it out of Adamant’s mouth-

“...acceptable casualties.” She states plainly, still paused over the tablet. She says nothing for a long, long moment-and then turns her head, dark eyes studying him directly. The dark irises were unfathomable, revealing nothing.

He had read the situation correctly. Cid was impotent and would never surrender his position or allow, without extreme resistance, any form of collaboration. And if he did, it’d be rife with his petty distractions and setbacks. He’d have to be removed. The stakes would be too high to rest hopes on Daybreak sidelining him. Half of the Tower’s talent pool would be better than none-and Daybreak’s half would no doubt work with Lana and those that chose to side with Lana.

The part of his plan involving turning himself over-expected. He lacks ego and would inexplicably bow to social mores as punishment for his actions. She supposes he knows he could break out easily, were the situation dire enough. She doubts anyone else has a contingency plan for The Man Against.

He’s seeing the bigger picture, the war for what it is. He was willing to do what it took, and Marie is suitably impressed.

But such a plan...it’s too terrible a sacrifice. Elias would not derive anything good out of it. He’s not scum. And the world would be lesser for it were he to pretend to be. He certainly wouldn’t be any kind of happy-and the thought is a little ludicrous to think on, but again-Didn’t Elias deserve more than to serve a purpose?

Marie mentally moves the backup location higher in her priority list. Jenna might make for a suitable replacement depending on what she could retain after a high speed information intake. If not, there had to be a Ward she could recruit for them.

“But I am still functional, and Velocity your trojan horse, whether she realizes it or not. Best case Daybreak comes around. Worst, we begin to recruit talent through the Jenna, either incidentally or targeted. If Wards do begin to leave the Tower for the League, I doubt Daybreak will be hands off enough to -not- push for some sort of collaboration.”

Marie considers this, nods. It’s the better future. The League needed Adamant. This cesspit of a world did. Pyrrhic victories were for lesser, unplanned wars.

He shines too brightly to for such a future to be palatable.

“I wasn’t aware of the deaths.” She points out. The cover up...Marie’s eyes narrow and she resumes her tasks. “You believe he did?” The growl returns to her voice. “Well, he’s been impotent so far, not surprised if even this didn’t bring him to action, prickless fuck.”

 

[LostNotFound]

.....

 

[Obuzeti]

"Better than all of them," Elias says, grim. That's the reality they're facing. "There's no terms of settlement at the end of this. This is a fucking war of extinction, and I won't put that face on it for the rest of them, but this is - easily worse than Rahab. At least that was indiscriminate, obvious. This campaign Paul's waged, it's an extermination. I will not be the last free metahuman."

There's anger, but also fear, because this is one of his ultimate nightmares - a world in which he is the last anomaly, the freak show, irrelevant, alone, and a failure. His teeth grit as he contemplates that awful sequence of events, and then he flicks it away, dismissing the possibility.

"I don't think Cid knew the extent before we did," he says, giving the man that one small grace. "He knew Vivienne was in trouble and didn't lift a finger, at least. He certainly didn't do a callout to help Jenna with Rush and Mindmelt, back when she first tangled with them. He's never really interacted with any of the League since he got the Tower started, so he might legitimately not know. I just - really fucking doubt he had no clue at all. He's got too many channels, too many resources."

He rubs his forehead and then offers Marie a tired grin. "Least we got you. N' the kid, and Lana. Dunno, maybe even Vivi will turn out useful. We can have her make recruitment posters or somethin'."

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

“This campaign Paul's waged, it's an extermination. I will not be the last free metahuman."

Another pause. “No.” The woman says, the short utterance full of conviction. Her will couldn’t have possibly been meant to be housed in a fragile mortal sheathe, but it was there, with all the power and surety of the grave. “You won’t.”

Marie had been watching that unfold. To be fair-she hadn’t reached out, either. She doubts it would have gone well. Of course, she hadn’t known about Mindmelt’s involvement until she saw the kid’s details up on offer. She had tried to suppress the infomation-but it’d already spiraled too far out of control, caught media interest.

Mindmelt’s involvement wasn’t public, but Mistress Rush-that was fucking news to end all news, and then for the kid’s identity to be spilled like that right before bringing her in-Paige had already been popular, but that bust threw her into the national spotlight, the newest media darling. Cid couldn’t possibly ignore her after that. Probably figured he’d either absorb her into that Tower someplace or else use her popularity to buoy his own aims like he does with everything.

