Into the Darkness

[Allan]

The boy sliced through Allan’s weaves and the fury rose on Allan’s face. How dare he! Allan glared at Nox. The former Atharim turned after threatening him. He should just kill him where he stood. Nox must have had the same thought as he wove a shield of air around himself.

The Consul rejoined them with red glowing eye. What the fuck? But what brought Allan around was the Jay’s words -- however close they might be his fellow Nine didn’t really trust him. Though it likely was a jest. They were friends, and friends said untrue mean things often. At least he noticed that was the case with most men. Allan didn’t have close friends any more -- the bottle retired most of them.

Nox whispered to his friend, but not quiet enough. Was he so careless. Feel them? He felt them die. How was he going to fight them? This was a stupid thing to do. Following a man compromised by the very things they hunted. And how could he fucking eat after seeing all that death. The smell of the jerky reminded him of the scene -- the foul smell of burning flesh.

But Allan had to give him props for being prepared. Enough supplies to last a week in the packs provided. Water, and rations, and even a sleeping bag. How long did he really think this would take. The scope of the job didn't seam this vast in the beginning. what was he missing... And he was giving them an out. If the Ascendancy continued, Allan would continue. Nothing was more important than what the man did.

[Jay Carpenter]

“One of them bit you?” but the question was rhetorical. The arm that was lost must have been the infected limb, but some of the poison made its way through Nox’s blood before the deed severed away the rest. Jay wasn’t exactly afraid, but he looked at his friend differently. Pity wasn’t in Jay’s nature, but at least he understood the fucked up fuckery that was affecting him. Eradicating the creatures that connected Nox to their horde would sever the connection as cleanly as had his arm. But what about after that? Would Nox return to normal?  Or like the poison, would he always and forever be changed. Could he pass on what circulated inside like some kind of STD? If so, would a new, human-based horde emerge?

Not the kind of daydreaming Jay typically enjoyed. He stifled a shiver. No point letting Nox know what he was thinking even if he would treat his friend no differently. Especially when it came to giving each other some ill-humored shit.
“I have that effect on people. Guess that means biting is off the table, eh?” he nudged his shoulder against Nox’s since they were so much in lock-step close.

The unspoken hung on the air for a while until Nox hurried toward something. The hidden stash was handy. Almost like Nox planned the whole thing, Jay grinned and jogged up to look through the goods. His pristine uniform felt out of place among the underground. Suppose that was the idea though.

Jay was examining a ration of food when Nox’s speech was clearly aimed at Ascendancy. Jay looked between Allan and Marcus. The four of them could handle the horde. Probably. But it was undeniable that Ascendancy was a powerful ally to have on their side.

[Ascendancy]

Their eventual progress allowed some time for Nikolai to process everything. He hated that he underestimated the grotesqueness of this errand. He hated that he had to be reassured by a subordinate, an infant in power and age compared to himself. Yet he accepted Marcus’ statement with an agreeing nod.

Moving away from the site of their first defeat, the remnants of fire and ash faded to the cool humidity of the underground. It was like two competing domains: where light and smoke mixed with the dark and wet. Something about the conflict was both soothing and enraging. He shook his head as if to dislodge the vague déjà vu. He hated being forced into the dealing of death but was simultaneously good at it – as he was at all things. Yet it was a job that was beneath him.

While walking, Nikolai took to lightly probing the underworld with his power. It kept his senses sharp and his eyes aware of their surroundings. He disliked the glasses Nox provided and left them hung folded on the top button of his shirt for now, but would use them if necessary.

The reserves that Nox presented was well-planned. Everything was waiting as intended, although their first skirmish was not. At least they would be better prepared for the next. Jay and the others looked at him as if to suggest their dear leader would be better off safely hovering on the surface: far from harm’s way and far from them.

Nik’s response was swift, his stride sure.

He took the assigned gear and moved aside to change, stripping out of the formal attire in exchange for the tactical. For someone 34, let alone 64 years old, he was in great shape. The daily swimming left him with a narrow waist and the dim light played on the slender lines of muscle.

