A Clash of Codes

Daniel pulled Nightscape along side Syrus's Mazarrati and stepped onto the weathered earth. The night sky was a mixture of clouds and stars with the moon's glowing forcing its way through the hazy veil that drifted slowly past. The air here was warmer than what Daniel was used to. In comparison to the sprawling metropolis of Tokyo that they had only moments ago been blazing through at breakneck speeds, this place was desolate and severly lacking in any real signs of civilation. In fact, the only structure of note was a shed standing alone in the middle of nowhere.

At first Daniel though Syrus may have miscalculated where the wormhole was meant to teleport them, but his concerns where eased when he heard his companion celebrating at how accurate the port had been.

Daniel could appreciate the need for discreetness, and figured the shed was simply a facade for a much larger staging area. He parked his motorcycle in a secure area and followed Syrus into the shed, confirming his suspicions.

He looked around the facility, taking note of locations of interest as he followed his companions down into the lair.

Daniel could tell that this was not uniform operation, but more of a free thinking mass of independent minds coming together for the welfare of common interest. He didn't have to look over the compound to see that. One had to only look at the elegance of Lady Red and the almost cyber-punkish demeanor of Syrus to tell that this was not a place prone to clique's. That suited Daniel just fine.

Taking Syrus up on his offer to make himself comfortable, he sat down at a table in what appeared to be a recreation room of sorts and grabbed a bottle of water while checking his gear. He walked from room to room, avoiding the private quarters and checking the common areas.

One particular room of interest was the munitions storage, where a bullet compressor was installed. Daniel made in mental note of its location, figuring he'd probably be a frequest user of that little device.

He was sure not to stray too far from his companions. He sense the urgency in Syrus's demeanor, and suspected that they would be leaving all to soon. He wanted to be ready to go as soon as they were ready.

Daniel had that tingling sensation on the back of his neck he got right before stepping into the gunfire. He was anxious to get things going. Life was finally starting to get a little more interesting.

Hawk flew back to the safe house leaving the congressman yelling at him on the steps of a school in Ohio. He would get Gloom and make their way to the location of the dam where Andy was being held. With only two of them it would be almost a suicide run to get Andy. They needed help.

Hawk no longer having ties with the Outlawz or the Zero Squad, didn't know where to turn. He had just recently met Gloom and Cardinal. As Hawk flew back to the safe house he thought about the events over the last couple of weeks. Getting blown from the Zero tower window, fighting Jinx in a swamp, joining and then leaving the Outlawz after suffering massive injuries, including the loss of his wings. Now with new wings built by his old rival Jinx, he was headed to save a man he barely knew.

Hawk landed in front of the safe house

"Who's car is this?"

Hawk pulled his sword from his waist as he walked inside, seeing a man in a hat, Hawk was ready to strike.....

Daniel felt the sensation of a new presence around near him as he admired his new surroundings. Hostility filled his senses as it occurred to him that without Syrus nearby, his presence may be a little disconcerting with any of the other denizens that might happen to walk in.

He turned to see the winged man enter in, poised in a fashion of immediate reaction to his own presense. Rather than provoke an immediate conflict with someone he had just met, he reached out, feeling the entropic forces to sense what the likelihood of this man belonging here was. The waves were as still as water, confirming what Daniel suspected, and he eased his focus.

"Hope I didn't startle you." Daniel spoke in greeting. "I'm with Syrus, 'name's Daniel. He told me to make myself at home...and this room felt the most like home."

Dahlia was quite eager for Hawk to return to the safehouse, so that they could go and rescue Andy. After her psychic encounter with the congressman, she had severed her mental link with Hawk and decided to meditate, something she had always found to be of use in stressful situations like this one. Losing her sense of time, Dahlia closed her eyes and simply breathed, letting her psionic and magical energies build back up after what she had done to the congressman. Thinking about what she had done to him, the young witch was surprised to realize that she did not feel any guilt whatsoever, which proved both that she really did react fiercely when someone close to her was attacked and that she had truly changed since she had first ran away from her native Esmoreldia.

Back when she was the heir to the Esmoreldian throne, Dahlia had been the typical idealistic fool, wishing for world peace and global vegetarianism. Several things had happened since then, each and every one of them pulling her further away from her pure ideals. The murder of her parents, her exile, the kidnapping of Andy, all seemed to have toughened her up, leaving her naive self behind. For a moment, Dahlia wondered if she would ever be the same again... and she feared the answer.

The raven-haired psychic was interrupted in her meditation when she felt a new presence enter her telepathic reach. At first, she was glad that her new teammate was back and they could finally leave for Andy's rescue. After a moment or two, however, Dahlia realized that the mind she felt was not Hawk's, but a stranger's. Distrustfully, she cloaked herself psionically and took the time to study the man's mind. She quickly realized he had not come with evil intentions, although she still wondered what he was doing here. Lastly, Dahlia scanned his short-term memories and what she saw surprised her. Jinx? Could it really be him?

