A Bloodstained Mantle

Adamant's words startle a sobbing laugh out you before you agree with a skin deep smile and return on lightning fast wings to the fridge, finding it left half open in all the commotion of… this, it's amazing how quickly your whole world can change.

With a sigh you pull the cake out the fridge, grab some plates, and walk back into the medical room to watch your… to watch your mentor die.

Adamant swallows another cough as you return, "It's funny, I've looking forward to this day for a such-" another fierce, hacking cough tears through his body, sending a cascade of shards into his arm as he covers his mouth.

He brushes the shattered crystals off his skin as you begin to cut the cake with a razor sharp claw.

It takes him a moment, but after a moment he continues speaking, "I actually told Slip, 'I'm going to go back home and eat Chimera's birthday cake if it's the last thing I do'" he laughs, and you can hear the crystals growing again in his throat as his voice becomes raspier and raspier. "Sorry, I'm really bringing down the mood aren't I."

"It's fine," You tell him, "I'm not sure the mood can get any worse anyway, here's your plate."

Adamant takes the plate gently offered to him, picks it up with his bare hands and takes a messy bite out of the slice, frosting covering his face, "Damn, that's good, tell the chef I said that please."

"I will." You say, "Um, Adamant, has anything like this happened before? You know, like an enemy suddenly getting their hands on some weapon that could have… done this?"

Adamant chuckles, the motion sending a small cloud of blue dust into the air, "I haven't dealt with this specifically before, I've met a few people who've changed their minds suddenly and sometimes I have to fight someone who can give me a real struggle, but-" another cough tears through his body. "But I can't think of anything all that weird…" he pauses, "Wait, there was this assassin five years back, that guy quite his old job and then just came in out of the blue, saying that he'd been offered-" another coughing fit cuts him off.

"Where was I… Oh right, he was offered, 'Enough money for my own private island', to quote the man word for word, at the time I was pretty sure it was Wind offering more money than she had to get me out of her hair but maybe someone else is involved, if I remember correctly his name was Solar-Flare, unfortunately he's in the Los Angeles Superhuman jail right now, and I'm not sure the situation is going to stable enough for you to leave the city for a while, you might be able to get a video call him with him though."

You nod, filling the information away in your mind and then making a note on your phone to call somebody once you have the time to arrange that conversation, can't be too careful about making sure there isn't a laps in your memory.

That answered you move onto your next question, "How do you think everyone is going to react to… to this?"

Adamant sighs, thinking for a moment before responding carefully, "STAR won't be able to help you for a while, they'll be too busy filling in the gaps left in our ranks after the Yellowstone mess to provide much here for a good few months." Your face turns stony as he says those words, keeping the anger they inspire carefully tucked away, Adamant doesn't seem to notice, continuing his analysis.

"I don't think the Coven will do much out of the ordinary for a while, the younger generation is more ambitious but Carver and Viscous are… content, that and they understand that pressing things now might bring a STAR Hammer Team down on their heads, and since the heh, the Massacre Men know that you could kick both their buts they're not going to do much out of the ordinary anyway, no, the real problem is Wind and the rest of the Five Elements."

You sigh, "Yeah I figured, any advice?"

"I was getting to that, first of all there's the obvious, most of their supers hate at least one of their peers so they're not all going to be hanging out together, especially with me out of the picture, I expect the internal maneuvering will start almost immediately after news of my death and won't end until Wind gets some wins under her belt and manages to force them to work together, do not let that happen, beyond that-" Another cough, this one even worse than the last.

"Be careful, I know this is going to be difficult but you're going to do great, just, be smarter than I was." He finally says through the crystals forming once more in his mouth.

The conversation feels like it lasts a lifetime, winding through reminiscences of better times, aching grief, and all the desperate questions that fill your mind as your mentor's eyes slowly turn blue and those same crystals crawl out of his left ear to form a set of odd, branching horns.

The moment arrives without fanfare, after one last horrible coughing fit Adamant simply lays down and closes his now useless, blinded, blue filled eyes, "I'm sorry Chimera, I think this is the end."

You're right next to him in an instant, cradling his hand, "I'm here." You say, resisting the urge to cry with all your might.

"Thank you." He says, "For being here, and for being in my life, you've made these last two years of my life immeasurably better."

