Chapter 2: Don't Feed the Animals

Fuck it all, of course someone was calling him. Checking the caller ID, he groaned aloud as he saw it was Shadow. Immediately answering, he put on his best sarcastic tone and said "Hi there honey, I'm sorry I've been out of reach but I had a few errands to run."

"And while you've been doing that, people are being killed. Now I know it's not much of your business but yesterday a bunch of workers went missing along with two police officers and reports of a runner near another work site just went missing. We can guess what will happen next." Marcus said as he remembered what he searched up just earlier. News got out fast Marcus as found out when he noticed the missing runner only a hour ago and researched it was near one of those places.

"Just seems like trouble and seeing your the hero thought I would tell you." Marcus said before waiting for Revs reply.

"And what are you supposed to be?" Revenant replied sourly. "Last I checked, we're both supposed to be helping people. You need to call me for permission or something, or are you just trying to get into my pants?" Vaulting over a dividing block on a rooftop, James made his way aimlessly over the city, waiting also for the girl in his head to say something.

"Yea well I think I just tell you. You know sometimes things can be hard to defeat when alone and together as long as I don't throw anything we do pretty well. So if plants are on a killing spree then I would care a little more." Marcus hanged the phone up and placed a hand on his face along with a small sigh. He also forgot how stupid this kid could sound and be in serious situations. Even just trying to tell him people are dying he would do what he did.

"If you won't care then I guess I have one less thing to worry for too." Marcus said as he placed the phone in his pocket and walked back to catch up to Bella, seemed his day would be peaceful after all.

Wait a second. Did the Marcus I knew and loved come back for a second? Dark said almost happily as fond memory's of Marcus in his younger years and without the Revanant kid. Those were some good times.

"Asshole," Revenant growled as kept moving.

Should you really be so surprised? If you intend to be a hero, does that not mean you need to investigate the disappearances?

Yeah, yeah it does but I've got mutants being made by a still on the loose scientist, two crazy paramilitary groups hunting down vigilantes, including me. A thief running around with tricked out gear. A homicidal puppy killer in my head with an employer that knows who I am. And to top it off, my godfather thinks I'm suicidal. I DO NOT NEED ANYMORE HEAPED ONTO MY PLATE!

Silent throughout the small mental rant, Gestalt calmly replied No one ever said heroes led glamorous, comfortable lives. Even your comics show how heroes make sacrifices.

Giving it thought, James stopped on the next roof, sighing. I know. Believe me, I know. But Gestalt, I can't sacrifice anything else. And it seems like life disagrees with me, because despite putting a bunch of other powered people in this world it still feels like I'm getting punished the most.

Remember when you awoke. It was fun, seeing you yell when you rose on top of your dead body.

"Shut up."

And when you lost your arm on that train. Tell me has it fully regenerated or are you still using that one you made like your mask.

"If I could kill you. I would."

I thought you were already doing that darling. I mean honestly, I thought you would try earlier when I made you kill all those people, then again I made you practically insane then, it still confuses me that you were able to break that.

"Just keep talking Dark. You'll shut up soon enough." Marcus said to the demon as he crossed another road, memory's flashed as Dark had talked. Horrible memory's.

But you loved the time. I simply gave you a reason to live along with power, you pulled the trigger and held the gun. You can't blame me forever Mark. Are they still hunting you in Australia? You'd think the Australian government would send resources to help catch you here. Dark laughed a little as he felt anger about the human he was connected too. It was a taste he had long wished to taste again.

"I take it, however, the decision is not up to you? Will I speak to the person who's decision it is? I have a feeling not, as I would imagine their security detail would be very against the idea of an alien with dimensional powers being anywhere near them without a large measure of trust and countermeasures. In fact, if your media is anything to go by, I'm expecting to be held here for some time, working on both my research and products for your organization, possible reverse engineering my people's technology. Sound like a possibility?"

