I Am Lestranger Than You

Lucien, Damien, Abraham, and Raphael Lestrange Age: 35 Ability: Replication The ability to create identical clones of oneself. Can recombine with clones to merge knowledge and experiences. Limits: If a clone dies or becomes injured, the pain may be inflicted on the original. Energy is used in creating copies, so a limit may be set on the number or size of the copies. If the Alpha is taken out, the copies will not sustain themselves. Nexus(Damien) Protect(Abraham) Rogue(Raphael) Neutral(Lucien) Heroes RP

[aka-sylar]

Open

[aka-sylar]

“Finally! I thought I had lost my touch of healing.” Sylar smiled. “Oh right, I kill to get other people’s powers more under control.” Sylar tried to scare the doctor a bit. He liked teasing other people, because most people know him as the killer of the Protect. They knew of what he was capable of. Sylar wasn’t anything like what he was before. He become less monster and more human. The urge to kill is sometimes still there, but he has learnt to control it. At least when he’s around Protect people. He would still use his killing powers on other people he doesn’t like. 

Sylar took the clothing of the doctor’s clone and put them on. “I guess exit is there?” Sylar asked as he pointed towards the door. “Whatever you did doc, it worked.” Sylar smiled. He didn’t have his healing powers under control until now. He still didn’t understand why it took him so long to heal. Maybe the person who was controlling his mind did something to him. Sylar had no idea how that person would have done something like that.  He walked towards the door. “Oh, thanks for patching me up, not that I really needed that.”

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

Abraham stared at Sylar in shock, not sure if what his patient had said was some kind of horrible, horrible joke. The way he said it though and all the abilities... the doctor thought he just might be telling the truth. “That- that’s horrible.” Of course he knew that people killed, it was an unfortunate fact of the world. But Abraham was a through and through pacifist, so to hear someone who said they killed others so nonchalantly... it deeply disturbed him. Now all he could think about were the poor souls that were gone because of this man. But if he was in Protect then he couldn’t be that bad... could he?

“Yes, just make a right and you’ll eventually hit the main entrance.” Abraham almost felt like he was on autopilot. He was thanked for work he didn’t do, which any other time he’d have immediately informed his patient that he hadn’t done anything and that no thanks was necessary. Though even if he had done something, he’d still say no thanks was necessary. And even though Sylar could heal, the doctor had never just let a patient leave like he was. But most of all, at the core of everything he was going through, he mostly felt one thing towards Sylar: “I feel so sorry for you...” he said quietly as he watched Sylar walk away.

[aka-sylar]

Open

[aka-sylar]

Sylar relaxed a bit as he heard the doctor explaining the situation. Sylar had never been in this wing, so maybe it was the medical wing of the Protect. As soon as he heard Peter’s name, he probably was safe. Still it was hard for Sylar to trust the person who was standing in front of him. He had never liked people who could clone themselfs, it reminded him too much of Eli from the circus. Maybe this guy was different, but still Sylar didn’t like people in general. He used to hate talking to them as they don’t understand him and he liked to kill them. Which made them think that he was some kind of monster and maybe he was, but he just couldn’t help it. The urge to kill was just too big back then. 

“I don’t need an examination or water. I don’t need anything!” Sylar yelled. He took off all the wires that were wired on his body. “Where are my clothes?” Sylar asked. He wanted to report to Peter what he did in California. He put out his IV and stood up. He felt a bit dizzy, but he knew that it was going away soon enough. He looked around hoping that he would find his clothes, but he couldn’t see it. “Where are my clothes?” Sylar asked again, this time impatient.

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

The sudden yelling took Abraham off-guard, and before he could even try to respond, his patient was ripping off wires and getting out of bed. “Sir, you need to calm down! There are other patients here who need rest and your yelling will disturb that.” The doctor had had to deal with many trying patients in all his years of practicing medicine, but it seemed like the ones he got at Protect were especially hard to deal with. That probably came from the high concentration of post-humans. When you had a power that allowed you to do things no one else could, you forgot that you still had very human limits.