Finally the dam breaks and you begin to sob, "I'm so sorry I messed up like that, I should've been able to… to…" Adamant cuts you off, placing a hand on your shoulder and staring blindly up in your general direction, "This isn't your fault, I could have tried to catch the grenade, I could have tried to knock it away, I could have grabbed the launcher in the base once I saw Slip using it, I didn't, this was on me and don't ever let anyone tell you different."

Your tears slow for a moment, "I'll find the people who did this, who gave Slip that gas and Destruction all his new equipment, and I'll bring them to justice." You promise, your voice raw and filled with more rage and grief than you can ever remember experiencing.

Adamant smiles through the crystals growing again beneath his teeth, "Just be careful kiddo, and remember, I am so so proud of you."

Then, finally, he goes limp, the life fading from his eyes, the moment gone by so quickly it takes you a moment to realize he's dead.

The realization brings the tears back, stronger than ever, you sit there for almost an hour before you finally force yourself to stand and wipe the tears from your eyes.

Right now, more than anything in the world you want to curl up into a ball but that's not going to go anywhere useful, if you're going to bring Adamant's murders to justice you need to move fast.

Standing up on shaky legs you set aside the half eaten cake and carefully pull the blanket over his head and leave the room, you'll… you can't deal with that right now.

As you walk out the door you force your flesh to remove all evidence of your grief from your face and consider your next move.

Firstly, you need to know who Doctor Destruction's and Slip's benefactor is, those two can't have been acting alone, they didn't have the money to buy that stuff and they didn't have the connections meet with the people who sell it.

Secondly, you need to know what happened to Slip, why he decided that it would be prudent to help highjack the city-defending super-cannon and start blasting people with a hyper lethal kind of Inspired gas weapon.

With both these in mind there is only one thing to do, you need to talk to Doctor Destructi-

Your phone rings, interrupting you mid-decision, a quick glance tells you the name of the caller, Police Commissioner Caddel it is… it was mostly Adamant's job to deal with him.

In an instant the phone phone is at your ear and the call has been received, "Hello, Chimera speaking, what can I do for you?"

The perpetually nervous voice of Francis Caddel answers your question quickly, "Oh, uh, yes miss, uh, Chimera, sorry to bother you again after such a short time, I tried to call Adamant but I think his phone was broken again? Anyway I called to ask you two to let you know that we've, you know, pinned down the precise location of uh, Destruction's secret hideout, it only took this long because of the confusion from all of, well you know, the flairs and jet packs and stuff, anyway, again, sorry to bother you, but I was going to ask if you and Adamant would be willing to take a crack at it maybe?"

"Sure" you tell him, "I'll take a look at it in a few hours, is Destruction still safely in custody?"

"Oh, um, ah, yes of course, he's ranting and raving of course but my men can, uh, right, my men can handle some, uh, admittedly ghastly death threats." You smile in relief at his answer. "Thank you Commissioner, I'll starting looking into all that now."


O-O-O-O-O

[ ] Interrogate Doctor Destruction

[ ] Investigate Doctor Destruction's Hideout


You have gained the Thirst For Vengeance complication (somewhat self explanatory and to be added tomorrow when I'm not this tired)

It only takes a moment to decide, Destruction isn't going to be escaping any time soon but that base might well be scrubbed of evidence by Slip or any other accomplices if you take your time.

With that in mind you shoot into the air like a hawk on feathered wings filled with color and begin souring towards the base with utterly superhuman speed, it takes only a brief few minutes before you arrive, landing on the roof of the building it lays beneath with a gentle thud as your wings are reabsorbed into your back.

Although you wouldn't admit to anyone you're actually somewhat surprised at the location, you expected him to have done the sensible thing and found a warehouse out in the middle of nowhere with an owner who wouldn't ask too many questions.

Neither you nor Adamant had ever guessed he had been living in some old secret lair hidden underneath a hotel, especially one right in the middle of downtown.

If you weren't occupied with a much more important mystery you'd be most curious about how he managed to keep it a secret for so long and how why he just threw it away like this, especially since his exit plan involved blowing a big hole in the parking lot and shooting into the sky in his power armor.

On second thought maybe you shouldn't have ungrown your wings before you landed, it's kinda annoying to regrow them all over again before leaping into the pit and landing gently with a single flap of your wings, dropping into a crouch as you wait for the inevitable assault.

And Wait.

And Wait.

And uh, wait some more…

Eventually, after a longer period than you'll ever admit you realize that no one is coming to fight you and stop to take a more thorough look at your surroundings.