"Not exactly," Kat said. "My superiors can't meet because they're not present, though they are reviewing this meeting even as we speak. As for keeping you here to reverse engineer your tech......that was a separate, now defunct group's goal, and they're no longer in any capacity to commandeer your research." Standing up, Kat took her recorder and said "I'm just the one who makes the assessment and advises my superiors on what to do. But if it helps, I will advise them that if you agree to a select few terms, we may release you and your friend."

Anyway, none of this is worth making a fuss over, James said. Avaelli is still being silent, and Shadow wants me to look into things.......well, that's gonna be a problem since I've gotta get back home before Michael comes looking for me again. He'd have to head to Amy's house though, since that is where he was supposed to be anyway.

"Of course. I'll be happy to help. My comrade I cannot speak for, not until they wake up. Which I honestly don't know when that will happen. I am a researcher, not a doctor."

At almost that exact moment, Venere opened his eyes beneath his helm and tried to sit up, attempting to shift the weight of his gun off to the side. "Enseesa, eiya iufor?" He muttered, trying to ask his suit for a status. While most Asadantsu in complex or dangerous jobs wore living suit to help protect them and do their job better, very few talked to their suit. Most of it was done on a thought process that went below the consciousness, to where the line between suit and wearer almost vanished. The suit's thoughts were primitive, very basic, but could react in an almost limited AI fashion.

Chuckling, Kat was at the door when she said "Funny, that's sorta the reverse of a famous tv line.....well, be seeing you around, Urthus." With that, she left, walking down the hallway to the next room to debrief with her superiors.

And tear them a new one over not letting her see her brother.

In the meantime, with Venere, Odin had decided to put him in medical yes, but obviously not without precautions. He was in a box of a room, sterile white walls smoothed to a glossy sheen. A machine was hooked, as best it could be hooked anyway, to his person in an attempt to measure bio-signatures, everything from heartbeat to brainwaves. Cameras watched him from the four top corners of the room, alerting his hosts he was awake.

Urthus waved her goodbye and then sat and waited to know what to do next.

Venere looked around, his suit alerting him to the presence of devices attached to his body, or suit but it felt like his body. He whacked at a couple of them instinctively, knocking a few off while leaving others in place. The heart beat monitor, he sort of recognized, just from the sound. it was a beep, then a slow pause then another beep, almost half the speed of a humans. The figures on the screen of the device he didn't understand. "Enseesa, yeroiun regera? Torolyun?" Apparently his suit didn't know what this device said or where they were either. It did feed him memory however of pieces from the transport over, which made him wary.

Silence was the only answer Venere received, his hosts watching from the observation room.

In the meantime, Kat entered the briefing room, her superiors waiting for her.......at least on the vid-screen wall of their group chat session. "Ms. Conner," said he middle figure, a man looking to be in his forties with sandy brown hair and a weathered expression. "How exactly is our guest?" Shrugging, Kat said "Polite, considerate, and willing to play ball. Everything I've been, so I can only assume that just like me you're going to ignore his request."

Venere looked around a bit more, swinging his rather large weapon in one hand. "Ensta? Ensta isfai?" He called out, looking at the door, hoping someone would answer his greeting. "isfaiye Refhia?" He tapped the door with one hand and then banged on it a second later. "Ensta!" He was rapidly becoming annoyed.

Deciding to finally speak with him, a speaker in the room activated. "Please step away from the door and return to the bed," a male voice said. "This is for your own protection."

"We haven't ignored your request," the right hand figure said, a woman who sounded as if she was nothing but business. "We're simply waiting for the most opportune time." Growling slightly, Kat let it slide. Arguing with Odin's board would get her nowhere, so instead she said "Fine. Since we're sticking to Urthus.......I think we should let him and his friend go. He's not a threat to us, and might even be an ally. Showing this kind of olive branch could go a long way."

Venere turned his head to look at from where the sound came from. "Ensta? Ensta enrunia?" He looked around, trying to find the source of the strange sound, something like a language maybe? Definitely something said to him.

Maybe we should take a detour.

"What?"