He placed a stern hand on Sylar’s chest to try and keep him in place, for all the good he was sure it would do. “I will get you something to wear, but until I know you’re alright, I can’t in good conscience allow you to leave without making sure you... you...” Abraham trailed off as he saw the wounds his patient had inflicted on himself getting up heal before his eyes. “You can regenerate.” One of his clones walked up at that point holding a pair of scrubs. Abraham stopped trying to hold Sylar in place and allowed his clone to hand Sylar the clothing. “I don’t know what happened to your clothes, but these should do for the time being.” Electricity, some kind of enhanced strength or telekinesis, regeneration. Just what was this patient of his?

[aka-sylar]

Open

[aka-sylar]

Sylar had no clue of what had happened and how he got on the medical wing of the Protect. He tried to remember, but he just couldn’t. Maybe with the help of someone he could, but for now his memories were pushed somewhere in a dark box in his brains. “Who did you tell me you are? I’ve never seen you around here.” Sylar asked with a distrusting voice. Sylar never was the trusting type. He didn’t like it people asking him the question and for sure he didn’t like doctors. It all made him think of the expirements they once did on him. He didn’t like that at all. He had sweared that something like that would never happen to him again or he would kill them all…oh that’s right he did kill them all. Not that he really cared about that, he had killed before. 

Sylar felt that not everything was alright with him. There was some sort of weakness he felt. He has never had such a feeling. He always was the strong one, the one who never got defeated. The one who always finds his way through things. “What happened, what did you do to me? Does Peter know this?” Sylar asked looking at the guy who had introduced himself as doctor Abraham. He could see in his eyecorners that there was more than one doctor around. “What are you? A clone?” Sylar asked confused and really started to get angry. Was he really at the protect medical wing? Sylar really started to ask questions in his mind. Was this all a set up?

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

It wasn’t unusual for the patients he had come in here to wake up confused. And unfortunately, due to the nature of the kinds of people that came to Protect for help, some level of violence or danger was usually inevitable. Abraham was patient though and held no ill will towards the actions they might take upon waking. This was a place of peace and healing, and getting angry over things his patients couldn’t control wouldn’t help. “Doctor Abraham Lestrange. I’m almost exclusively in this part of of Protect HQ, so unless you’ve-” He had to turn and cough again. “Unless you’ve come here before we probably haven’t had the pleasure of meeting.”

He waited through Sylar’s next round of questioning before answering. “I haven’t given you anything yet, I’d just arrived and started examining you when you woke. And I’m sure Mr. Petrelli will be informed of your arrival as soon as he arrives.” One of the said clones arrived with a glass of water, which Abraham gladly accepted to help with his throat. “Yes, I’m a post-human with the ability to clone myself. It’s very useful for dealing with multiple patients or serious cases.” He gave Sylar a friendly smile. “You seem very lucid, which is good, but would you mind if I continue my examination to make sure everything is alright with you? Would you like a glass of water or something to help make you more comfortable?”

[aka-sylar]

Open

Sylar had been running through the streets of Manhattan. He was back from his trip to California and now someone had chased him from there on. He had no idea of what he wanted from him. He didn’t even know if the person even really existed. He had met a person in California who plays tricks with people’s mind, just like Matt Parkman. Sylar had been away for a long time and nobody was probably really missing him. Sylar stopped running to look around, to see if the person was still following him. But suddenly he was gone, the person he had be running from was just gone.

Everyone started to disappear peace by peace until noone was left in the city. It was like Sylar’s biggest nightmare he had been in a few years ago, because Matt had brought him there. Still something was different. Sylar kept running to the Protect building and when he almost reached it, the city started to fade away until everything went black. He opened his eyes and suddenly he was lying in a bed not realising he was choking the person who was hanging over his body. As soon as he realised he let go of the other persons neck. 

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

There was quite a ruckus at Protect HQ when Abraham arrived to start his rounds. Which was especially strange because he arrived earlier than most. Usually the only people he ran into were the skeleton crew getting packed up to go home and sleep. But in his short walk from the entrance to the medical wing, every face he saw was wide awake and alert, and every mouth quietly chattering to any available ear about what was happening. The only information Abraham was able to gather before entering the medical wing though was a someone whispering “Sylar’s back.” That name meant nothing to Abraham.