“Vivienne-he doesn’t give a shit. He talks like one of you, but the only reason he’s in this business opposite the scum is his ego.”

Marie despises him.

“I’m sure he’s thrilled the kid sought you out. I wish I had been there whenever he then realized I wasn’t dead. Could not have improved his mood.”

Recruitment posters. Marie’s eyes slide to him. Once again, she’s stone faced, but-

“I do not want to be there when you suggest that.” That sounded suspiciously like an expansion of his joke.

He looks tired. There had been enough heavy talk for today. “There are things I can...stand to micromanage less, here.” She slowly admits. She chafes a little beneath the unfamiliarity of...herself. Of Marie. There's something to say here, but hell if she knows what it is.

“I’ll be by soon, and I’ll get to working on the fall back position.” She taps the key.

 

[Obuzeti]

Elias nods. He's talked out, which is a rare phenomenon all its own; not precisely worn out, but emptied of the words that normally define him, breath and creed. It's probably because Marie is as hard a believer as he is; not just in the importance of their fight, but in the things necessary to survive. Jenna might believe, but she doesn't understand, not really. She has little perception of the nature of man's evils, as opposed to - whatever the hell Marrane is.

She is too, looks like. But they're always been people defined by their actions, so instead he rocks to his feet with an explosive exhale, and reaches out to grasp Marie's shoulder, both callback and in gratitude. "Always good to have you at my back, Marie," Elias says, and there's real affection in his voice before he turns to go, plodding for the elevator with no longer quite the weight of the entire world on his back.

At least here, in this one place, he's made a life measurably better, instead of dragging it down a road where it'll fight for its existence every day.

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

*~Earlier Today~*


Well. Here she was.

Jenna was standing outside the grand, modern looking doors of the Ivory Tower, having made short work of the trip-as always. She’s psyching herself up a little, reassuring herself she could go in there just fine, come back out unscathed. They’d inducted her with all that fanfare. Miss Sarah had asked her not to quit. She has a right to be here.

Heck, Tectonic had made a big stink about her NOT being here, right? She’s just finally being dutiful or whatever.

…she should not be this anxious about going in there, but she was. She still remembers that awful talk in Cid’s office, how they had ganged up on her, twisted everything around and through her like awful spikes. She’d already been upset about the death and destruction wreaked by Nergal, but she hadn’t felt personally responsible for it. Not until that talk, anyway. Even with what Elias had said, she still had that awful, vague sense of doubt pulling at her no matter how she tried to outlogic it. Maybe she’d feel that doubt forever. She honestly didn’t like to think about it.

“I’m Velocity.” She murmured quietly to herself, lifting the goggles from her eyes and setting them on the top of her head. Even her Pop was acknowledging that, now. And since she had joined the Association, he’d expect her to leave it better than she found it so...best to get on that. Besides-Miss Marie had said she’d come get her, he really tried to pull that illegal imprisonment crap again. Frankly, Jenna believed she’d do it, wheelchair or no wheelchair-that lady was a little scary.

And on her side. She has friends in this. She’s not flying solo.

Jenna flitted through the doors.

~*~

It was a little tense around here, she felt like. Hardly anyone was in the lobby, for one. It wasn’t a meal time so no one was in any of the multiple little cafeteria things...Miss Sarah’s keycard worked just so fine, so that was a relief all its own right there. She did get stopped and questioned by some kind of hall monitor or something, but she’d charmed her way into finding out where Ellie was. The hero didn’t seem to know quite what to do when she reminded him she didn’t have a schedule to keep to in the Tower-she didn’t live here.

The whole exchange left her feeling a little off. Like this was a military installation or something. She guessed maybe it sort of was?

She lit down several flights of stairs in seconds, found the indicated floor and training room she’d been pointed to. People looked at her and Jenna just did her thing, a friendly wave as she wandered over to plunk down on the first rise of bleachers-smack next to the red haired waif in an oversized black hoodie and blue jeans.

~*~

Ellie jumped about a foot, the doodles she’d been drawing in the corner of her notebook now bearing a sudden straight, tearing line. She looked up and took in the grinning, friendly round face before her, eyes wide. “Jenna!”

“Hi!”

“Y-you’re here!”

“Yep! Figured I should really spend more time in the Tower, being an Association member and all.”