You know, a small walk down an alley.

"I know what you mean now." Marcus wasn't in any mood to play games with the thing in his head. He was in the mood to sleep though nightmares that would come and continued though the snow until he would reach the block where Zeru had his underground place. Hoping Bella was way ahead of him in the matter.

"I repeat, step away from the door and back to the bed," the intercom said. "Should we get his friend?" the man asked from his office, referring to Urthus. "Maybe he'd have better luck."

Venere still didn't comprehend. He took the lead to the heart monitor off and made ready to bust the door down. He hunched up, legs spread apart and his gun held in a ready stance, though it was pointed down. "Enseesa, uniron aom." Even as he was saying this his suit was already reacting to his thoughts. The muscles along his legs tensed up, coiling upon themselves under the skin to store up kinetic energy. "Yena ver. Oyn, feiun..." He started counting down, at a pace slower then a second though.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" the guy over the intercom yelled. "Dammit, prime the stunners!" they shouted, and his compatriot did just that. The medical room was built for emergencies like these when.....enhanced, would be treated. Things varying from knock-out gas in the vents, electrical stun currents in the floor panels, or even sonic deterrents meant to subdue them. "Get that Urthus guy in here now!"

As Venere got closer to zero, he tensed up and shifted his weight to his forward leg, lifting his back one in the process. He brought his knee up to his chest in the same motion and slammed it forward into the door ahead. If it was any sort of reinforced, it might have a chance at staying intact, but if not, it was going right off the hinges. TO counter-act his kick, he let out the same amount of energy in his back leg, cracking the tiles directly under his foot.

Urthus meanwhile was gathered up from the interrogation room and quickly rushed to the infirmary. He would've portaled to get their faster, but he didn't know where it was in relation to the interrogation room.

Of course the door had been reinforced, though just barely being up to scratch against Venere's kick, denting the metal and cracking the wall on the other side. That was when the defenses were triggered; from the ceiling, a single solitary dish appeared on a swivel, taking aim at Venere. Locked on, it emitted a shrill, piercing sound, a sonic wail designed to overload the human brain and make it shutdown. It was unknown how it would work on someone who wasn't even human.

Venere didn't pass out, but he did swiftly drop his gun and attempt to cover his ears from the sound. "Yuera! Yuera! Teyueraot!" He shouted, dropping to the ground and trying to block out the horrible screeching noise invading his ears.

All the while, Urthus was ushered closer and closer, eventually ending up on the other side of the door, from which the sound could be barely heard, as well as the screaming. "Stop the noise. He's in pain. I need to get in there!" he all but shouted at the guards who had escorted him.

Suddenly, the noise stopped moments before the door opened.....albeit at a slow pace, squealing against the tile. It was crooked as hell now thanks to the kick. Before Urthus went in, a pair of armed guards went ahead with weapons raised and trained on Venere.

Urthus rushed to his comrade's side. "Asey, asey. Erea soon yara." he whispered, resting a hand on his comrade's shoulder. "Asey...asey...yunuia?" He asked, as Venere slowly unclasped his ears and looked around. "Venere. Teralon Aerson Tea Venere. Yunuia?" "Urthus. Frentiu Fanalan Asa Urthus. Erea soon yara, sum asey." Urthus looked up at the guards. "You can relax. He's just scared." "Urthus? Herayero tilul? Hereyeri yensul?" "Earth. Numilera Earth." "Earth? Numilera huntilo?" Urthus nodded and looked back up at the guards. "Please, put down your guns. He won't be a threat anymore."

Kat's conference call had of course been cut off; per standard Odin reg's, in the event of any emergency dealing with an enhanced individual, the base was put on alert and all outgoing communications not cleared by the site commander were cut off. So she was there at Venere's room when Urthus was telling the soldiers to put their guns down. "Weapons down," she said, and they followed the order, her word having some weight. Some, but not much. "Next time, it shouldn't have to be said that the patients get disarmed," she said coolly to a doctor, who flushed but said nothing. "And you're sure he's not going to be a threat?" she asked Urthus.