Another surprise waiting for him were three beds being taken up by patients. “What happened?” he asked one of the night shift nurses. “They were the ones who carried him in,” she explained and pointed to a patient in the back that Abraham hadn’t noticed “Got electrocuted for their trouble.” Abraham nodded and immediately made three clones of himself to take care of the nearby patients before heading back to see the one who had caused so much commotion. Another clone appeared to take Sylar’s pulse as Abraham opened one of the man’s eyes and shone a light. Suddenly the doctor’s nearby clone flew across the room, impacting hard enough to dissipate, and Abraham found himself staring into Sylar’s eyes as a hand cut off his airflow. Then as quickly as it began, it ended and the other man released him, allowing Abraham to breathe again. “It’s-” he couldn’t help coughing, his windpipe was probably bruised from the man’s grip. “It’s fine, it’s fine.” He waved off the nurse and his other clones who had run over to help. The other patients needed it more right now. “I’m Doctor Abraham Lestrange. Can you tell me what happened to you?”

[whitewingednoa]

Rooftop Confessions | Raphael & Noa

[whitewingednoa]

Noa listened to his plans, although she didn’t quite understand how he could execute them, she believed he could do it. Still, to talk about ways to put down Nexus wasn’t exactly what was on her mind. She nodded and agreed with him nonetheless, even smiling. “Yeah, both seem like pretty good options anyway, so,” she gave a small shrug. She didn’t know how to tell him everything that Lucien told her. However, she figured the best way to say was to, well, say it. Noa wasn’t really known for beating around the bush. “Hey, funniest thing happened a while ago,” she said with a chuckle as if it was no big deal what she was going to say. “I thought I saw you in Central Park?” She ended with an inflection to show how crazy the situation was. “And when I approached I found out it wasn’t you!” Her soft chuckle turned into a laugh. “It was one of your clo—brothers? Lucien.” She still wasn’t sure how they liked to refer to each other and didn’t want to offend.

The smile remained on her face, although it wavered only slightly because obviously Lucien didn’t think so nicely of Raphael and so she doubted the feeling was not mutual. Although, she didn’t want him to get upset, but she needed to know the truth. No matter what it was. “He, um, he said he’ll be seeing you very soon.” Chewing on the inside of her lip, she glanced down momentarily knowing that probably wasn’t going to sit well with Raphael. “Very ominous that guy, huh?” Her chuckle wasn’t so strong this time around, but she knew she had to come out with it and now that it was out, she couldn’t take it back in. she only hoped their friendship wouldn’t be ruined by whatever Raphael would say. Whether he truly was the awful guy Lucien made him out to be or not. She was just tired of avoiding the one good friend she had in New York.

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

Raphael raised an eye in interest when she said she’d thought she’d seen him in Central Park, wondering where this story was going to go. As soon as she said it was one of his brothers though, the humor drained from his face. When she said it was Lucien, all his clones immediately halted at their various stages of rappelling or gathering gear. Raphael’s gaze turned ice cold and he looked away into the New York night. So Lucien had finally come to find me. Bastard should have stayed away. “His bark is worse than his bite, I wouldn’t take anything he says too seriously.” He looked at Noa again, trying to gauge the rest of the conversation she’d had with his brother. Her smile was still there, but he could tell it was a little forced. Damn Lucien, he always had to fuck up everything.

Raphael let out a sign. “He told you about her didn’t he?” That woman who destroyed them. And in return, he destroyed her. “Yes, I killed her. One shot, right to the back of her skull.” His clones turned and continued about their business, and now that the cat was out of the bag, Raphael’s gaze softened a bit and he looked back at Noa. “I told you that I had a lot of anger issues, but I may have have downplayed it a bit. When I first... came into being, I had all of the anger of our original being. One person’s anger might not seem too bad, but it was a big part of me. And...” he groaned in frustration. Words were not his strong suit. That was Lucien’s gift. Thinking about him didn’t help any though. “Let me back up. When we all split, we each got parts of the whole. And whatever the biggest parts we got were, that became... the core of who we each were. I got the drive, I was the one who could and would succeed no matter what obstacle was put in front of me. I also got the anger though. And that night when Lucien refused to rejoin with us and we each went our separate ways permanently, I followed him. I just saw red, and when I saw her, I snapped.”