Ellie’s eyes darted around a little before snapping back to her friend, shocked and suddenly very uneasy. She’d asked Jenna to come and see her here sometime, but she hadn’t really thought…and she feels like everyone was looking at them.

“O-okay. Good to-” “Sanderson!” The senior overseeing Ward barked, checking off something on his clipboard. She was up. Oh, oh no, and Jenna was here-she’s already red faced, but her nervousness only intensified because NOW she’s being stared at even more, and now Jenna was going to see her get caught, and that was going to be more than a little embarrassing.

“G-gotta train, be back in a minute Jenna, sorry-”

Ellie stood up a little too fast, tried to set all her stuff down aside-but somehow tipped it off her the bleacher seat entirely, spilling it all over the foot rest below. “Here.” Jenna said, easy and non judgemental as always-picking everything up in a blur and holding it on her lap neat and tidy.

[size]“Thanks, Jenna...”[/size] She was always so nice.

Ellie ‘blinked’ with a crackle of energy and was suddenly in the center of the large gymnasium, nervously zipping her hoodie up a little further. She still didn’t have a costume-she was never sent out, anyway.

“Evasion tactics!” The Ward barked out, lifting his arm. Ellie didn’t look at him, her eyes nervously on the slew of Wards who’d be trying to catch her. Only eight, not so bad. She decides she’ll try to be caught by Meadowlark, this time. The feathered young woman was much kinder than the more rough and tumble boys currently facing her down.

“Go!” And the arm came down.

Every time she blinks she’s coming back into something new-the stack of cushioned mats she suddenly appears on hardly depresses before she’s gone again, blinking back towards the middle, then repeated short ports to cross the gymnasium like she’s supposed to do-give them time to track her.

It’s exhausting and she can’t do it forever-but anymore it’s a show, not an actual exercise. She could avoid all of them if she wanted to. If this was a real engagement, she’d already be three floors up and darting down a hallway-but it’s not. It’s not a real engagement just...practice. And doing that would just get her in trouble.

To those watching, it begins to take her longer and longer to reappear. She’s less and less focused, panicky-each bit of blackness stretching further and further. And then she slips up, and she knows it’s over. Meadowlark is clear cross the room when she trips up and into a group of three large, linebacker built twenty year olds.

Not good enough. Again.

Ellie squeaked and threw her arms up in front of her face, ready for the impact-

When suddenly she’s thirty feet away from the dog piled victors. Someone has a hold of the back of her sweatshirt and her shoulder, she feels the zipper at her throat from where she’d been pulled out of harm’s way. Ellie cast a confused glance to her left-and there was Jenna, frowning at the boys untangling themselves from each other.

“Paige! Don’t interfere with-”

“Hey, you coulda hurt somebody!” The Speedster doesn’t even seem to hear the ‘senior’ Ward, focused on the three boys rising up from their tumbled pile. They don’t look happy.

Oh, no.

“J-Jenna, it’s fine, I got c-caught, they’re supposed to catch me-” Jenna’s frown turns on her, now.

“They’re like, three times as big as us.” The speedster points out. “You woulda been squashed into a pancake. Maybe broken something.”

“Then she needs to not get caught.” The supervising Ward snaps. Ellie can hardly believe this is happening. She wants to melt into the floor as more people gather around, stare at her and Jenna, at the boys, at the red faced senior Ward. “Paige, do you have a schedule? It’s not your day for-”

“No I don’t have a schedule.” Jenna says, utterly unafraid of any sort of trouble, it felt like. Jenna never seemed afraid. Her friend let go of her hoodie and stepped forward in front of her, crossed her arms. “You mean to tell me this is just normal? You’re standing in here overseeing a bunch of men bowling over a girl? That’s messed up. I don’t see what that’s going to teach anybody.”

“Evasion tactics are part of the curriculum.”

“But the tackling? Why not just like, use flags or something? Same game, same ‘training’ and no one gets sent to the medical wing.”

“Jenna’s right.” An impossibly clear, song note voice chimed in, a hand coming to Ellie’s shoulder. “Sometimes the Wards serving as targets do get hurt.”

It was Meadowlark. She was a tall, thin woman, a humanoid, half bird looking creature with a near masquerade mask of dark brown and black feathers and the top of a beak, human lips beneath that. A black v shaped collar of feathers spanned from her shoulders over her chest, a bright yellow belly and throat. She wore a pair of dark deerskin pants and brown moccasin boots. Her dark blonde hair was cut in a trendy pixie cut.