"For now, yes. If I would hazard a guess, that sound hit his Enseesa's resonance frequency. Sorry his uh...suit." "Enseesa? Enseesa!" He exclaimed and looked down at his suit, thoughts probing it for damage. The whole thing was in pain, and he could feel it, like having a rash all over, but it would be fine. "Urthus, enteroder Earthtsu nura Enseesa? Piwerunt afainye." "Earthtsu magara gerou teroiun."

"His suit can feel pain?" Kat asked, a little dumbfounded. "Leave it aliens to make the weirdest shit," she muttered, while looking on at the pair. "Can you get him to stay in the bed and cooperate? Tell him we mean no harm."

"It's more complex than that, think uhm...whatever, explain it later. Venere? Onsta donour? Vente?" Venere nodded, slowly getting up to his feet and reaching for his gun, the menacing looking shotgun crossed with a minigun.

As Venere's hand went for the weapon, the guards raised theirs, the safeties clacking off. Kat sighed and said "Are you sure you asked him to go back to his bed?"

Urthus nodded. "It's a thing among soldiers, I was explained, to never leave their weapons behind. Think of it like...uhm...animal companions. You wouldn't leave yours behind would you?" Venere looked around, rolling onto his back at all the guns aimed at him.

"Not really," Kat said. "Look, tell him that if he won't leave the weapons down, then at least lock them or put the safety on. Just to make us feel more at ease."

Urthus moved around to in front of Venere. "Venere, unaretsi lerion weryoa mefitoye?" Venere looked around at all the guns. "Reniluwer?" "Reni yanero." Venere slowly nodded and pulled his weapon over into his lap and flipped a couple switches along the bottom. "Okay. He'll keep it on safety any time someone is not in the room, all other times he'd prefer not to have his weapon muzzled. Again, like one of your animal companions."

"Yeah we're really gonna have to talk about the animal companion thing," Kat said. "Because last I checked, a dog or a cat isn't the same as an advanced alien gun...."

"You do use them for combat, do you not? To guard your homes?" Venere got up slowly, holding his rifle gingerly so as to not startle the people currently watching his every move. He really wanted them to just lower their guns and let him talk to Urthus in peace, but that didn't seem likely.

"Yes but for fucks sake they're not freaking firearms meant to kill......whatever that's meant to kill," Kat groaned. "How about my guys," she said, eyeing the soldiers, "take a step outside. I stay here to answer any questions. And he agrees not to shoot me?"

Urthus looked at Venere. "Nerostia?" "Nerostia." "Yes he agrees." Urthus replied, looking back at Kat. "With the implied the guards leave. If you want, keep the sound device ready, it's effective, if nothing else."

"Yeah but then I'm gonna get knocked out," Kat mumbled. The guards left, and she stood by the door. "Let's start with the basics; he's not a prisoner, this is......or at least was, a medical room. We were trying to see if we could heal him of any injuries, but the suit made that problematic. We don't mean him any harm, but by that we mean we won't fire the first shot. He comes at us though, and we will defend ourselves."

"Fair enough. Earlier he thought this was a prison, due to you attacking him when he tried to break free." "Urthus?" "Venere, enyoi arogutarea. Earthtsu herouli." "Neroyunoia. Enseesa femvar. Yreiul!" "He says he's uninjured, but thanks for your concern. Heroia beroiun." Venere slowly went over to the bed and sat on the edge, his primary gun resting on the floor against his leg. Urthus moved to stand at the foot of the bed, just next to the crack in the ground from where Venere had to kick off to knock the door away.

"I don't know anything about attacking him," Kat said quickly, "but you have.....well, someone's word at least, that we won't be attacking him first again." Just then, the base commander finally arrived. He wasn't the typical grizzled looking vet one might expect commanding a military base; he wore a simple business suit, salt and pepper hair trimmed short and his figure average. Looking at the two aliens, he made a small growling noise and said "I'm guessing the threat's dealt with now Ms. Conner?"