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

@Moria

[moria-ayres]

No matter how many times she’d undergone these procedures she could never rid herself of her apprehensive state of mind when she came through the doors. It was always the same process, incessant poking and prodding, making her feel like just another disposable test subject rather than an actual human. Moria gave the man a curt nod and took her seat as instructed. She didn’t recognize him as any of the regular scientists that would work on her, but she didn’t ponder on it much. “Do whatever you must, the pain doesn’t concern me. I can endure much worse than a needle.”

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

As soon as she sat, Damien’s clones moved forward to begin inspecting their patient. The first wrapped a blood pressure monitor to her arm, the second shone a light into her eye, and the other two got the equipment to draw her blood ready. “Blood pressure is below average for someone her size,” the first clone reported. “Pale skin and signs of fatigue are evident,” the second followed. “Sounds like minor anemia,” Damien explained to her. “You should add more protein and iron into your diet. It’ll increase your blood production and help give you more energy. Nexus wants you to donate as often as possible, so best not to disappoint.” He rolled up her sleeve as his clones moved to exchange their tools. “Hm. You’ve certainly had this done quite a bit haven’t you?” ran a gloved finger over her inner arm which was strewn with countless needle marks. A clone returned with a cotton swap to sterilize the area as another clone handed Damien the needle. “Try to remain relaxed, you’re going to feel a slight pinch,” he said as he pushed the needle into her arm.

[detective-cross]

“Another look a like case.” Maxwell responds with a chuckle, writing down all the necessary information on a small note pad. He was still searching for Barbara, twin to his co-wroker Tracy who would probably get a kick out of knowing he was investigating this case. “Well often people are best at hiding from someone they know already, so an outside perspective on things usually helps.” The detective adds before flicking some ashes absent-mindedly. He found it a bit funny that a few years back he hadn’t the slightest clue post-humans existed, andnow nearly all of his cases reolved around them. He is already thinking of ways to approach the situation, who to call, where to start looking. “Approach with caution.” Maxwell iterates aloud while writing down the words before he asks Lucien. “What’s his ability?”

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

Lucien pulled on his cigarette as Maxwell jotted notes, made observations, and then asked follow-up questions. “Approach with extreme caution, I can’t emphasize that enough.” He didn’t want to scare Maxwell off, but he wanted another death on his conscience even less. “His ability is Cloning. So if you do manage to locate him, make sure he doesn’t spot you. Otherwise it’ll turn from one-on-one to five-on-one before you can blink.” His cigarette was only half-finished, but he dropped it and stamped it out anyway. Not even the smoke could mask the bad taste he got in his mouth when he talked about his brother. “If you think this might be a little more than you can handle, I understand.”

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

@Moria

Damien had been told that he was needed for a crucial procedure because the previous professional had object to continue on moral grounds and that he was chosen because his ability and background left him uniquely suited to carrying it out. He was also ordered to tell no one that this procedure was taking place. All that was fine by him. He’d even arrived early with his clones to make sure everything had gotten set up and sterilized to his liking before his patient arrived. He was just examining one of the syringes he was expected to fill when he heard the door open and his patient entered the room. “Welcome. Please take a seat and I will try to make this as quick and painless as possible.”

[thickskincarlin-deactivated2016]

The Northwest side? Got it. I’ll keep that in mind while I look around. What’s underground?” The whole organization seemed like it should be, given their nature. But, hey; having a place to stay like this wasn’t a bad thing. She smiled at him. Never had the chance to try my hand at it. I’m guessing you’re a good shot though?

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

Oh underground is where all the fun stuff really is. Raphael reached into the bag and pulled out a pistol. If it has a trigger, I can fire it. And fire it very, very well. He then tossed the gun forward and one of his clones appeared to catch it. But I also get more chances to practice. He smirked at Spencer and walked forward to open up a door that led to the basement and the underground. So... you wanna learn?

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

@Nexus

[helenrhoades-blog-deactivated20]

A short battery life for a micro drone — seems like he still has some work cut out for him. But, to be working here, he must be pretty qualified for his position. He’s got good equipment as his disposal, too, which doesn’t hurt. He’ll get there, just one literal step at a time, it seems. “Okay, good to know.” She doesn’t want to get in the way of the clones who are looking all over, so she teleports across the room to the workbench in the corner. Before anything else, she checks beneath her own feet before bending down to look closely at the floor. “What were you doing with the drone when it got lost?”