She was always nice to Ellie. Always nice to everyone, really.

“Or markers!” A younger kid suggests, pausing in their coloring at the bleachers and holding one aloft.

“That’s an idea!” Jenna says with her familiar grin, an encouraging wave to the boy.

“How are you going to implement children’s art supplies in-” The ward sneered, and...it was almost imperceptible, but Ellie thinks she sees Jenna move. One minute her friend was standing in front of her, perfectly solid-and then the next she kind of...blurred a little in place, was leaning forward a fraction. “-serious training!?”

People snickered, and Ellie dared a peek around Jenna before her eyes grew large. The senior Ward now had a “Friendly Hero!” ‘sign’ drawn on the front of his suit, a little smiling daisy. He glanced down and turned a shade of red Ellie had never seen before.

He was going to kill her. Maybe both of them. “You are out of your fucking mind-” He starts forward but one of the bigger Wards placed his hand on his chest, shaking his head. “It’s washable, man.” He says. It wasn’t worth them all getting into some serious trouble if a real, actual fight broke out.

Jenna was already done with all of it. “What’s next on your schedule, Ellie?”

“S-supposed to be the target couple more times until-”

“I’ll fill in your spot.” Meadowlark assured-turning a sharp, beady glance on the rowdy boys. “Let’s try the markers. Try to mark on my feathers, fellas. See where that gets you.”

~*~

“He...he did?”

“Yep!”

“You asked him and he said yes?”

“Open invitation!”

“Wow. I...I don’t know what to do, now.”

Jenna laughed. “You visit, silly! And Vivid Walker’s there-in her paintings, it’s pretty awesome-and of course Deep Blue.”

“You told me. I just...that’s a lot of people to meet all at once...”

“But you know me, and I’ll be there.”

"Th-that's just a lot of people to see me out on an unauthorized outing."

Jenna's smile dimmed, her white teeth disappearing behind her lips. She studied her a moment. And then- "Well, how do you get to go on an authorized outing?"

"Y-you have to earn it. Through merits and...and things."

"Ellie...when WAS the last time you got to go out?"

~*~

It was three in the morning when Jenna got back in, two hours later than usual, but she'd had a lot to think about. A loooooot to think about. She'd hit up a few more minefields since not much was going on in South Bend tonight-just a high profile car thief caught red handed, an apartment fire, few friendly greetings around town-nothing major. She could only do so many grid runs before it seemed a little monotonous. The alert system in her watch would warn her if anything got too crazy.

No Rush, either-yet? She has no idea where the crazy psycho is. Maybe she'd gone back into retirement or...whatever. Maybe she wouldn't turn up again, given what had happened. Jenna doesn't know...she'd just keep an eye out.

She's pretty tired, for once. Enough to kick her boots off and immediately, dramatically faceplant flat onto the couch cushions. The pillow's soft and welcoming for sure-she slides her arms under it and turns to glance into the living room proper.

The spoon with its little landscape painting was still sitting on the coffee table. She doesn't think Vivienne cared for it much. Ah, well. She might keep buying them from the guy anyway, decorate the coffee table with them, make up some jokes about spoon city or something.

 

[Obuzeti]

The basement door opens - odd, because it never had been open in all the time Jenna had been there - and Elias ambles out, brushing dust off of himself. He glances over at Jenna, and smiles a little at her supine form on the couch. Then he meanders over and plops beside her on the floor, leaning back against the couch end where's she's facedown in a pillow. He's in soft flannel and worn jeans, a work outfit for when he's puttering around the house. "Hey, kid."

He doesn't say anything else for a long moment, letting the silence percolate. Then he leans back and nudges the side of Jenna's head with the back of his own. "We haven't gotten a chance to talk a lot since, y'know, fucking everything happened. You alright, amigo?"

Elias hasn't turned around, and frankly in that little balled-up position he looks faintly ridiculous. It's not a pose for a man his size. Despite that, he looks perfectly comfortable, and he pulls a fruit bar from some inside pocket of his jacket and proffers it up to Jenna.

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

Jenna takes the fruit bar. "Score." She doesn't even pretend not to want whatever foodstuff was offered to her anymore. Lana was used to it and Elias never made a mean comment-and she'd seen what happened if she didn't eat like a frat boy. Halloween Anorexia, no thanks.

