The Becoming (Super Heroes)

[Simon_Jester]

Look, no offense meant; I was curious and extrapolating from my own experiences writing.

Thinking this over, I can see Black Arion is planning these kinds of relatively small-scale ops to knock back US intelligence agencies and all. The question in my mind is, what kind of countermoves are being planned here? What are Our Heroes thinking of doing next? We've got all this intel, but no plans on what to do with it yet have reared their heads.

[guest]

funny story, I originally read the title of this story as "The Baconing"

[Imperial Overlord]

Look, no offense meant; I was curious and extrapolating from my own experiences writing.

None was taken. If the subject of story x comes up then story x is more on my mind and I'm more likely to write about it. If, on the other hand, I'm in a much darker mood than story x is I'm more likely to write story y with its nastier tone. So if you want me to write about story x, talk about story x either in the thread, PMing me, or whatever.

Thinking this over, I can see Black Arion is planning these kinds of relatively small-scale ops to knock back US intelligence agencies and all. The question in my mind is, what kind of countermoves are being planned here? What are Our Heroes thinking of doing next? We've got all this intel, but no plans on what to do with it yet have reared their heads.

You should see things in motion shortly.

[Simon_Jester]

See, now that's what I wanted to hear!

Because you did a lot to set things up last time- Taskmaster reporting to Congress, plus the interrogation of Penumbra- so you have all this intel on how Black Arion works. In a sense, it's like a big pile of exposition, though, and I was very curious about where that information was going to go. Aside from the one raid on a base that ran into the Prophet, there wasn't much before. So that was the big thing I was hoping for now that this has restarted.

[Lerryn]

Thinking this over, I can see Black Arion is planning these kinds of relatively small-scale ops to knock back US intelligence agencies and all. The question in my mind is, what kind of countermoves are being planned here? What are Our Heroes thinking of doing next? We've got all this intel, but no plans on what to do with it yet have reared their heads.

A bit of analysis: I note that this team that got wiped out was CIA, and I seem to remember Taskmaster's group having a different designation. I suspect that means that either the leaks that allowed this are shortly going to be sealed, and the information conduits followed up aggressively, or that someone high up in CIA is going to get ripped a new one for not playing nice with Taskmaster. On the other hand, Black Arion is probably expecting those sources to get burned, so there will be contingency plans in place. Ah, intel games. Fortunately, Taskmaster's better at it (or so I like to think).

[SCRawl]

I hope the author will correct me if I'm wrong, but these are all essentially the backstory for a role-playing character, right? I used to be in a few campaigns for the old "Marvel Super Heroes" RPG, so naturally these kinds of stories are quite interesting to me.

[Imperial Overlord]

I hope the author will correct me if I'm wrong, but these are all essentially the backstory for a role-playing character, right? I used to be in a few campaigns for the old "Marvel Super Heroes" RPG, so naturally these kinds of stories are quite interesting to me.

You are correct.

[LadyTevar]

I hope the author will correct me if I'm wrong, but these are all essentially the backstory for a role-playing character, right? I used to be in a few campaigns for the old "Marvel Super Heroes" RPG, so naturally these kinds of stories are quite interesting to me.

Indeed. I keep telling him he should take it in a different direction from how the game went, as it became clusterfuck of power-creep. Especially since InGameTime, my character is only 16yrs old and just getting good as her career. It will be 2010 before Blackheart meets Argent.

[Imperial Overlord]

September 19, 2002

Taskmaster turned away from his computer screen is disgust. Photos of a cratered wreckage filled the screen, along with several wordy analysis documents thick with acronyms and heavy with self satisfaction and triumphant projections. He leaned back in his chair to ponder his path.

The intelligence he had obtained had been shared at the White House briefings with too many agencies and organizations. They had all wanted a piece of the high profile pie, the great big magic source of funding and influence and every single one had a plan to show why it should be theirs. Every single one jostling for the hand of presidential approval that would win them territory in the bureaucratic and budget wars.

The Airforce had won, at least in the short term. Bunker busters, fuel air explosives, daisy cutters, cluster bombs and the entire Cold War arsenal of munitions and warheads were sold along with the shining image of casualty free surgical strikes. Friendly casualties that is.

What they delivered was wreckage. Not prisoners, not data bases, not even certain casualties. Investigators were going through the ruins of the the two alleged bases for every recoverable clue and to identify the bodies but that would take time to deliver anything of value, if it ever did. When it came to bombing metahuman terrorists there was only insufficient firepower and total overkill. The latter was clearly employed here.

The results were garbage, of course. The CIA was blocking him because they wanted their teams, which were decimated, to get the glory or no one. Justice didn't have the pull to compete with the spooks or the military. The top military brass preferred conventional weapons over metahuman ops for the most part and besides they wanted the money flowing towards their own acquisition programs.