[Allan]

[[ moving Allan in the order placement so I don't have two in a row. And I can spread the story direction out a little better. ]]

All eyes were on the Ascendancy. He was the big wig. But also he was their boss. All of them -- except maybe Nox. If he said he was going home, what would have Allan done? But he didn't need to worry about that as the man approached his alloted gear and started removing clothes.

The power raged all around him, all of them seemed to hold it even if for just the mere enhanced eyesight. He heard the muttered "Holy fuck!" from their guide. Allan caught Nox turning around to busy himself with the gear. Setting aside three other piles. Three? What the fuck?

In between piles he pulled out another stick of jerky and started gnawing on it.

"Why are there three more piles? And do you plan on sharing the sticks you keep gnawing on."

Nox looked back at him. The glint in his eyes spoke of things dark and... Allan didn't have a word for it. Predatory was a word, but it didn't quite cover the look. It was filled with hunger and desire and death. A grotesque yip sounded from the shadows drawing Nox's attention and he tore off another bite of the jerky before he went back to his work. "I guess that's a no to sharing."

He grabbed his pack of supplies from the pile and backed away from Nox. The other man didn't look at him, there was a soft muttering coming from him. Was he chanting a mantra? It was too soft to hear even with the power enhanced hearing. Allan took his things over near the Ascendancy. "Are we expecting others?"

[Marcus DuBois]

Marcus looked around. The sense among the others wasn't excitement. It was duty. Given the choice, Marcus was pretty sure what he'd choose. On the one hand, using the Force to hunt was appealing. But there was no finesse to this. No satisfaction. No sense of...justice. Calculating and dispensing what was deserved. These were just wild animals, beasts that needed to be put down. There was no power in that. He'd have to figure out another way to satiate that desire.

So, then, this needed to be useful in a different way. Nox seemed bitter. The story he told was explanation enough. It was intriguing. That he had been infected was expected. But that there was an element of control? Something else entirely. "Strange things indeed." He focused, considering. Was this an evolutionary development? Did Nox just happen to be the one who 'caught' the virus or whatever it was? More data was needed to do a projection. "It does make me wonder as to what is going on. Whether it was intentional or not."

He thought for a moment, looking at Ascendancy. "It could be designed to destabilize the empire. Rot it from within. Effective. If foolish." It wasn't a bad idea. Provided, of course, you had a way to either turn it off or make yourself immune. It was one of the dangers of biological warfare- and one of the reasons all but lunatics thought them useful. Sworn enemies refused to use them against each other. You didn't put out something that could kill you. At least, intelligent people didn't.

He looked at Ascendancy, raising his eyebrows. "If it's even a possibility...It could be beneficial to have intelligence look into anyone who might have the capability of developing this. And even if it's naturally occurring, well, that's not much better." He looked at Nox's supplies. Ascendancy's message had said it might be a longer foray. But he wasn't sure he'd brought everything he'd need.

Still, he could learn something here. Any and everything could be useful. Even the men before him, the Rods and Nox. To say nothing of the Ascendancy. He just had to be smart and pay attention.

[Nox]

Nox missed the awe and idolization Allan had the first time they met. It was the only reason he'd been invited. He had seemed interested in the work. Now he only seemed interested in pissing him off. Every fucking comment, every nit-picked detail was pissing him off. And then he asked a stupid fucking question. It wasn't even about the extra packs -- the doubt. It was the sharing. His. The single word vibrated through his body. Hunger. The horde was ravenous. There was a hollow in his gut he couldn't satiate now that they were on the hunt.

Nox turned and glared at Allan. Every fucking one of the three survival instincts struck and Allan paled in the dim light. Good! The horde stopped in their pursuit in his angst and Nova yipped. Nox growled to himself and turned back to his work, sorting through the gear he'd prepared. This was his life. He planned a week of supplies. Each pack had its own supply of water. If Nox had to explain things then this was going to go badly. Common sense -- long haul. Unknown time frame. All meant rationing your fucking self.