When Hawk really did arrive, Dahlia was too deep in thought to even realize it, although voices eventually made her snap out of it. When the new arrivant, Daniel, introduced himself, the witch quickly uncloaked herself and stepped into the room which Hawk had entered moments after Daniel had, too. With a voice that she hoped would sound a lot more confident than she really felt, Dahlia spoke up:

"He's speaking the truth, Hawk, he really did meet with Syrus. What I'd like to know, however, is why a man who abandoned us at the most inopportune time would send a stranger here. Would you care to explain, Daniel?"

Though a little disconcerted by the sudden presense of the dark haired woman, Daniel breathed an inner sigh of relief that she had vouched for his intentions.

"Syrus didn't send me here, per say...I followed him here from Tokyo." Daniel replied, "It seems that we have a common enemy that attempted to play us off one another, and neither of us has taken too kindly to it. Hence, I offered to aid him, and by proxy, all of you in taking down some genuine annoyances."

Looking around, trying to see if he can spot Syrus from within the munitions roon, Daniel indicated down the hall in the direction he last saw Syrus.

"Syrus is back here, mucking around on one of the computers. I was just burning time waiting for him to figure out where he wanted to go. Seeing as how he seems a good deal more suited to do the digital work, I thought I'd leave him to his work for a few minutes."

Clanging and banging around in his lab Syrus Jest, the alias Jinx, had driven himself into a mad laughter as he pulled together a mass of metal parts from old robotic attempts onto his operating table. He was a giddy little child with a mind for war and the skill to put him there.

"Syrus....what are you going to do this time? There isn't any more time for you to work on another project." SCAR attempted to plead inside the mechanical man's artificial skull. "There is always time SCAR....its all we ave now. I just need to make the playing field even. I need a little help in doing it though." Jinx began to pull every bit of his knowledge of bio-enigineering and micro-mechanics to the front of his mind as he soldered and molded the metal pieces together into a homanoid form. It was a smooth dark metal that seemed to reflect little of the beams that illuminated the table.

Without his electricly charged field to make his body almost real again, Syrus was stuck inside his metal shell. It was amazing tactically, but was worthless for fine motor skills and it was at this point it was most obvious. Grabbing a jar of nanytes in his hand he began to pour it over the newly created metal man making him a bright chrome color. The steady stream of nanobots flowed on to the body like a mercurical sap oozing into every pore. "Syrus...is that wise? Without a nanyte controller all those little machines will do is eat their way through the table." Jinx just grinned as he left SCAR abruptly as the only consciouness in the suit.

A loud gasp came from the body on the table as it jumped upright dripping with the metallic goo. "Syrus...?" SCAR said slowly from the vocal receptors in the stolen Iron Man suit. As he spoke the body swung its legs out over the side of the table on to the floor and stood still. Shaking a little the mouth and eyes began to open as the molten metal that covered it began to solidify. "I did it..." Syrus's voice was small and confused, but it was his. The shifting liquid machines began to move and twist on the outside of his body, bending and shaping the metal underneath into a smooth surface as Syrus focused his mind on what his mental image of himself should be. A gutteral scream ripped the silence and then deathly quiet as Syrus lay on the floor twitching and for the first time since his encounter in the swamp with Hawk....he was a man again.

"Syrus...you're alive!" The words were filled with fear and wonder that the mighty digital demi-god was now in the real and no longer bound to the digital world. Slowly picking him up SCAR set him on the table and fetched his clothes. He felt the separation anxiety building in him, but Syrus needed him now and it made him forget his own fears. "I...I'm back." Syrus said in disbelief. He stood and felt the weight of his body clinging to him. "The nanytes made this for me..I'm not exactly alive, but I am living through them and they own the body. They do as I think." He stepped slowly one foot in fron tof the other and felt the power that was surging through him. "What possessed you to do this? What dould be the cause of such thoughts?" Syrus just laughed and looked back at SCAR in the suit. The cloaking devie still active he stared as if looking into a mirror. "I mad myself in my own image. It makes me feel like a god....now I plan to prove what happens when you piss a god off." Syrus cracked his neck for the first time in months and heard the audible pop and smiled. "I'm back and now theres nothing that can stop me."

Daniel's eyes shot to the right as the heard the scream come from down the hall. Not knowing what dangers may lay hidden in this place, Daniel ran past the winged man and the dark haired woman and shot down the hall like a bullet...almost literally.

As he rounded the corner where he had left Syrus, he blinked in surprise at the sight that greeted him. He saw Syrus picking up....Syrus. His first thought was that a doppleganger had infiltrated the complex, but the words exchanged between the two almost immediately dispelled that thought. He watched curiously as the two spoke to each other. The magnitude of what had just transpired hit Daniel fully, and he couldn't help but be pretty impressed by what Syrus had accomplished.

He laughed out loud in amusement.

"I've seen alot of people who think they know technology. I have to say, this is the first time I've ever seen anyone copy/paste themselves."

