[Nexus] The Black Dragon's Den XI

[Rebonack]

"I'm just worried people will get distracted chasing you around instead of dealing with villains that are actually a threat," Fortuna replies with a sigh.

From what she's seen so far?

Honestly, Malice doesn't seem dangerous.

Just...

Irresponsible.

And possible kind of crazy.

[Hattish Thing]

The man receives his drink, taking long swigs before he turns and listens in a little bit on Malice's conversation. Did he just... mention Marciano? Isn't that? No, it couldn't be, but... "Magtok." There's a small and ironic chuckle, more of a violent exhale of breath really, as if the man's not sure he's imagining what's going on in front of him or not. "You. You're Magtok." Caius was relatively new to this whole thing, and had never met Magtok before the events at the hospital, where his sister was murdered by the cyborg, accidentally. However, Marciano, his employer at the time, had twisted the truth. Caius believed that Magtok killed his sister on purpose, as a way of getting back at Marciano by destroying one of his trusted followers. To Marciano Louv're, Gemma was just a pawn.

But to Caius, she was a friend.

The man stands up, his hands balled into fists. "You... You killed her." There's a look on his face, as if he's struggling with the decision to be more sad, or angry at the site of the Magtok-lookalike.

[Lord Magtok]

"There's substantially more good people who fight evil than there are evil people to oppose them. I wasn't diverting any vital resources away from stuff, but now that you've point this out, sure, I'll take care to read the newspaper and make sure my schedule doesn't conflict with an existing serious problem, or-"

What's this? Some sort of drunk local, asking for Magtok's autograph or something? Raptor Christ, are these people daft?! Purple robe means Magtok, red robe means Malice! It's a very simple system, you stupid peasant! He kept it nice and obvious and distinct like that precisely to avoid clueless nimrods like yourself!

"Ugh, are you some kind of colorblind? I'm Lord Malice. Maaaaalice. The one with the red robe. Magtok wears purple. Neither of us run around killing anybody either, so either way, you're still wrong. Now go away, I'm trying to have a drink and an argument here." Malice answers, rolling his eyes. Seems there's quite a few things about his twin brother that he's not fully aware of, if he really believes nonsense like that.

[Rebonack]

It's probably worth noting that, at the moment, Fortuna looks like a pretty normal human female with dark complexion and black hair. Indian? Egyptian? Persian? Maybe Turkish? Somewhere in that middle-easty range of places, anyway. The star sapphire purple eyes are pretty striking, though. She's wearing what might be considered a fairly pulp-adventure sort of outfit with a flight jacket and goggles around her neck.

She was going to make an accommodating remark about Malice's thoughtfulness, but then they go and get interrupted by a drunk guy talking about the killing of hers.

Fortuna is pretty sure that Malice hasn't killed anyone of late.

If that had been on his wrap-sheet then Magtok probably would have mentioned it when they were stuck together in a weird Trog's facsimile.

"I can vouch for him," Fortuna says. "He isn't Magtok. And while I might not agree with Malice's choices, I can't imagine him killing someone."

Comic book villains aren't allowed to kill people, right?

At least not permanently.

[Arkhosia]

I can vouch for him as well. He's technically my uncle, I should know.
Sophia informs as she approaches the group.
He's a bit of an *******, yes, but not a killer.

[Hattish Thing]

Caius has always been a man of passion, of sudden action. And here it was, a man that looked exactly like his sister's killer. He even spoke the same, his mannerisms matched. And he thought a change of clothing would fool him? Hah. Caius growls, his lip trembling slowly, his eyes locked with Malice, not letting him out of his sight. He doesn't appear to be doing anything yet, and appears to be nothing but some common person. "No... No, I know you. Malice, Magtok, no. You killed her, my sister." He's calm now, his voice only raising slightly beyond his usual whisper. "Magtok blew her up, there was.... nothing, nothing left. Couldn't even..." He grits his teeth now, holding back emotion as he struggles to speak. It was just yesterday he went to Rabbit, begging to raise her, after all.

Finally, he'll spit out a few more venomous words, his voice loud for him, slightly above normal speech for most. "I don't care who you are, or who you think you are. Gemma, my sister, is dead. And someone will pay for it." He doesn't speak that like a threat, but rather a factual statement. As he says this, the bottle he was drinking from suddenly implodes, as if some external pressure squeezed it to bits. After that, he'll lunge forward, attempting to grab at Malice's throat and toss him to the ground. Caius isn't very strong, and he's not wearing the gauntlet's he usually does, so it probably won't actually do much in the way of damage. However, it's quite apparent that not only is Caius angry, but he's downright hostile.

"You murdered her."