The President was a dull man, far out of his depth in this matter. Black Arion wasn't going to get the apocalypse they were trying to make, but they might set the fuse to another one by trying. He could do his job and report the next lead he had to the White House and endure more of this and watch the last of his leads be wasted as the terror war grew hotter or he could act on his own.

They would not forgive him for this. Not the president, not the control driven ideologues and opportunists who surrounded him and certainly no the other military and intelligence agencies who he would make look like impotent fools. Especially if he was proven right. Acting on this would be career suicide.

He picked up the phone. Underneath the armour of ice and the bonds of discipline Taskmaster was a man who thought of himself as a human being first and an American citizen second and everything else a distant third. He sent men and women into the situations where some of them would likely die. Compared to that the loss of his career wasn't much. Compared to what could happen to the world it wasn't much at all.

He picked up the phone and called. "It's me." He paused. "There is something that needs to be done. Come to my office immediately. Pack for traveling."

[Imperial Overlord]

Patricia was waiting beside his car, wearing her trademark leather jacket. "Get in," Taskmaster said as he slid into the driver's seat.

"Sure thing boss," Patricia replied. She opened the passenger side door of the black Merc and settled inside. "What's this about?" she asked as she drew the seat belt across her chest.

"This is off the books. I didn't tell you that. This never happened and if it did, you certainly thought that it was legitimate." He turned the engine over and the car hummed to life.

"That's why the solo ride," she said. "I was wondering. Why not independent contractors?"

"The growing class of metahuman mercenaries is too dangerous and destabilizing. It will only get worse when they realize they are collectively more powerful than most nations. They'll develop an Olympian class identity."

Patricia was quiet for a moment. "And the rest of us?"

Taskmaster drove the car out into the rain, flicking on the windshield wipers. "We, at least, are retain our ideals." He looked both ways and then pulled into the street.

"So does the Sentinel."

"It is one of his admirable qualities. Too few of our new demigods are loyal to things larger than themselves. This case also requires your specialist skills." He accelerated hard, running the car up to the speedlimit despite the rainslick streets and then pushing past.

"How bad are things?" Patricia whispered.

"What is the most feared power?" Taskmaster asked.

"Mind control," she replied as the world slipped by in a multrichromatic blur.

"No," he replied. "Too easily detected and too easily countered by multikey systems. The most feared power is teleportation. A large teleport bomb offense allows instantaneous decapitation and destruction of most second strike capability."

"Except the subs."

"That's why both sides built so many. Black Arion has a handful of nuclear devices and it has teleporters. And everyone is sneaking and teleporting hardware and metahumans around, trying to get the jump on everyone else."

"Jesus Christ. You can't seriously mean-"

"The chance of it triggering a nuclear war in the next two years is less than one in five. That's not the real threat. Transformation into anti-metahuman police states is already happening. Black Arion is dying, but it may succeed in laying the foundation for a future race war. The number of metahumans has been steadily growing since World War Two and now one metahuman terrorist group is capable of teleport nuclear terrorism. Would you care to guess about what the CIA is projecting for the next twenty years?"

"So, what are we doing?"

"Ending it instead of having an interdepartmental pissing match. Everyone wants a slice of the Black Arion pie, too much prestige and money involved. Everyone whether or not they're any good at stopping them and they are playing bureaucratic hardball to ensure they will get their swing at bat. That means sidelining us and letting the situation deteriorate."

"So we're fucked."

"I took an oath of loyalty to this country," said Taskmaster, "not to my career. And my loyalty to the human race, baseline and metahuman, requires no oath."

"Same here," Patricia said. "Fuck it, I thought this job would kill me by thirty anyway."

They drove in silence for awhile before they met traffic again and Taskmaster slid into the Beltway. He winded his way through DC's nicer streets. It was late enough out that the traffic had dwindled to an annoyance.

He pulled over and stopped. "See the coffee shop there?"

"The Starbuck's?"

"Yes. The woman with the laptop near the window."

"Got her."

"She's one of theirs, if you can follow the data points."

"You're sure?"

"The chances of error is too low to be significant."

"You're asking me to cook her brain."

"Hack is closer. Disable, read, implant commands."

"Jesus fucking Christ boss. Making meat puppets is something I signed up to stop."

"She's already a meat puppet," said Taskmaster. "They did that. We're making them pay for it."

[White Haven]

Hooboy, that's a dark road, this could get...ugly.

[Hawkwings]

While teleportation is probably the most feared by governments, organizations, etc, I feel that mind control is much scarier on a personal, visceral level. After all, no matter how bad things get you can do something about it, but being held captive in your own mind while your body goes off and accomplishes the agenda of another is terrifying.