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

One moment she was speaking almost next to him, then she was across the room speaking to him. “Did you run over there?! Didn’t I just say not to-” Damien knew anger was futile at this point since the deed was done, but he felt it nonetheless due to the stress and frustration he was feeling. “Teleporter,” one of his clones said curtly to cut his rant off, then continued searching. Damien’s anger immediately dissipated. “Ah, I see. Never mind then. I was conducting some test runs on the hardware. Seeing how far the camera could transmit, the durability of the design, how high the current thrust could lift the drone. In hindsight, should have started with testing the battery. And this is why you test each thing individually before you test all at once.”

[whitewingednoa]

Rooftop Confessions | Raphael & Noa

[whitewingednoa]

Finishing her sandwich, she listened to Raphael talk about how he handled his business and she was surprised to hear he sells part of it to gangs. She was surprised to know he had that kind of connection. It made her feel as if she didn’t know him. Then again she didn’t know why she thought she did in the first place. Swallowing her last bite, she held her hands up. “Hey, your secret’s safe with me, man. I won’t tell a soul, swear.” She gave a short nod, believing he would trust her. “You have to be careful though. If anyone finds you’ve been selling military equipment to gangs, you’ll have your ass handed to you.” She laughed softly, but she was still serious and worried about his safety. She didn’t want to have to talk to him behind a glass. “Although, I’ll help you bust out of wherever they have you. But I don’t want to have to do that, alright?”

“Sorry, man.” She laughed when the coke spayed, before turning her attention back to the conversation. “Maia’s the Irish one, can’t really forget her, so maybe you haven’t run into her,” it was then Noa got an idea. “Hey, what about the Irish guy.. I don’t remember his name. The one with the curly hair that can learn things really quick. At least I think that’s what he does. Maybe he can watch some tech people and then learn how to do whatever you want or something.” She didn’t really trust him, but she supposed that had to do completely with her and not him. “But, yeah, maybe Maia would be your best bet. She might be able to get some of her hacker friends into the group. Although if she could I’d think she would have already done so, so,” she shrugged.

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

His intentions for selling to the gangs was strategic, but even he knew it wasn’t completely solid. Yes, it kept costs down, but then there was military hardware out there that forces the Rogues couldn’t control were using. He could argue that it was most likely used against law enforcement, which everyone knew were in Nexus’ pocket, but it was also possible they were using it against some unfortunate post-humans. To him though, that risk was worth the financial invisibility and the ability to pin the lost military equipment on the gangs and not the Rogues. Raphael just wasn’t sure he was to try arguing that with any of the Horsewomen. Because if they disagreed with him... Noa probably wasn’t too far off in saying he’d get his ass handed to him. “I appreciate that. And you know I’m good for helping you too if you ever need it.”

He couldn’t remember running into anyone who even remotely had an Irish accent. Sure, since he mostly stayed in Gavin’s underground bunker he basically was living under a rock, but that was a pretty ridiculous thing to have missed entirely. “If worse comes to worst and we can’t find a way to keep ourselves on the technological edge, we can always shift focus to seeing who is keeping Nexus there and either obtain their services or make sure no one else is able to use them.” The gears were already spinning in Raphael’s head for the best way to get that information and the best ways to take the targets out with minimal suspicion. Wouldn’t be easy, that’s for sure. “But if we can keep our movements in-house, that would probably be best. So when we get back, first thing I’ll do is ask about our resident Irish population then since they seem like our best and brightest.” He smirked and lightly punched Noa’s arm. “Present company excluded of course.”

[whitewingednoa]

Rooftop Confessions | Raphael & Noa

[whitewingednoa]

“No shit,” she breathed in surprise. Noa was always interested in Raphael’s ability, or interested in everyone’s, so she was willing to hear whatever he gave her and then some. He seemed pretty nonchalant about it though, which was to be expected since he must have dealt with it for a long time now. Like Noa was with her wings. They were like any other body part now. Except they didn’t always feel as if they were a part of her. She found his ideas to be innovative, at least they were things she wouldn’t have thought of. “So this guy that gives you this military equipment, does he know what you use it for? Like, does he know you’re a Rogue, which is a,” she did air quotes on the next phrase, “terrorist group? How do you even manage to get the money for stuff like this? You have some trust fund you didn’t tell me about?” She chuckled, playing it off, but at the same time she was trying to learn more about his background, having to realize the hard way that she knew very little about it and yet considered him such a good friend.