The room you've landed in is dry and dim and cold, its walls made of metal and its dimensions forming a wide half sphere which branches out into a dozen narrow tunnels, a series of sonic pulses showing you the shape of where they lead.

Once more you pull the wings into your back, they'll be awkward to maneuver in these tunnels and you're not out of the woods just yet.

Your ears sharpen and your footsteps soften as you wander the tunnels beneath the dim and flickering lights which hang overhead, sending intermittent sound waves down your path and stepping around plates rigged to activate the crude blade traps that seem to infest this place.

Finally you arrive in the largest room you could hear, and are happily surprised that your first guess was correct, this is the place where the big, central computer so common in these bases is located, whoever built it had been following a proper, traditional design, with an enormous pillar which stretched from the floor to the ceiling right in the center of the room with a computer screen and keyboard in its center.

The rest of the room was filled with a concentric ring of metal tables bolted into the floor, most of them covered in robot parts and empty fast food boxes which you leap over to land silently in front of the terminal, already attempting to access it the instant after you land.

Doctor Destruction, or perhaps the lair's original designer, had rigged up this computer with a pretty effective gauntlet of authentication, it needed an eye scan, a facial scan, and a fingerprint.

Unfortunately for him… well you're a shapeshifter, it honestly ends up rather anticlimactic and a moment later you're reading the Doctor's notes while wearing his face, this would be more helpful if he was any good at note taking in anything other than his robot making and a few voice recorded rants which promise incredible violence to a few of his former coworkers.

You make a note as you search for more immediately useful information to check underneath the park that he mentioned he would hide a body under, you'd never actually found Martin's body and it would be good to finally give his family some closure.

Finally, after a few minutes of searching you find a few, very recent notes, none more than a month old.

-Found new supplier, Slip finally accepted that job offer of mine, knows people.

That catches your interest, but nowhere near as much as the next note.

-After so long I finally have Madhouse sourced parts, P's vendetta is very useful.

You almost gasp as you read the words, your worst fears confirmed, The Madhouse was a group of infamous arms dealers, Inspired ones, with money and stockpiled weapons from half a century of dealings with every group imaginable.

Their services would certainly explain his access to the parts he'd used, and if anyone could have made more Blue-Gold G, it would be them, although you've never heard of them using or selling it, not even when Worldwalker and The Magos smashed a third of their pocket dimension a year and a half ago and dragged a quarter of the board to The Hague.

They also hadn't given it to any of the assassins they'd sent after the two of them, if they had they might amounted to more than a dozen embarrassing videos of very dangerous people crumpling on contact with the strongest and debatably third strongest superheroes alive.

Which brings you to another question, who the fuck is "P"? You can't recall anyone with that name, or even someone with that initial who has a problem with you and Adamant, was still free/alive, and could have the connections necessary to contact the Madhouse

Which brings you to the third and final relevant note, this one just 3 days old.

-Slip's shift in perspective pleasant, not sure where he got the grenades from or why they matter, will see about torturing it out of him once operation successful.

It's as you're considering this last note that you hear a distant clang of boots landing on a metal floor, silently you find a corner to lurk in as the footsteps slowly come closer and closer until a woman in what appeared to be a business suit and a domino mask, she carried a briefcase which, once she scanned the room for hidden dangers and missed you, she opened it revealing it to be full of explosives.

As she lays the first of them on one of the beams holding up the dome you emerge from hiding, "Hello, would you mind telling me what you're doing down here?" You ask, false politeness filling your voice as your body remakes itself for war.

The women laughs nervously as you step in front of the tunnels he came in through, "Ah, yes, I… did not expect you to show up so soon, I don't suppose you'd be willing to go back out there so I can finish setting these and then I can blow them all when-" as Mary continues to prattle on you- wait, Mary?

It hits you like a thunderbolt, you can remember her, flashes and impressions but memories nonetheless, her name is Mary, her favorite food is apple pie with vanilla ice cream, she's faster than normal human can comprehend and still tough enough to eat gunshots, and she was working with the people who killed Adamant.

She cuts herself off mid sentence, eyeing the murder in your gaze with trepidation.

"…Alright then, I suppose we're doing this," she gulps, muttering one last under your breath before you come to blows.

"…God, some people take things so personally."



O-O-O-O-O


[ ] Talk it out (Justice will not be denied)

[ ] Don't hurt her too badly
-[ ] Combat Plan:

[ ] Hold Nothing Back, Thrash her.
-[ ] Combat Plan:


Sorry for the update being late again.