[Lord Magtok]

Malice's first instinct is to just shoot this ugly loser right in his ugly loser face. He's standing here talking, making it abundantly clear he's about to make himself a threat, right? Malice should just pull out a gun and-

Wait. No, that would compromise his whole argument against Geneva, wouldn't it? If he was so quick to kill a random drunk who harassed him in a bar, isn't there a chance he would kill some hero too? He can already hear her questioning his ideology in his head, winning the argument just because some stupid idiot mistook for someone else. He'll have to take this punk down non-lethally, he'll have to-

"Aaagh!"

-get thrown on the floor, apparently. He spent too much time deciding how to deal with Caius that he completely forgot he actually had to deal with Caius, and let himself get grabbed and slammed to the floor. Wow. Great job, Malice. You'll get that Villain of the Year award for sure. :facepalmsmiley:

[Rebonack]

Getting grabbed by the throat and hurled into the ground isn't a very Super Villain-y thing to do, Magtok.

Fortuna can't help but frown at this development. Malice isn't high on her list of favorite people, but she isn't going to just let him get throttled by some random drunk guy mistaking him for someone else, either. With a quick sub-vocalized command she slips into a heightened state thanks to VATS.

That would be Virtual Acceleration Targeting Spell.

What did you think it stood for?

The world around her seems to slow to a crawl as she focuses a baton of psionic power between her hands, building a barrier in concentric shells of psionic force around it. And than?

...she moves to pass the baton to Malice?

Uuuh...

"Hang onto this, it should help if things get dicey," she says. Should Malice take the glowing baton he'll find himself protected inside a shell of force that can take pretty substantial physical punishment before it collapses. Then she turns her attention to the attack. "Step off. We're trying to have a polite philosophical discussion here."

[Hattish Thing]

Caius is breathing heavily, his chest rising as he feels emotion swell. From that point, Caius will fall to his knee, bringing his fist down with him, raising it past his head before the move, and bringing it down with force on the fleshy side of Malice's head, if he can. The blow is centered around his nose and mouth, an attack that was hardly lethal despite the many chances the drunk man has to actually murder the cyborg. Curious, that. After he's landed the blow, (or missed), he backs away a little bit. He'll stare at the pair now, his hands at his side. "I'm not going to be tricked into having innocent blood on my hands. Tell me who you are, and how you know Magtok, right now."

"And you need to tell me where to find him."

[Lord Magtok]

Malice backs away, clambering back to his seat and releasing the baton Geneva had given him, right on the table where she can take it back if she so chooses. That baton is probably the only reason his nose isn't broken right now. He'd have to remember to thank his conversational adversary for it later. Maybe get her a Sega Genesis for Thanksmas?

"I'm under no obligation to tell you anything, you stupid, delusional ****," the red-robed cyborg replies, as he grasps a chair and swings it at Caius's ugly face. There we go, a nice little non-lethal solution, and one which allows Lord Malice to keep a healthy distance from this freak as he swings the furniture from right to left.

[Rebonack]

"Doesn't Magtok have a bunch of high profile locations he hangs around in already?" Fortuna wonders aloud.

MagMart.

MagCave.

Offices at VIGIL.

Those would all be pretty good places to find him, right?

AND THEN SUDDENLY CHAIR!

"Wait, don't-!"

Potential chair to the face!

"-escalate the situation..." Fortuna sighs.

[Hattish Thing]

Caius was hardly a fool, and a good bit more cautious then to just show up at VIGIL without his companion there to be his escape in case something horrible went wrong. Now, his companion was nothing but a memory in his head, along with a little bit of flesh and bone in a sack. Rabbit hadn't been able to bring her back, and now Caius wanted nothing more than to simply avenge her.

He's about to respond when suddenly a chair hits him right in the face, sending him knocking backwards, clutching at his cheek. There's a big gash there now, and his nose is broken. Caius had been cursed with weak bones as a side-effect from the experimentation, which meant hand to hand combat was always incredibly risky. He howls to himself, trying to control his pain with a few low growls before responding to the strike. He's backing away now, before willing several darts from the dartboard nearby to float off the board, arranging themselves in front of him.

"You ****er, you broke my nose, ****."

And with that, the six darts come flying towards Malice.

[Arkhosia]

When Caius attacks, Sophia moves quickly.
An Attempt Follows!
She darts to his side, sweeping her leg to knock him down. Sophia moves behind Caius as she does this, grabbing the collar of his shirt and wrapping her right arm around his neck to pin him. Sophia then draws a knife with her left and points it to his groin.
Make one wrong move, one move to harm anyone...
She utters threateningly, relying on that strong bond between a man and his manhood to incapacitate Caius.

[Lord Magtok]

Malice holds a hand out in front of his face, which is probably the only reason he still has his eye after that barrage of dartboard projectiles. He still gets two in the head and shoulder, though, and sensibly backs off to pull those out instead of continuing the fight. Ouch. The girl sneaking up behind Caius seems to have this under control now, anyways. That kid of Mag's is goddamn terrifying.

[Artemis97]

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