[Imperial Overlord]

September 22, 2002

Sidestep resisted shuddering as he walked down the concrete walled corridor. The underground facility was secret, massively reinforced, and supposedly immune to every conventional weapon in the American and Soviet arsenal. He could hear his footsteps echo down the corridor. The god damned place was a god damned tomb. He could see the cruise missile closing in and the new sun rising right over them. Fuck.

He heard steps behind him, the walk of a heavier man. He turned to look. The Alchemist was a bit on the short side and heavy, with a full mane and beard of grey hair. In dress and manner he seemed to be a slightly eccentric college professor.
"Ah Sidestep. How are you?"

"Uh good I guess."

The Alchemist came up beside him and slapped the slim man on the shoulder. "Good good. I have synthesized some truly marvelous alcohol. You must try some."

The Black Arion base was actually rather well stocked with a variety of alcoholic drinks. Sidestep had been working his way through the German beer and the French brandy each night. "Uhm, that's a generous offer-"

"So you'll accept," said The Alchemist, slapping him on the back and chortling. "Splendid. Come this way."

"Sure," said Sidestep, resigned to spending the evening with the other meta, drinking his beaker flask rotgut. At least there would be booze. "Hey. I thought you couldn't do organics."

"Not at all," said The Alchemist with a smile. "Organic life is generally too complicated for me to recreate, but simple molecules are simple molecules." The Alchemist lead Sidestep around a corner and down a hall. "All these halls look the same."

"Yeah," said Sidestep as The Alchemist opened a steel door. "And here we are." The room inside was sparsely furnished with a couch, a bed, a desk and several chairs. Another door lead to a small bathroom. A tall blond man wearing a form fitting, dark grey bodysuit sat in one of the chairs. He was filling a glass from the beaker on the table.

"Ah Silencer," said The Alchemist. "Started without us."

"Didn't think you would mind," the blond man replied coldly.

"Of course not," said The Alchemist with considerable false cheer. "We're all friends here." He closed the door with a loud clang. "Down here in the Fuhrer Bunker."

"Heh," said Sidestep, laughing nervously. The Alchemist filled a mug from the beaker and passed it to him. "Thanks," said the teleporter.

"You're welcome," said The Alchemist. He poured himself a mug. "To those about to die." He raised his mug. Silencer raised and drank and then finally so did Sidestep. The meta grimaced as he took a drink. The hellbrew burned like fire.

"Can you dial it down a little?" said Sidestep. "I mean if Chronus hears . . ."

"It might sound a little defeatist?" said The Alchemist. Silencer chuckled. "Well," said The Alchemist, "it's not like we aren't being defeated is it? We're down to our last bolt holes and the war we were supposed to ignite isn't happening. How much longer do you think we have?"

"But what can we do?" said Sidestep. "Prophet and Chronus aren't exactly the forgiving types."

"They're both mad and they make each other worse," said The Alchemist bluntly. "The Prophet from his powers and Chronus, well who knows about Chronus. He's pushing ninety and has been a brain in a jar in a robot body for fifty years. That's enough to drive anyone insane."

"So what do we do?" said Sidestep. "The Man will crush us like bugs without them."

"We've been thinking about that," said Silencer. "We have a plan. An exit. While we can."

"And you need me to move," said Sidestep. "Fuck."

"Money won't be a problem," said The Alchemist. "Not with me around. Chronus is doing the same damn thing as last time, building a thousand year reich in ten fucking years. It's not going to work, but we can sit back and watch the fireworks. Keep low, work on a few things, and watch the world get closer to the flash point."

"Work on things?"

"It's not like I'm going to abandon all the work that has been done. Chronus's hard light projection technology is very promising, just look at those kids with the rings, whatever they call themselves; and the gene work and conditioning. . . all very good. And that's just what exists now, not the projects that are on the back burners, so to speak. Stash a base somewhere really out of reach and get to work. With unlimited funds . . ."

"I vote for the dark side of the moon," said Silencer.

"It could be done" said The Alchemist. "Of course, why stop with one base? Matter transmutation is so very useful. Or we could wait for the Americans or the Russians to kill us along with the Nazi relic and the power drunk madman."

"Fuck man," said Sidestep, "if it means getting out of this shit alive I'm with you."

[Simon_Jester]

So, their idea is to take the supertech and run, presumably to somewhere Chronus and the Prophet can't find them? That would be handy.

[White Haven]

I think their idea is more 'cut and run just before the hammer falls so those two have much, much bigger problems to worry about.'

[Grimnosh]

I think their idea is more 'cut and run just before the hammer falls so those two have much, much bigger problems to worry about.'