She sits up, legs drawing up on the couch in criss cross while she opens the fruit bar. It puts her where she can see his face in profile. "I'm just... thinking on ways I can help more." She says, a bite of the fruit bar. "An' hoping I don't run into a Rush Paul combo or something. That lady's creeptastic enough without spiders, thanks."

Jenna watches Elias. "How about you?" Concern. Vivienne had been kinda rough on him earlier, and...well. Considering everything else, maybe it was a bad question to ask him.

Jenna pops off the fruit bar before reaching forward to rest her hand in his shoulder, a squeeze. "I am going to help more." She worriedly insists.

 

[Obuzeti]

Elias laughs. "We are, in fact, the perfect duo," he says, cheerful. "I like cooking for people, and I never have to worry about leftovers with you around. No reheated meals in my household, score one for the home team."

He reaches up for Jenna's hand, goes past it, and reaches around it in what has to be an awkward position to give her a one-armed hug, warm and pine-scented. "I was going to suggest you go on patrols with Lana for a bit - not, y'know, paired up, but have her in the area whenever you're cruising the town. If trouble hits, you can yank her along and have her beat on people for you. Plus you can't tell me you wouldn't spend the whole time chattering to her on the communicator."

The big man sits there for a brief moment, staring ahead. He doesn't let go of her, and in fact adjusts himself so he's a little more comfortable with his arm slung back around Jenna. "All things considered," he says, soft, "There have been worse times. I know some of y'all are alive. I have people here again. I have proof that I can do something right."

Elias's head rolls back on his neck to look at Jenna. "I'm not going to pretend things are great. Finding all that out -"

His mouth closes, and he gives a shake of his head.

"Well," he says. "Not a great moment. But at least I have something. At least I have someone left; several, even. I have hope. I have the temerity to see it through."

Then the old hero squeezes Jenna, light and reassuring. "You are helping, hon. You have helped. This all started because of you, remember. You took the first step."

 

[CurtailedAmbrosia]

"Ha, what she can hear. I talk while running and it all jumbles together." That was a good idea. Rush DOES show up, she's not about to let the psycho murderess run rampant-and hadn't been willing to the first time. But now she's not alone in things. She can call on allies with stopping power.

Also how awesome if she and Deep Blue were technically on patrol together? So awesome.

"I have proof that I can do something right."

That actually makes Jenna feel more sad and concerned. Like she had told Vivienne-he was trying. Things were more bad than even he had previously figured.

And then he continues on to the unshakeable, and Jenna nods mutely. There were good things too. And would be more. They would do what they could. "Hope's important. Maybe the most important."

Without it, it'd be difficult to be motivated for much of anything. Had to believe in the Good Fight. Had to believe there was ground to gain.

Had to believe the good guys could win.

"You are helping, hon. You have helped. This all started because of you, remember. You took the first step."

Jenna blinks, briefly confused. "I...what? Coming out to meet you?"

She'd finally worked up the guts, felt a little more legitimate after the six months with the Association stamp of approval, having been around other heroes. Who wouldn't want to meet Adamant?

...and it bothered her a little, the cliques and the talk like he was crazy. Jenna had never believed that. Couldn't. So she'd gone out to see for herself. And then she'd kinda just bumbled into everything else. Coming here after being locked up because she hadn't anywhere left to go-and she'd been hurt. Felt betrayed. Men she had looked up to had twisted her up and wrecked Laura's base just...just because. She still doesn't really know why. And he up and took her to Marie, and they got started on something good.

"-You- helped -me-! Not kid gloves, not 'nice ugly' twisting me up or trying to lock me in someplace, kick me out of my own city-you're helping me fight the Good Fight. You're fighting it too. You're The Man Against."

Jenna's talking too much, but she just has to make him understand all of sudden how much this matters to her. How much HE matters even outside of all of this.

"But mostly-you're my friend, Elias." That was it. She winds down a little, though her earnest nodding still had a lot of energy to it. "So...so I just want to make sure I'm helping you as much as I can. You, and this team I'm psyched to be a part of."

She feels better, now. Maybe Lana and Vivienne snipping back and forth, Vivienne's comments had bothered her more than she had thought. Elias hadn't been here to hear them-but it was important to her he knew how much he the -person- meant to her. He'd even gone and talked to her Dad. He had no idea how big of a deal that was to her.

"How was Marie? Anything good at those coordinates?"