Nox started muttering to himself. "Not food. A friend. No fucking way." The latter made him grin inside. There was a way, but Nox kept himself from that temptation. Or so he had thought. The fucking Ascendancy had changed in the darkness. It wasn't unusual. It was a perfectly normal thing to do, but it caught Nox off guard sending him down the spiraling mood Nova broke him from. A swimmers body -- fucking lines in the darkness glowing in the dim light. Fuck! It wasn't that he was interested -- just the horde was so close. At least that's what he kept telling himself. "Not food. A friend. No fucking way."

Jay was distracting enough to have all of them pulling at the horde was dangerous. But Jay was enough to focus on. Raffe wasn't here, his thoughts strayed to his boyfriend and calmness infused him. Nox turned to Jay to answer his silly question. "As much as we'd like to biting is probably off the table. No need to infect you." He smirked. But he overheard the consul's conversation in the darkness. The power was an automatic eavesdropping. He should drop it but he couldn't do that. It was too dangerous here. And what was coming was not going to go down well. Secrets were not good, but it was important.

"I don't know about motive. But VaiaPlus was involved. Dorian killed an infected godling who was controlling the horde like a weapon. He shot him in the head three times. He was a missing VaiaPlus scientist. And I caught another white lab coat scumbucket wrangling chupas also with a VaiaPlus badge." Nox left the walking zombie part out of it. He was pretty sure that was a rare thing -- a channeler thing. But he had no proof.

Nox sat down and took a deep breath. "Eat. Rest. We are safe here for now. We'll head deeper in 30. We have wireless service for a bit longer. And I've a few more relays I can place to go further. But I only have so many left." No one was going to like what he was waiting for. But Nox needed more Atharim -- even if he was an inquisitor.

Nox sent two texts.

@Jerry 30 minutes to junction till we leave. You can catch up.

@Raffe Might be harder than I thought killing these things. Hurts like Hell when they go down. Only a little more service left.

[Jay Carpenter]

It wasn’t hard to miss the line of sight that Nox locked onto. When Jay realized the target was Ascendancy, he was stunned. The few moments while their fearless leader arranged his clothes was enough of a glimpse, and Jay felt strangely dirty afterward. He’d been around much more for many years; and only chased after temptation if there was a guarantee of friendly reciprocating; but this felt like realizing your dad was hot. Then again, Nox didn’t know the Ascendancy like they did as one of the Dominions. Ascendancy saved Jay in a way; definitely a father-figure. He looked away, uninterested in drawing attention to the moment any more than he already had. Marcus may have noticed; not that Jay cared, but the man was a politician more than soldier; despite his own muscular frame, and politicians soaked up any leverage they could lord over anyone. Nox wasn’t going to be someone to leverage. Not on Jay’s watch.

They took the time to rest. Jay rested his eyes while leaning against the wall. He took in the sounds and smells of the place; it reminded him of Valledupar, an area just inland from the northern coast of Colombia: wet and dank. There, even in winter, the average temperature would melt your ball sack, 34 C at the coldest. Not that these tunnels were cold, but the same wet discomfort made him want to itch all over. Yet on Jay rested, twitchless, and shored up energy. A good soldier rested whenever they found the spare time. It was unknown when the next chance would come.

The only signs of life from Jay during this time was an occasional sip of the flask out of his jacket. So far he drank no water, but would be forced to dilute what was left in the container if they were going to be here as long as Nox indicated.

It was as good of a plan as any.

[Marcus DuBois]

Marcus' noted Nox's stare at Ascendancy and filed it away. It was probably nothing. An offhand appreciation. But he wouldn't be the first person to be attracted to the most powerful man on earth, even if only subconsciously. The man was aesthetically pleasing, after all. And Nox seemed to fight a deferential spirit. Perhaps that was part of the reason. You never knew what could be useful.