Somehow I think tracking a teleport capable meta isn't going to be anything close to easy, and with the Alchemist's ability to make money (literally) they should have more then enough funds to stay hidden quite well.

Personally I am not sure of the Alchemist's motivations were in joining Black Arion to begin with. His matter transmutaion is much more versitile then most people would think as he can literally make more then enough valuable materials for himself to live a life of luxury (mass produce gold or gems) or just get by on a low key (make a few nuggets of gold or raw gems and "find" them on a public gold/gem mine to sell, not too much but just enough to live well without being obvious). Hell the ability could even be used for the benifit of all mankind by disposing of toxic materials like spent nuclear fuel rods and producing rare materials that the world use a lot of such as rare earth minerals and magnets which are used in all electronics. Of course if he wanted to he could also shaft the Stock Market Exchange by creating so much of x material (say platinum or silver) and leave it scattered all around to cause the stock prices to powerdive into the ground.

[Simon_Jester]

He may have started out ideologically committed, only to discover that the leadership was crazy and that they'd get him killed. He may have some personal reason to think a human/meta war sounds like a good thing, something that wouldn't make a lot of sense to outsiders. He may be vulnerable to blackmail- having done things criminal enough that he can't afford to go straight, so he goes all out in favor of the criminal underworld, and Chronus 'trusts' him because the Alchemist knows he can be thrown to the wolves at will.

[LadyTevar]

He may be vulnerable to blackmail- having done things criminal enough that he can't afford to go straight, so he goes all out in favor of the criminal underworld, and Chronus 'trusts' him because the Alchemist knows he can be thrown to the wolves at will.

I refer you back several pages to Diva, the Arion meta whose pheromones allowed her to convince those around her to do her bidding. One of the things Black Arion did was make sure to have Diva ask her friends do certain tasks that could later be used as Blackmail.

[Imperial Overlord]

No meta joins Black Arion for money. That goes triple for The Alchemist who does nothing at all for money, since he can literally turn lead into gold. Black Arion is essentially a milleniast cult, complete with an apocalypse with all the nasty parts of the Book of Revelations and metahumans issuing in a utopia where they rule like god-kings at the end. It's exactly the kind of thing a crazy nazi brain in a jar with a powerful robot body who is tight with an unstable, brutally powerful metahuman from a very religious background and messianic delusions would come up with. On the other hand, very smart and stable people also have apocalyptic human versus metahuman wars on the brain, thus demonstrating evil and crazy aren't the same things as stupid.

I don't intend to go into too much detail about The Alchemist's motivations for joining Black Arion and its very much the kind of organization that's very hard to leave and once you're in you're a marked man for life. Suffice to say, matter transmutation comes with some downsides. Being able to make plutonium out of thin air does not encourage governments to stay out of your business and puts you at the head of the kidnap list for every government and terrorist organization with nuclear ambitions.

[Simon_Jester]

Though I imagine there are other people out there with transmutation powers*, and that some of them do work for governments doing things like disposing of nuclear waste, or possibly making plutonium for a national nuclear program or something... but the Alchemist just happens to be Black Arion.

*(most meta powers seem to be fairly common, or at least non-unique; the 'flavor' of the ability may vary but the abilities themselves have largely been indexed and catalogued)

[Imperial Overlord]

*(most meta powers seem to be fairly common, or at least non-unique; the 'flavor' of the ability may vary but the abilities themselves have largely been indexed and catalogued)

Some powers are common, some are not. Teleporters are rare and matter transmuters show up once in a blue moon.

[RazorSmile]

I'm delighted that this fic is still ongoing. Been following it for like three years now (this and "Lurching Towards Ragnarok").

Question: is Black from "Lurching" connected to Black Arion in any way?

[Imperial Overlord]

I'm delighted that this fic is still ongoing. Been following it for like three years now (this and "Lurching Towards Ragnarok").

Question: is Black from "Lurching" connected to Black Arion in any way?

Black was head of the SS metahuman program. Chronus was a scientist in said program, back before he was an evil brain in a robot body. Without giving away any secrets, yes he is.

[Simon_Jester]

*(most meta powers seem to be fairly common, or at least non-unique; the 'flavor' of the ability may vary but the abilities themselves have largely been indexed and catalogued)

Some powers are common, some are not. Teleporters are rare and matter transmuters show up once in a blue moon.

What I mean is, is Alchemist the only transmuter in the world, or are there, say, five of them in the world? Ten? Fifty?

Any of those would be 'rare' compared to the number of people out there with super-strength or other relatively common abilities, but there's a huge strategic difference between Alchemist being the only transmuter in the world and Alchemist being one of ten or fifteen people who can do the same thing.

[Imperial Overlord]

There are a handful at best and the Alchemist is most versatile and powerful.