Noa was munching away as Raphael spoke—happily too because she would rather eat than speak at the moment. “I would say Maia, but she’s only good at computers I think. She does the,” Noa waved her fingers to imitate typing, “hacking stuff.” The young ones she hung around with were tech savvy to her, but she supposed he meant someone more qualified. Definitely not her. “People watching can lead you to finding some very strange things. It definitely kept me entertained for longer than I thought possible.” She gave a small shrug, not able to tug on the lie to explain her blowing him off and keeping her distance.  As she set her bag down, she heard the clank of glass against the ground and remembered she had brought drinks as well. Upon seeing Raphael finish his own sub, she reached into her bag and pulled out a coke bottle and handed it to him. “Where do you think we would even start on looking for a techie to recruit? University, maybe?” They were young enough, usually compelled towards political action at that stage in their life, surely there had to be some people studying computers or something similar.

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

"He doesn't ask, I don't tell. As far as he knows, I'm just an avid military collector. Or a gunrunner, which is actually kinda true. For the first shipment I took a loan from the Rogue reserves. Then every time I buy a shipment, I sell half to local gangs, keep the other half for us. I usually break even." One of his clones finishes scaling the building and put the working equipment in the good pile and grabbed one of the untested chords and harnesses. “I may or may not have mentioned to Gavin and the Famine that I sell half of my purchases to keep costs down though, so let’s keep that our little secret shall we?”

Raphael happily accepted the coke and pulled out a knife to take off the bottle cap. A flick of the wrist was all it took to pry the metal off, which was immediately followed by a spray of soda as the carbonation found an escape. "Whoops, seems your flight shook it up a little bit." Raphael quickly brought the bottle to his lips to catch the bubbling liquid and held it there until the it settled. "Maia? Don't think I've met her, but I'll ask around. And universities aren't a bad idea, but from what I've seen, most of the ones who really are at the level we need don't even bother attending higher education. But they're so secretive that you need one of them to find others. So I guess that leads right back to Maia."

[whitewingednoa]

Rooftop Confessions | Raphael & Noa

[whitewingednoa]

Noa laughed softly, going along with the idea that it was the horsewomen keeping her busy and not her actively avoiding him. She felt kind of bad when she thought about it, especially because he didn’t have a clue. “You know them, don’t know the meaning of the word ‘break’ unless it’s when they’re dead.” She shrugged it off, as if it was no big deal. She listened as Raphael spoke, thinking it was awesome he had someone to do that, although not that great to have them rip you off in the end. Her wings slowly tucked themselves closer to her body as she walked closer to Raphael.

“I’d hate to see what the clones that unfortunately found out about the faulty gear the hard way,” she still laughed, although she wasn’t sure if it was nice to do so considering they were living, in a way, right? “What do you think you’ll use this gear for? Climbing mountains?” She joked, lifting the bag to pull out a sub. She tossed one to him before pulling her own out. “These are the best subs I’ve ever had, I swear.” She started unwrapping hers, buying some time to think about anything she came across while she wasn’t hanging out with Raphael anymore. “I’ve mostly heard some chatter about that Nexus bracelet. You’ve heard of that story, right? Some person found it and they think it’s some communication device or whatever. Other than that it’s same ol’ same ol’. People just going from a to b, with the occasional mugging.” She shrugged, before taking a bite. She only hung out in the night since it was easier to not be caught flying about the city. She knew all she needed was one report of someone seeing a ‘large bird’ flying across New York City for her to have to stay underground for a bit and she wanted to keep her wings stretched as long as she could. “What about you, man?”

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

“Well luckily when my clones kick the bucket, they just disappear. Makes cleanup a lot easier. Kind of a pain when I get them back though.... Knowing what it’s like to fall to your death is not fun. But after about a few times, it really loses its novelty and I can get over the panic reaction. So while the first few clones fell all the way, the last few malfunctions actually ended with minimal injury because I can react better. Everything’s a learning experience.” Raphael gave an uncaring shrug. “As for uses. In a city with so many buildings like this, infiltration comes to mind first. Get on top of the building, rappel down as close to the target area as you can, go in through an unsecured window. Or we can set them up at our own bases near windows or ledges so people who may not be gifted with a good transportation ability can get out in a way the enemy won’t expect.”