Andy had lost track of time, he could not long tell how long he was held captive. Randomly they would come and take him against his will to perform tests they would not explain. The only things he was able to pick up were whispers of some sector 13. Some organization perhaps? what ever it was Andy had never heard of it before. They took blood samples constantly and worked them into formula's, it almost seemed as if they were trying to create a serum of sorts from his blood.

Fatigue was set into Andy's body, they gave him little water and almost no food. Adding that to the strain the tests caused on his body he felt as if he had been thrown down a mountain. Each night he would be locked and shackled by his hands and feed to the wall with what seemed to be an unbreakable chain. With his peak human strength Andy had been able to snap chains before but these did not budge, the harder he strained only left red marks against his wrists and ankles, drawing faint lines of blood when he strained his hardest.

That damnable visor was still strapped to his face which kept him from utilizing his mutant power. He did the only thing he knew he could each night and that was to sit there and picture what he could of the complex, in hope that Dahlia was keeping a close track on his mind, that she would be able to pick up his sight through a magical vision or divination.

The guards took him down the same path each day, the signs were obvious that he was still under ground in some complex, from the close sound of gushing water he figured that it was still that damn. Far below the walk ways that they prodded him across Andy could see huge constructs being created. Each being assembled secretly and then grafted together, massive metal arms and hands laid on tables as workers tweaked the wires and programs. Huge chest pieces were being lifted by cranes and set atop large mechanical legs. They were building an army of Sentential... but for what? the government had not authorized any program like this in years. These mechanical killers were decommissioned, who could be behind their coming back.

This time as he laid strapped down to a medical table he heard that their tests were proving beneficial, they were getting the data they needed and it was time to attain the last source. The doctor placed on a mask and grabbed a long pointed needle as he stalked Andy's way, two assistants came and flipped the med table over, all Andferne could see now was the floor. Then without warning he felt this sharp pain shoot up and down his spine, he gritted his teeth and screamed out in pain. The doctors were extracting bone marrow, and they didn't bother giving him the meds for the pain, they wanted him to feel this...

"Come on, come on... Andy, where are you?"

Dahlia shivered when the first few raindrops hit her skin, falling quietly from a dark and cloudy sky. A strong and bitter breeze blew, adding momentum to the drops of waters as they began to wet the sorceress' medieval-looking dress, turning its purple fabric into a darker mauve. Dahlia's black hair floated around in the wind, but she did not care for it at all. Her eyes closed, she was meditating. Not the kind of meditation she did for relaxation, however. In truth, she was telepathically probing an increasingly huge area around herself. She didn't have much of a clue to start with; only the vague vision of a base hidden under a dam. Still, through a mixture of psychic scanning and astral projection, she let her mind cover as much ground as possible, looking for Andy, looking for her love. The rain grew stronger, but she cared not. She had chosen to stay outside to get away from the others' anxiousness, which she had more than enough of herself. Using her telekinesis to hover a good 10 meters above the ground, she kept on searching.

Andy had been gone for a few days, now, and what little information they had managed to gather about his disappearance seemed to grow continuously thinner as time passed by. Dahlia grew more worried by the second, and, at one point, she had even lost control of her powers. Her whole bedroom had been ravaged telekinetically as she had finally let her emotions out, unable to keep them in check any longer. Ever since that breakdown, she felt like she was losing it- and, by the looks of it, the others were thinking so, too. It didn't help that she could hear their thoughts, obviously, but she couldn't let that slow her down at this point. What mattered was that they find Andy, it was all that mattered. Still, she couldn't help but feel as though she had searched the area meticulously and thoroughly, already. Could she really have missed something? Perhaps it would be better for her to stay on the move, so as to cover more varied areas with her powers? Was her staying at the safehouse what had kept her from finding Andy? Was it her fault that he was still wherever it was her was being kept?

That single thought made Dahlia feel as though her entire stomach had turned to lead, and so she devoted herself even more to her psionic search. The tattoo on her right palm glowed brighter and brighter as she tapped into its amazing abilities, and suddenly she felt it. It was like a spark, a tiny grain of psychic response in a desert of barren land. Her mind had brushed against something familiar, or so it had felt. Could it be? Focusing all her powers on the specific area where it had happened, Dahlia saw water. Lots and lots of water. Moving around astrally, she caught sight of a dam and her heart stopped. Looking down below herself, she felt it. It was like a pulse, a familiar heartbeat that she could sense but couldn't reach, really... Her gut told her it was Andy. Andy was under there, and for some reason, she couldn't access his mind any more than with this primitive contact, this "gut-feeling"... It was so very frustrating, especially to a first-class psychic like Dahlia. Coming back to her body, the Esmoreldian exile opened her eyes and raised her right hand. Her golden staff, with its beautiful amethysts, flew from the ground where she had laid it down and came to a halt just beside her hand, several meters above the ground. Dahlia grabbed it determinedly and, pushing back a strand of her raven hair that had flown in her face in the wind, she excitedly contacted the others to inform them of her discovery. By the time she formed her telepathic message, she was already flying across the sky at an appreciable velocity.

~Guys, I found Andy. Come, quick!~

She had done it! She had finally found her sweetheart... and now, she would save him, no matter what.