Expo Life and Death

[Ban Bean]

Susanna threw her hands to her ears as the gun went off. She was quite used to the sound of gunshots, but it had been quite sudden, and near. She stared at the blonde boy, about her age, standing over Anna she bled out. Like Janie bled out.

Janie.

FOCUS! Susanna shouted to herself, pulling herself from her mind, trying to focus on the chaos around her. Anna was dead. Marco was Dead. Wes was nowhere to be found. She wasn't entirely sure what to do. They were being decimated. Destroyed. Like they had destroyed so many others. Maybe this was long awaited karma.

Susanna's puppets went limp as she dropped her control. She reached down and pulled her pistol from her ankle holster, standing numbly with the metal in her hands, moving along the wall toward the window. Two stories wasn't awfully long to jump if she had too.

Then Tyler gasped, stiffening as Obsidian's hand met his chest, confused by the onslaught of unconnected and incoherant ramblings of his enemies brain.

Susanna blinked.

Almost every person she had known and worked with regularly in the past four years was gone.

 

[Slate]

Obsidian straightened out, taking in a deep breath. His body was buzzing, thrumming with energy as he turned his sharp, golden gaze on the last remaining member of the Rattlers that stood in the room. She was eyeing the window, and a look at Rhody ensured that she was near it, waiting to grab the girl if they needed to keep her from jumping. Obsidian took a few slow steps toward her, his gloved hands raised at his sides, as if to show her where they were.

“You’re not one of them, are you? Not the core team. You’re useful, intimidating, but you weren’t in charge. You don’t seem like you wanted to be here willingly. Would you like to leave? We can keep you safe, if you want out. No strings attached.” His fingers wiggled as he said the final line, as if he were puppeting something. He looked around the room, at the bodies of both people and insects. “We won’t even ask you to use your powers for us.”

His voice managed to stay slow, unrushed, despite the energy. He felt like a whirlwind, but he needed to present a collected front to this girl. Of course, he wanted her abilities. She was unusual and powerful. But first and foremost, he wanted her safe. He wanted to not have to hurt her. She seemed like she was barely as old as his boys, as Hematite and Sulphur. Despite the grey hair. He smiled at her, the action gentle.​

 

[Ban Bean]

His voice was calm and soothing, and that alone set off alarm bells in her head. Marco had been calm and soothing. They made her all sorts of promises, and after watching Slate murder him, and the rest of the gang, Susanna wasn't to sure she wouldn't go the same way.

The dark hair woman who beheaded Marco quickly took a place near the window, blocking her only potential escape. Quick math told her that Obsidian was too fast, and the other two large men would be impossible to shoot. The woman was a healer like Marco. She might have a chance targeting the blonde boy, if she really wanted.

Susanna didn't want to.

She met Obsidians gold eyes with her own steely iris's. There was a erratic- almost high- giddiness about him he seemed to be supressing. Something wildly enigmatic and insane that only came from honesty. Even if they were lying, she didn't fear death.

Susanna pressed her index finger on the guns safety, and slowly set it down on a shelf, nodding. She could hear him out at least.

 

[Slate]

The girl set the gun down and nodded her consent to hear him out. He barely suppressed the sharp grin that wanted to break across his face, instead opting for a continuation of the soft smile. He took a few steps forward, tucking his hands into his pockets, effectively putting away his weapons in much the same way she had when she had set aside the gun. Rhody relaxed by the window, staying in place but letting her weight ease across her feet.

Around them, the others started their jobs. Sulphur walked to the computer at the desk and started his task of copying the databases on it. Hematite and Malachite started handling the bodies, arranging them nicely in a row in the middle of the room. Better for shock value that way, Obsidian had learned. He let them get to work while he spoke to the grey haired girl, trying to keep his composure.

“I like to keep this quiet, but we run a metahuman sanctuary in a few different cities. You’re more than welcome to take some time and go to one, be safe, be taken care of. I think you’ve been through a lot. I think you deserve a break.” He stopped a few feet from her, his eyes still just a touch too wide, his smile just a touch too light.

“But I also get the feeling, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, but you seem like the kind of person who would want to dismantle the Rattlers piece by piece alongside me. I can give you the opportunity to take apart what’s left. To make sure no one else suffers like you have. After that– you can decide if you want to help me take down others like them, or go your own way when it’s safe for you to.”

He met her eyes, held her gaze, his own open and knowing. He saw the anger in her. He saw the resolve. She would make a good Slate member. She would be good at leading a team, or even working with his own in the future. “Of course, if you have somewhere to go back to… we’ll take you there. No strings attached.”​

 

[Ban Bean]

Susanna watched Obsidians crew work out of the corner of her eyes. They were efficient, organized. Some where arranging the corpses. The young blonde one was at the computers. They all knew their role. It reminded her bee's in a hive. Or ants in a colony. She didn't know why that idea was comforting- probably cause she understood insects better than people.

Susanna stooped down, and quickly felt around the room, and then wiggling her fingers until her scorpion, Levi, came scuttling back up her arm from wear Obsidian had brushed him off. He was her only named pet at the moment, and her favorite. She stood up and looked at Obsidian tilting her head.

Susanna was... off-putting to most people. She knew that. Death made people uneasy, and she had inclination to force that upon people already in sanctuary. She also wasn't entirely sure she'd want someplace like that anyway. She hated having nothing to do. Freetime meant she had time to think.

She glanced at the corpses the men were dragging. A headless Marco, and a very dead Tyler. Even now she was hesitant to decide for herself in case he sat up again and tried to read her mind.

Without warning, she reached into her pockets for a small notepad and an IKEA pencil she kept nearby, and wrote for a moment.

I'm not agreeing to anything. I don't know you. But if you want the Rattlers, there's a safehouse on 7th street with a blue mailbox. They're holding cargo in the basement until tommorrow, before it's being shipped to Baltimore.

I'll get you inside.