No sooner did the sub hit his hand than Raphael tore at the wrapper and dug in. “Mmm. You weren’t kidding.” He nodded at her question about the bracelet as he chewed and swallowed the chunk of sandwich he’d bitten into. “Communicator no one seems to know how to access. Definitely something to keep our eye on. If we had more tech-savvy people in our ranks, I’d be tempted to ask permission to get it and bring it back for study.” But since he didn’t have any knowledge of any such individual in the Rogue ranks, seemed pretty pointless. All a move like that would do would draw attention where they didn’t want it. “Must have been a lot of people going from a to b to keep you so busy. Me? I’ve mostly been testing and stockpiling gear like tonight and trying to trace Nexus movements. Even with the amount of eyes I’ve got though, hard to discern any set patterns. Need a computer for that kind of shit.” He finished his sub with another big bite and tossed the wrapper off the rooftop. “I should try scouting for some techies to join the cause. We kinda need them.”

[whitewingednoa]

Rooftop Confessions | Raphael & Noa

After talking to Lucien, Noa had been kind of avoiding Raphael, both afraid to ask him if what he said was true and afraid she couldn’t hide what she knew if she chose not to ask him. She hoped he thought she was just busy, but she knew she had been pushing the limits by postponing for so long so when he told her to come by while he was testing some of his new rappelling gear, she thought this was her chance to ask him, but also she missed her bro. She really liked him and it would be a stupid thing waste to ruin a friendship just because of something one of his ‘brothers’ as they called themselves, had said. She still had some hope that there was more to the story than Lucien let on, that Raphael wasn’t a completely bad guy.

By the time she arrived onto the rooftop, wings flapping, he seemed busy, even with his clones around. “Hey,” she called out, realizing she didn’t know which one was the true Raphael and which ones were the clones. Unclipping the strap of her bag across her shoulder, she figured she’d wait until he made himself known. “I brought some stuff to eat cause I was hungry and then I thought you might be too so I got us a couple of subs. Although, I kind of forgot that there was a possibility it would have been other than the two of us.” She chuckled, things easily going back to how they were before she spoke to Lucien. Still, she saw him in Raphael’s face so when she looked at him, she couldn’t help but go back to what he had told her.

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

That was about three fourths of the gear and everything seemed to be more or less in order so far, Raphael mused as he watched his clones rappel down the side of the building. The sound of wings didn’t make him turn, even though he thought something sounded a little odd about them, but the sudden greeting made him look back immediately and smile. “Hey there yourself stranger.” It had been weeks, maybe even months, since he’d last gotten more than just a glimpse of his Rogue friend. “Those leaders of ours finally give you a break?”

At the mention of food, Raphael felt his stomach practically leap for joy. “You are a living saint. I was just beginning to dread how hungry I was going to be once these guys were finished. Old military buddy of mine sometimes finds enough leeway to ‘lose’ a shipment of weapons or equipment to me in exchange for some cash. Normally the stuff he gives me is grade-A, and he makes sure I pay top dollar for it. This time though, he gave me a discount. Said it was for being such a great customer, but red flags went off for me so I thought someone who could make some disposable grunts should probably test the stuff out before filing it in inventory.” He turned and pointed to a pile of questionable looking chords and snapped harnesses. “Almost a third of the stuff has been complete shit and breaks almost immediately under stress. The rest of it is good to go though. This is why you always gotta trust your gut.” He turned back to Noa and grinned. “And speaking of guts, let’s bust out those subs and you can fill me in on what you’ve been up to. Anything exciting going on in the city? It’s been complete Snooze-ville at the mansion.” 