Shrugging, Kat said "As much as we can hope for sir."

"We won't attack you. He thought this was a prison, not an infirmary. I personally apologize for the trouble." Urthus responded. "If you need any reparations I will do what I can. Most I can offer is information, however." Venere looked at the new arrival, tilting his head and then looking at the floor, kicking his feet as he waited for Urthus to finish what he was doing.

"Well it tends to function as both," the commander said, eyeing Venere as he noted the impatient stance. "I'm Commander Wyle, base commander here. I take it that you're.....Urthus," he said, pointing to Urthus, "and someone whose name I don't know," he added, looking at Venere.

"I am indeed Urthus. And this is...well, I don't know his rank, but Soldier Venere. He was the unconscious one your men brought in. Again, I'm incredibly sorry for the damages, though I am glad he wasn't firing his weapon. That would've been...even more of a disaster."

"Yes well I'm afraid that while Ms Conner here has the best intentions, I cannot allow Venere to keep his weapon on hand while he is in our care," Wyle said. "He's already displayed a willingness to use aggression when things don't go his way. I'd rather that not happen again while he has access to weapons."

"As I explained to...Ms Conner, soldiers on my world have attachments over their weapons, equating it to things like an animal companion. What did she say...um...a dog or cat? IS that correct?"

"Dog or cat, yes," Kat said crisply. "Be that as it may," Wyle said somewhat sternly, "there are a hundred other people on this base whose well-being is of greater concern to me than your compatriot's personal attachment to his belongings." Sighing, Wyle looked from Urthus to Venere, then said "If you would translate for me, I'd speak to him."

"of course. Venere? Urenit Wyle, Earthtsu. Urenit anar orio?" Venere nodded, and stood up from the bed., bowing slightly to Wyle. "Urenit Wyle. Arei Teralon Aerson Tea Venere." "Commander Wyle. I am Teralong Aerson Tea Venere. Implied nice to meet you with the bow." Urthus translated. "Earthtsu mangei yeano." Venere muttered to Urthus with a soft chuckle, to which Urthus responded with a nod and a hand gesture, presumable a joke about humans.

Ignoring what was obviously an inside joke, Wyle then said "Greetings. Normally, first encounters like these would have a bit more.....weight. But that's a politicians game and I've no taste for politics. Venere, there are over a hundred people on this base whose lives and well being I take greater concern in, than your wish to remain armed. As a soldier, I can respect that desire, especially when in unfamiliar terrain." Pausing for slight effect, Wyle then said "So I ask you, soldier to soldier, to respect my duties to the people here at this base, and please disarm."

"Ensta. Yerioa, numioa pers alauo..." Urthus translated the whole things, pausing now and then to find the proper Asadantsu word for Venere. A minute later Venere replied. "He greets you, soldier to soldier and wishes you many kills for your people. He also asks that you consider the roles reversed, and instead of a simple tool for your job, that you were asked to give up your most faithful companion, whom you've fed and cared for 18 some years. In unfamiliar terrain, with something that might indeed be an enemy, would you, in his place, give up your companion to the potential enemy?" As Urthus replied, Venere looked ponderous for a moment, something remarkable with his helmet still up, and handed the gun over, cutting Urthus off midsentence. "uhm...i guess he changed his mind? Venere, fiolonii?" "Unteroia makarai skunteri." "He says he'll give up his primary, but insists on keeping his secondary. I'm going to assume it's less deadly."

"That's a start," Wyle said with a relieved sigh. "If it comforts him, tell Venere the weapon can stay in the room, just in a locked container. Considering the strength of his suit, that's little more than a formality to him."

Urthus relays the weapon and Venere nods, pulling out what looks like a shotgun with a crescent styled bayonet on the front end. "And there's his secondary." Venere says something and Urthus translates a moment later. "He accepts the offer of leaving it in a locked container, though he does ask it have air holes. Like I said earlier, similar to a dog or a cat."