More interesting was the information about VaiaPlus. His eye twitched as he processed what he heard. Irritation bubbled across his mind. No. More than that. Disgust. Anger. He was all for experimenting with the Power. But contagion...he responded with a visceral horror at the word. Biological agents and their vectors were unpredictable in the best of times. The algorithm of life was self perpetuating and ever adapting. It was a pattern that, once hit upon in any medium- as organic machines, as abstract entities within computer networks, even in the potential play of molecules of crystals or gases- did one thing above all. Survived. Oh, there were bottlenecks for certain species- for even certain sizes or types of creatures, like the meteor that brought on the K-P Extinction event that swept dinosaurs from ascendancy, leaving room for the small rodent like placentals to take over. From there it was a straight line to humans.

But once it started 3.5 billion years ago, life never ended. Through innumerable winnowings and extinction events and the constant back and forth in the internecine struggle for supremacy, there has always been one form of another of it, surviving in the most brutal and inhospitable of environments, extremophiles. The weed that cannot be killed.

Playing with that force, unleashing a new strain of that algorithm was foolish beyond belief. He would make sure Ascendancy knew how incredibly dangerous VaiaPlus' work was to humanity.

What good was trying to bring order to humanity if there was no humanity to bring order to?

He looked over at Carpenter. Sanjay had- during what appeared to be casual conversation- told him all about the other Rods. Carpenter was an interesting one. Hard and driven, of course. Focused. That was to be expected of any man who learned to use the Force. Those with weak constitutions would be obliterated by it, he thought, remembering Pyotr. Not that he knew for certain. But the man had disappeared. Weak as he was- and the sheer force of will required to dominate was formidable- he wouldn't have been surprised if the man had been swept away by the torrent of power.

The man seemed brittle though. Sanjay said he suspected it was a legacy of his childhood. Marcus understood all too well. A furnace, to be sure, one that tried all people's mettle. Attachment was always the problem. Hunger. The desire for approval or the constant need to fill that hole, that lack. Marcus had dealt with his own demons. Nothing controlled him. Even Malik had been put in his place, recognized for what he had always been, a crutch. The silence from the back of his mind testified to that. The whimpering he heard was probably from the Force enhanced abilities. Their actions had been cruel but necessary.

Still, he wandered over to Carpenter. The man seemed to have the knack for relaxing in the oddest places. He eyed the water bottle on the ground, thinking he probably would need to replenish himself from his own stores. He modulated his voice to one more joking. "I could weave you a pillow of air, if you'd like. No need for a blanket down here." The smile on his face was friendly, the makings of an overture of friendship.

[Ascendancy]

Nikolai appreciated the urgency of their mission, but there was a bigger problem that warped the mind. One hotspot of designer mutants was unlikely to be an isolated situation. If it happened here, under their very feet, it was a matter of time before the mistake was repeated. Emergency plans needed to be adopted with swift action prepared to be deployed. Nikolai needed the world at his fingertips. He couldn’t control the emergency response on the other side of the world if it was a foreign nation.

He needed the United States. The rest would fall soon after.  

While the others carried about their business, he was focused on familiarizing himself with the new supplies and arrangements. Final messages of confirmation were sent, but he was prepared to remain for the long haul. This group needed his power.

[Allan]

No one else was concerned about the way Nox was acting. Nothing from anyone. Who was he waiting for? Why didn't they know others were coming?

Jay slept in a corner. Marcus attempted to be friendly. The Ascendancy seemed to be off in his own little world. And he was the only one watching their make shift leader. The way his body was tensed and kept looking up and down the tunnels like he was expecting something. Sometimes he'd stare off into the distance like he was listening. But Allan heard nothing in the distance -- even with power-enhanced hearing. Everything about the darkness down here made Allan uncomfortable and the darkness in the former Atharim was the most concerning.

A rock shifted the way they had come. The sounds of footsteps in a puddle echoed to his ear. Nox heard it too. He put down the bags he was fiddling with and headed towards the sound. His hands to his side, but the filaments of power that stretched from his fingers were obvious to any male channeler. Very little power radiated from him. But there was finesse in the intricate pattern he wove. Allan wondered what it was. The power threaded out into the darkness...