[miriam--weinbaum]

Open @Protect

[miriam--weinbaum]

Diana translated the information on the syringe’s contents. The man shook his head, and in utter disbelief to Diana gave what could almost pass for a smile - well, the way people smile when things are so bad they’re funny again. “я ничего не нужно. Русский военный,” the man explained, and Diana translated in a whisper in an effort not to interrupt should he wish to continue, but that was all they got: “He doesn’t want anything. He was in the military in Russia. Apparently that’s why he thinks he can cope with pain.” It was more difficult to find the words to convince the man that he wouldn’t be in danger here because of an ability, but Abraham cut her reflections short as two clones appeared. Diana internally cursed that decision, she could’ve had to start all over again had that startled the man back into his initial fear, but they got lucky, and Diana breathed a sigh of relief: “мы не собираемся, чтобы дать вам что-нибудь тогда. не могли бы вы передать ему скальпель, хотя?” she prompted the stranger to hand over the scalpel, which he did, hesitant at first but finally decisively, and to drop his arms. That meant that for the moment her work was done here, but before she took a step backwards, it occurred to Diana that the man’s lack of averse reaction to her colleague’s clones probably had implications for their work: “He must have an ability. Or at least know that people like us exist. We should ask him about this once you’ve made sure he’s not gravely hurt.”

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

With the scalpel now gone and the man calmer than he’d been since being brought in, Abraham finally felt comfortable walking up and beginning his examination of the patient. “Well if he doesn’t want it, then he’ll have to deal with it.” Nothing on the arms and torso to signify any damage. Which was odd considering how much he’d been flailing around earlier. Abraham had expected at least some scrapes or some initial bruising to have shown up by this point. Then he got to the man’s head and he saw something surprising. “I’d say that’s a very good Theory, Diana. You said he heard a gunshot before blacking out, yes?” One of his clones handed him a pair of tweezers, which Abraham used to extract a metal object from the man’s hair. “Looks like a nine millimeter round.” After putting the bullet and tweezers down, he looked closer at the point of impact. “I don’t think it was just the Russian military that give this man good pain tolerance, it’s possible he really doesn’t feel much external pain at all. I’d wager some form of Enhance Durability.” Another few moments of staring at the impact site concluded his initial examination. “Would you mind informing my patient that I would like to sign him up for a CT scan to make sure there are no internal injuries? Aside from that, I don’t see anything physically alarming.” Abraham stepped away and let out a sigh of relief. “Thank for your assistance. I don’t know how else we would have been able to pull this off.”

[detective-cross]

“Yeah, that’s me.” The man turns over to look at who this person was. Not only did they know his name but they knew to find him here of all places. This must mean business. Which, given current circumstances, was actually quite a relief. Investigating was just about the only thing left in Maxwell’s life that made any sense — simple math, find the bad guy and put him away. “Your brother was right, you came to the right person.” He then stands up from the pew and begins walking toward the door. “Come with me.” The detective says quickly before exiting the church and lighting a cigarette of his own. As enlightening as it was in the church, it felt good to have a potential case — something to put his mind on. “So, Lucien, who am I tracking down?”

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

Right down to business, Lucien appreciated that. And being in the presence of a fellow smoker was a nice thing to know since he didn’t need to worry about lighting up his own cigarette once they were out of the church. “I’m hoping you can track down another brother of mine named Raphael. Given surname is Lestrange, but I doubt he’s still using it. I got word he was in the city a few months back when a friend of his mistook me for him. I tried to locate him myself, but found my skills in locating someone who didn’t want to be found far too lacking to accomplish the task.” It took months of frustrating dead ends before Lucien finally caved and called Abraham. And of course that just made him more upset because Abraham was nothing but cheerful at hearing from his brother after so long and helping however he could. What a prick. “I should also warn you that he has advanced military training. He’s also a post-human.”

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

@Nexus

[jonnotbonjovi-blog]

Jon halts on the spot— Who says he isn’t good at following orders? “Curses. I knew today was a bad day to pick up strolling again.” He lifts up his foot as instructed and looks down at the kneeling man. “So which one are you? The alpha, beta, gamma, zeta…?”

[iamlestrangerthanyou]

Damien looked closely at the floor as well as the bottom of Jon’s shoe before being satisfied that he hadn’t stepped on the drone. “Alpha, sir. Sorry for yelling, but this micro-drone is composed almost entirely of one-of-a-kind prototype technology and I would really prefer not to have it destroyed and have to build it all again from scratch. Or worse, it end up being accidentally taken out of this room and building for someone else to find... one leaked tech is more than enough for the year, I say.” He still couldn’t believe how someone had left that bracelet out in the open. It wasn’t tech he’d made, thank goodness, but he couldn’t stand carelessness.