Rabid came out of sleep uneasily, prodded by the feeling that something was wrong. Not any immediate danger, just that something was not right. Finally becoming fully awake, he sat up and scanned the room. He was in the bedroom Topnotch had assigned to him. It was furnished but undecorated. His outfit was folded neatly across one of the chairs. Fireball's nightgown lay in a heap next to his quiver full of metal javelins. Fireball lay beside him, sleeping peacefully, undisturbed.
He considered her for a moment, wondering if she had been the cause for his waking. In another place and another time, he may have considered her lack of innocence surprising, but on the streets with the gangs, innocence was quickly lost. It had been some time since he had awaken in the same bed with anyone, and he wondered if her presence had disturbed him.
"About time you woke up."
The thought was quite clear and distinct in his mind. It also was not his.
"Now if you'll quit thinking about the girl, I need to talk to you."
Rabid picked up his quiver and scanned the room again. There was no one else visible.
"Its important, Rabid. Get dressed and come to the fifth floor of the red building a block to the east."
He tensed himself for a fight and moved to wake Fireball.
"Don't wake her. She's not included. And this isn't a trap. Hurry up, I don't have all day."
Rabid pulled on his suit, considering the thoughts. He did not recognize the flavor of them. Which meant they could be from almost anyone, including one of Choas's men. Rabid could only imagine that they considered it easier to lure him out than to deal with the Ironhawks. Well, if that was the case, he decided, he would make sure they got a very nasty surprise.
Taking up his quiver, Rabid padded silently over to the door. So he did not awaken Fireball, he blinked past the door into the hallway. Most of the doors along the hall were closed, with voices floating out of the few open ones. Leaned against the wall at the end of the hallway was Tough, the massive-sized telepath of the Ironhawks. Rabid padded down the hallway to him.
"You were called," Tough said.
Rabid simply nodded.
Tough looked at the quiver of javelins. "You really shouldn't need those."
"I feel safer with them."
Tough nodded. "I'll tell Fireball not to worry about you when she wakes."
"Thank you."
Rabid headed upstairs and onto the roof. The sky was overcast, making the day dreary. He crossed the buildingtops, teleporting across gaps as he came to them. When he came to a red apartment building, he entered the stairwell and headed down to the fifth floor. He grabbed a javelin then slung his quiver over his shoulder. Bracing himself, he blinked into the hallway. It was drab and decaying. Doors lined the wall to his left. Otherwise, the hall was empty.
Rabid eased up to the first door slowly and put his ear to it. Hearing nothing, he braced himself, then teleported beyond it. Instead of the small room he expected, he found a huge open area, empty except for a few supports and a few hanging lights. Most of the room was in shadows, and Rabid spotted graffiti scrawled all over the walls. It looked like someone had taken all the apartments and ripped down all the interior walls. Under one of the light fixtures sat a wooden table with a thermos and coffee cup on it.
Rabid backed into the shadows, straining his senses for any signs of life. After a few moments, a man dressed entirely in black with a black mask covering half his face entered the light above the table. He looked directly at where Rabid was hiding in the shadows.
"Greetings, Rabid. I am Master Dark."
Three men entered an area of alley blocked off by police lines. Four taped outlines of bodies marked charred spots on the ground. Two of the men stood off to the side as the third circled the area. The third man sniffed at the ground, then stood up.
"He was here, Captain."
A tall masked man in a mostly white, with some blue and red, outfit nodded. "Will you be able to track him, Rage?"
The squat man scratched the red fur on his arm. "Without any problems, assuming he doesn't pop around to much. It was a pain just tracking him from that damned trenchcoat to here. His scent dissapears for yards at a time along that stretch. What is he, some sort of teleporter?"
"That's the information I have. And the report I have from Chicago places him as very dangerous, which is why ACS is tracking him down, instead of just letting him go."
The short, thin man standing beside the tall man spoke up. "Chicago. Dangerous. Hmmm.... There isn't any chance that an old friend called in a favor of ACS, is there? And I'm betting our orders are capture and return this dangerous man to Chicago."
Captain smiled tightly. "Exactly, Speed. And thats why its you and Rage with me. Lead the way, Rage."
Rage growled to himself. "Its easier when we kill 'em." He lead the way to the side of a building.
"Coffee?"
Rabid remained silent.
Master Dark shrugged. "Have it your way. Its to early for me not to have any, personally." He took a sip from his coffee cup.
"You might as well come out. We're alone here, and its perfectly safe. If I wanted you dead, I would have had you ambushed by now. There are ways to conteract your powers, you know.
"This," he said waving at the room, "Used to belong to the Red Stars, before the ACS recruited all of them. What was left of the gang was mostly absorbed by what is now the Ironhawks. The SewarRats started to contest the territory shortly after, and they've been fighting ever since. This place was to well known as a safe spot for the Stars, so the Hawks abandoned it. No one uses it anymore. Most people around here think its haunted." Master Dark smiled.
Rabid came hestinantly into the light, javelin still in hand.
"There, that wasn't so hard was it?" Master Dark looked intently at Rabid. "Do you know who I am?"
"Well, from the outfit and your choice of names, I'd say you're powered. If you were ACS, you'd have either hit me over the head or killed me by now. I'd say you're a leader of part of CORE, trying to recruit me."
Master Dark snorted. "Don't you ever listen to the rumors? The ACS has been hunting me for years. CORE holds secret meetings to plan to eliminate me. They've actually managed to kill me twice. I scare them, Rabid. Do you know why?"
"No. Why would one man scare the two most powerful groups of super-powered individuals?" Rabid asked skeptically.
"Because, Rabid, I control the gangs. And with the gangs, I have the power to control the world."
Rage paused on top of a building, sniffing first one way, then another. "He's crossed this way twice."
"Can you tell which spoor is fresher?" Captain asked.
Rage sniffed again. "This one."
"Good. Keep going."
Speed grinned. "Oh, goody, we're getting closer to a fight."
"There are three power bases," Master Dark explained. "The formal one is the ACS, the government's army of the powered and cybs, the cybernetically controlled. Then theres CORE, lead by different powerful criminals who grouped together to fend off ACS. Both of these groups leech off the gangs, the only truly American group of the super-powered left. For the most part, the ACS is incredibly corrupt, and its not unusual for its members to actually work for CORE. Most common people fear the powered in any forms, but look what they have to choose from: large criminals, a government group thats making the country become 1984, and small gangs that fight among themselves. The only one with any amount of trust is given to is the gangs. Its not unusual for them to protect the ords in their territory, and even let them join in many cases. Most outsiders fear them, but gangs usually don't care for anyone outside their territory.
"I've been recruiting the gangs, usually one a city, but sometimes more. Its been a pain trying to get some of them to quit fighting eachother and call a truce to face down the ACS and CORE. The last major gangs not at a truce are the Ironhawks and the SewarRats. Thats part of the reason I'm in New York. I'm trying to get them to stop. Once the gangs are united, we'll have a force at our command equal to CORE or the ACS, and we'll be able to start the revolution!"
Master Dark's excitment built as he finished his speech. Rabid's grip on his javelin tightened as he faced the obviously tense man.
"So, why are you telling me this?" Rabid asked.
Master Dark turned to look directly at him. "I want you as part of my elite. For the most part, only of the leaders of the gangs are completely informed of what I'm trying to do. Most of the gang members have only heard rumors of me. I've been taking the best of the gangs and putting them together to make a strike force capable of taking on the best anyone can throw at us.
"I want you on that group. Choas, the jackass, recognized your potential as a fighter. He only takes the best, and slaughters the rest. I was already aware of you from the reports Julie, the Changeling's leader, gave me."
Rabid caught the sounds of several sets of feet outside and realized this might be a trap after all.
Master Dark twirled on him and clapped his hand on Rabid's shoulder. "You must join us!"
All the color drained out of Master Dark's face and he looked down. In that instant, Rabid could clearly see into the other man's mind. He had meant everything he said, he had really wanted Rabid fighting at his side. And he was a greatly surprised to see that Rabid had thrust his javelin into his heart.
Horrified at his actions, Rabid lowered the other man to the floor. Master Dark gripped Rabid's arm. "Take me to Topnotch," he whispered hoarsely. "He'll know what to do." He collasped to the floor, completely limp.
Before what he had done completely sunk in, three men crashed through the door.
"Now, Rabid," one declared, "You are ours."